Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, and governors elected on the platform of the All Progressives Congress have clashed over the Rainbow Coalition being promoted to support President Bola Tinubu’s re-election in 2027.

The disagreement followed a resolution by the Progressive Governors Forum, chaired by Imo State Governor Hope Uzodimma, rejecting political alliances or arrangements the governors believe could weaken the APC or affect the chances of its candidates in the 2027 general elections. 

Uzodimma, speaking after the governors’ meeting in Abuja on Monday, said APC governors would support Tinubu and the party’s candidates at all levels, rather than participate in outside political arrangements that could create divided loyalties within the ruling party. 

Wike, however, said the Rainbow Coalition is not an APC structure and insisted that its purpose is specifically to mobilise support across political parties for Tinubu’s second-term bid.

The FCT minister, who remains a member of the Peoples Democratic Party, said he had never approached the APC Governors Forum seeking an alliance and therefore did not consider himself answerable to the governors over the coalition. 

Wike also said President Tinubu was aware of his political activities and the coalition.

“There is nothing that I do that I don’t tell Mr President,” Wike said during an interview with ARISE News. 

He maintained that the coalition was designed to bring together members of different political parties who support Tinubu’s re-election, without requiring them to abandon their parties or stop fielding candidates in governorship, National Assembly and state assembly elections. 

Wike said his commitment was to Tinubu’s presidential re-election, not to helping every APC candidate win elections across the country.

He argued that politicians supporting Tinubu should concentrate on the presidential contest while individual political parties continue to pursue their interests in other elections.

The dispute became public after the Uzodimma-led governors warned against political arrangements they believed could undermine APC candidates or weaken the party’s structure ahead of 2027.

The governors said their position was to campaign for both Tinubu and APC candidates contesting other offices. 

Wike rejected suggestions that his coalition posed such a threat, saying cross-party voting was already evident during the 2023 elections, when voters in some South-East states supported APC candidates in legislative races while voting for other parties in the presidential election. 

He singled out Imo State, governed by Uzodimma, in arguing that voters were capable of making different choices across ballots without confusion.

The FCT minister also said he had never promised that the PDP would stop fielding candidates against the APC in other elections simply because he was supporting Tinubu.

His position effectively separates his support for the President from support for the APC as a party.

The exchange has exposed a disagreement over how Tinubu’s 2027 support base should be organised: whether mobilisation should remain strictly within APC structures or include cross-party alliances such as Wike’s Rainbow Coalition.

A faction of the PDP aligned with Wike has since defended his right to support Tinubu while remaining in the opposition party, while criticising the APC governors’ objections to the coalition. 

As of publication, the Presidency had not publicly confirmed or disputed Wike’s statement that Tinubu is aware of the Rainbow Coalition and his political plans surrounding it.

Verita Post also found no evidence that Tinubu has formally endorsed the Rainbow Coalition as an official campaign structure.