- Coalition row deepens as FCT Minister keeps dilly-dalling to apologise. Let Minister Wike apologise to Progressive Governors while the head of principalities , President Tinubu wades into the matter. Both Uzodinma and Wike are important demigods in the prosperity re-election agenda, no doubt.
By Princely Onyenwe | Political Desk
ABUJA — Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, is facing calls for an apology after describing members of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Governors’ Forum as “smart like the 419” but “politically lazy” over their opposition to his proposed Rainbow Coalition ahead of the 2027 general elections.
Wike made the remarks while responding to the APC governors’ declaration that they would not support any political arrangement capable of undermining President Bola Tinubu’s re-election or weakening APC candidates ahead of the 2027 elections.
The FCT Minister insisted that he had never approached the APC Governors’ Forum to negotiate an alliance with the ruling party, maintaining that his Rainbow Coalition was established to mobilise support for Tinubu across political parties.
Wike said the governors were “politically lazy” because, in his view, they were failing to distinguish between supporting Tinubu for president and supporting APC candidates contesting governorship, National Assembly and State House of Assembly elections. He argued that politicians could support the President’s re-election while allowing their respective parties to contest other elective positions.
The minister also challenged Imo State Governor and Chairman of the Progressive Governors Forum, Hope Uzodimma, over the voting pattern recorded in Imo during the 2023 presidential election.
Wike argued that Tinubu, despite being the APC presidential candidate, did not secure 10 per cent of the presidential votes in Imo State, where Uzodimma was governor and an APC politician. However, official 2023 presidential election figures show that Tinubu received 66,406 votes in Imo, representing about 14.21 per cent of the state’s valid votes, while Labour Party candidate Peter Obi polled 360,495 votes, Atiku Abubakar of the PDP received 30,234 and Rabiu Kwankwaso of the NNPP scored 1,552.
The correction is significant because Wike’s statement that Tinubu received less than 10 per cent in Imo does not match the officially reported percentage. His broader argument, however, was that the 2023 voting pattern demonstrated that voters could support candidates from different political parties in presidential and National Assembly elections conducted on the same day.
Wike cited Imo, Abia, Enugu and Ebonyi as examples of states where voters supported different parties at different levels of the 2023 elections. He maintained that his support for Tinubu in 2027 was specifically for the presidential election and did not amount to an undertaking that the PDP would withdraw candidates from governorship or legislative contests.
The minister also recalled that he and other members of the G5 governors supported Tinubu in 2023 without negotiating an alliance with the APC Governors’ Forum. He said the Rainbow Coalition was a cross-party mobilisation platform for Tinubu and was not an APC structure or campaign organisation.
The dispute followed a declaration by APC governors, led by Uzodimma, that they would not participate in, support or endorse any political arrangement capable of undermining Tinubu’s re-election, weakening the APC or adversely affecting the party’s candidates in the 2027 elections.
The APC governors’ position has since attracted support from party leaders in the South-East, who called on Wike to retract his comments and apologise to the governors. The statement was signed by APC National Vice Chairman, South-East, Ijeomah Arodiogbu, alongside the party chairmen in Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu and Imo states. The leaders said the governors, particularly those in the South-East, had demonstrated their ability to mobilise support for Tinubu.
APC chieftain and former House of Representatives Minority Leader, Farouk Aliyu, also criticised Wike’s remarks during an interview on Arise Television. Aliyu described the language as being in “bad taste,” rejected the description of the APC governors and urged Wike to exercise restraint and humility in his public comments.
Aliyu further argued that the APC wanted a unified campaign structure for its candidates while acknowledging that politicians from outside the party could support Tinubu. He said the disagreement should not become a distraction from the party’s political preparations ahead of 2027.
The controversy has also produced a different response from within the APC, with federal lawmaker and APC chieftain Abdulmumin Jibrin defending Wike’s political contribution to Tinubu’s project. Appearing on Channels Television, Jibrin described Wike as an “asset” to the APC and urged party members to avoid publicly embarrassing the FCT Minister, while acknowledging that Wike remains a member of the PDP.
The PDP, meanwhile, has defended Wike’s right to support Tinubu while retaining his political identity within the opposition party. The party’s National Publicity Secretary, Jungudo Mohammed, said Wike’s support for Tinubu did not amount to an endorsement of the APC or mean that the PDP had abandoned its right to field candidates in the 2027 elections.
The PDP’s position followed Wike’s own clarification that his support for Tinubu’s re-election was separate from contests for governorship and legislative seats. He said the PDP remained free to field candidates for those elections and that the Rainbow Coalition was not designed to prevent other parties from competing against APC candidates.
Calls for Wike to apologise have centred on his use of the “419” description against elected governors, with critics arguing that political disagreements can be expressed without language that may be interpreted as questioning the integrity of public officials.
The controversy has also raised a broader issue about the effect of hostile language among senior political leaders on public confidence. While the competing sides disagree over the political implications of the Rainbow Coalition, the dispute has increasingly shifted from the substance of the proposed alliance to the language being used by the actors involved.
For now, Wike maintains that his political support for Tinubu is separate from the APC’s contests at other levels, while the APC governors and their supporters maintain that political arrangements surrounding the President’s re-election must not weaken the party, its candidates or its campaign structure.
Without doubt, President Tinubu, who is currently in France, is expected to engage the affected parties as part of efforts to prevent the disagreement from affecting his re-election bid.
A senior presidential aide familiar with the development said the President is expected to intervene directly in the matter.
The aide spoke privately because he was not authorised to publicly discuss the planned engagement. Let wike apologise to progressive governors while the head of principalities wades in. Both Uzodinma and Wike are important in the prosperity agenda,no doubt.
The disagreement is therefore likely to remain part of the wider political debate as parties, governors and other political actors intensify preparations for the 2027 elections.
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