2027: APC Leader Tells Tinubu to Support Wike's Coalition

A member of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Osita Okechukwu, has advised President Bola Tinubu to back the Rainbow Coalition pushed by the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, ahead of the 2027 elections.

Mr Okechukwu, who was once the director-general of the Voice of Nigeria (VON), claimed that some APC governors are pretending to support Mr Tinubu's re-election but do not have what it takes to rally voters in their states.

He made this statement on Wednesday in Abuja.

"To the best of my knowledge, some of these Few Pretender Governors (FPGs) have wittingly or unwittingly used their electorates and recklessly abandoned them, and now want Mr President to dump Wike," he said.

Mr Okechukwu stated that the governors should have brought their worries about the coalition to the party's internal channels instead of opposing it publicly.

"In my 48 years of participation in Nigerian party politics, I have never seen where such an elementary issue was pretentiously thrown open. May I ask the FPGs: don’t you have access to Mr President, and what is the proverbial caucus meant for? My summation is simple: Mr President, beware of pretenders," he said.

The formation of this coalition has led to disagreements between Mr Wike and the APC governors. The governors accuse the minister of using the platform to support politicians who lost the APC’s primaries and are now running under the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

The Progressive Governors Forum (PGF), which is made up of APC governors and led by Imo State Governor Hope Uzodimma, has opposed any political coalition that could hurt the party's chances in the 2027 elections.

Mr Uzodimma, who is also the secretary of the Tinubu Campaign Council, said joining such a political group could weaken Mr Tinubu’s re-election efforts and harm the APC ahead of the elections.

In response, Mr Wike stated that he never promised that the PDP would not present candidates in the 2027 elections. He also urged the governors to focus more on Mr Tinubu’s re-election campaign than they did during the 2023 elections.

The PDP has also shown support for Mr Wike to continue using the coalition to gather backing for Mr Tinubu’s second term, even though the party has its own presidential candidate, Sandy Onor.

With this disagreement going on, the APC national leadership has not made a clear statement on whether it supports Mr Wike’s coalition, leaving many to wonder how the party will handle the conflict between the minister and the governors.

Mr Okechukwu urged President Tinubu to not overlook Mr Wike’s efforts to gather support for his re-election, pointing to the minister’s role in the 2023 elections.

"Truly, it is not improper for Mr President to dump Wike after we harvested the Wike masquerade, which not only boosted our great party’s votes in 2023, but also denied His Excellency Atiku Abubakar substantial votes and will mobilise voters in states where the FPGs had alienated the electorate by personalising power," he said.

He argued that allowing Mr Wike to rally support for Mr Tinubu does not mean ignoring the APC governors, but could be an extra strategy for getting votes in the 2027 election.

"Mr President has never overlooked the governors. All he wants is supplementary votes from Wike, especially in states where the electorate is angry and where some of the FPGs have alienated the people.

"The governors should therefore concentrate on strengthening their relationship with the electorate rather than asking Mr President to abandon a political alliance that could broaden the APC’s electoral reach," Mr Okechukwu stated.