AWC POLITICAL DESK, SEPTEMBER 2026
A fresh political fault line has opened within the broader coalition of forces supporting President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s 2027 re-election, following a public disagreement between Federal Capital Territory Minister Nyesom Wike and the Progressive Governors’ Forum (PGF), chaired by Imo State Governor Hope Uzodimma.
At the heart of the dispute is a deceptively simple question: Can politicians support Tinubu for President while simultaneously supporting candidates from other political parties in governorship and legislative elections?
Wike says yes. The APC governors say their own political commitment is to the President and to APC candidates at every level.
That distinction has now become a significant issue as political parties and their various alliances prepare for the 2027 elections.
HOW THE CURRENT DISPUTE STARTED
Wike remains a member of the Peoples Democratic Party, but he has been serving as FCT Minister in the APC-led Federal Government of President Tinubu.
His relationship with Tinubu dates back to the 2023 presidential election, when Wike and other members of the then G5 governors refused to support the PDP’s presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar.
Wike subsequently supported Tinubu’s presidential bid.
For 2027, he has again openly declared support for Tinubu’s re-election.
But Wike has made an important distinction: his support for Tinubu does not mean he has abandoned the PDP or agreed that PDP candidates should withdraw from other electoral contests.
In a statement issued through his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communications and Social Media, Lere Olayinka, Wike said he would mobilise support for Tinubu while the PDP remained free to field candidates for governorship, National Assembly and State House of Assembly elections.
That is the foundation of the Rainbow Coalition.
WHAT IS THE RAINBOW COALITION?
The coalition is a cross-party political arrangement associated with Wike, particularly in Rivers State.
It has brought together politicians and supporters from the PDP, APC, Labour Party and Action Alliance, with Wike presenting it primarily as a platform for mobilising support for Tinubu’s presidential re-election.
Wike’s argument is that political parties and individuals can cooperate on the presidential election while competing against one another in state and legislative contests.
He has repeatedly rejected the suggestion that the Rainbow Coalition is simply an extension of the APC.
His position is essentially: Support Tinubu for President; compete independently for other offices. That formula, however, is where the APC governors see a problem.
UZODIMMA DRAWS THE LINE
Following a meeting of APC governors in Abuja, Governor Hope Uzodimma, chairman of the Progressive Governors’ Forum, announced that the governors would not participate in or endorse political arrangements capable of weakening the APC or adversely affecting its candidates.
The forum’s position was that its members would support APC candidates at all levels.
In other words, the APC governors do not want a situation in which an APC governor is mobilising votes for Tinubu at the presidential level while simultaneously helping a PDP, Labour or another non-APC candidate defeat an APC candidate in a senatorial, House of Representatives, state assembly or governorship election.
This is the fundamental difference between the two positions.
WIKE’S POSITION:
Tinubu is a presidential project; other elections remain open to competition among the parties.
APC GOVERNORS’ POSITION:
The presidential campaign and the campaigns for other offices should operate within the APC’s political structure and support its candidates.
Neither side is disputing that Tinubu is the focus of the presidential contest. The disagreement is about what supporting Tinubu should mean for the rest of the ballot.
WIKE FIRES BACK
Wike responded by challenging the logic of the governors’ position and questioning their political performance in previous elections.
He specifically referred to the 2023 elections in states such as Imo, Abia, Enugu and Ebonyi, where voters supported different parties for different offices during the same election cycle.
Wike asked how APC candidates could win some legislative elections in those states while Tinubu received significantly different levels of support in the presidential contest.
His argument is that Nigerian voters are capable of making different choices on the same ballot and therefore should not be presumed to be confused by a cross-party arrangement.
He subsequently criticised the APC governors as “politically lazy”, intensifying the public exchange.
Wike also said President Tinubu was aware of his political activities and the Rainbow Coalition.
WHY THE GOVERNORS ARE CONCERNED
The governors’ concern is not simply about Wike’s membership of the PDP. It is about political structures and electoral control.
Governors are major actors in Nigerian elections. They typically play central roles in mobilising party structures, coordinating campaigns and supporting candidates at state and legislative levels.
A parallel cross-party structure capable of mobilising voters independently of the established APC machinery could therefore create competing centres of political organisation.
This is why the APC Governors’ Forum has drawn a distinction between supporting Tinubu and supporting non-APC candidates.
The forum says it will not support candidates who are not sponsored by the APC.
BUT THERE IS AN IMPORTANT TWIST
The Rainbow Coalition is not confined to PDP politicians. Reports indicate that APC politicians in Rivers State are also participating in the arrangement.
Indeed, the Rivers APC has reportedly rejected calls for its members to withdraw from the coalition, arguing that political realities differ from state to state and that alliances can help increase mobilisation for Tinubu.
This creates an unusual situation. The national APC governors’ leadership is distancing itself from Wike’s coalition, while some APC politicians within Rivers State are maintaining their participation in it.
That demonstrates how complicated Nigerian electoral politics can become when national party interests collide with state-level political calculations.
THE RIVERS FACTOR
Rivers State is particularly important because it is Wike’s political base.
Earlier in 2026, Wike said the four parties associated with the Rainbow Coalition in Rivers would collectively determine a governorship candidate rather than automatically allowing each party’s candidate to operate independently.
He also said politicians seeking governorship, Senate, House of Representatives and state assembly positions would need to work within the coalition’s political arrangement.
This explains some of the sensitivity surrounding the coalition.
What began as a mechanism for supporting Tinubu at the presidential level has developed into a broader political structure with implications for state and legislative contests.
That is where the interests of the APC governors and Wike increasingly intersect.
THE BIGGER QUESTION: WHAT DOES “SUPPORTING TINUBU” MEAN?
The current argument exposes a larger question about Nigerian coalition politics. Does supporting a presidential candidate require supporting every candidate of that candidate’s political party?
Or can political actors support the President while maintaining independent alliances for other elections?
Wike’s position is clearly the latter. The APC Governors’ Forum’s position is much closer to the former.
This distinction could become increasingly important as the 2027 campaign progresses.
THE 2023 PRECEDENT
Wike has repeatedly pointed to the 2023 election as evidence that Nigerian voters can separate their choices.
The presidential election, National Assembly elections and state elections are conducted within the same broad electoral cycle, but voters can choose candidates from different parties for different offices.
That phenomenon is not unique to Rivers or the Southeast.
It is a feature of Nigerian electoral politics.
The political question now is whether the Rainbow Coalition can institutionalise such cross-party voting around Tinubu while simultaneously helping candidates from parties other than APC in other contests.
The APC governors clearly do not want their party structures to be used in a manner that could disadvantage APC candidates.
WHERE DOES THIS LEAVE TINUBU?
President Tinubu occupies an unusual position at the centre of this dispute.
Wike says his coalition is working for Tinubu, not against him.
The APC governors also say they are working for Tinubu.
But the two camps disagree about the political machinery through which that support should operate.
The dispute therefore does not presently amount to a disagreement over whether Tinubu should be supported by either side.
It is a disagreement over how that support should be organised and what other political objectives may accompany it.
The presidential campaign spokesperson, Ima Niboro, has since urged Wike and the APC governors to stop the public exchange and concentrate on mobilisation for Tinubu.
WHAT THE DISPUTE COULD MEAN FOR 2027
Several political dynamics are now emerging. First, cross-party alliances are becoming more prominent.
Second, state-level political interests are increasingly interacting with the national presidential contest.
Third, the APC faces the challenge of maintaining party discipline while accommodating politicians from outside the party who are supporting Tinubu.
Fourth, the PDP faces its own contradiction: one of its nationally prominent members is openly campaigning for the re-election of the President of its principal political rival while simultaneously insisting that the PDP should remain active in other elections.
That is why the Wike question cannot be reduced simply to “APC versus PDP.”
It is really a question about coalitions, political loyalty, party identity and the structure of Nigeria’s 2027 electoral competition.
THE BOTTOM LINE
The current Wike-Uzodimma confrontation is therefore less about whether Tinubu has supporters outside the APC — he clearly does — and more about whether those supporters can construct independent political structures that also compete with APC candidates at other levels of the election.
Wike says there is no contradiction. The APC Governors’ Forum sees a potential conflict of political interests.
The Rainbow Coalition’s evolution, particularly in Rivers State, will provide an important test of whether a Nigerian political alliance can successfully separate presidential support from state-level party competition.
For now, both sides say they support Tinubu. The disagreement is over what else they are entitled to support while doing so.
And as the 2027 election approaches, that distinction could become one of the most closely watched political dynamics in Nigeria.
By Amah Alphonsus Amaonye,
Director General, African Writers Centre (AWC).
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