Osita Okechukwu alleged that some APC governors lacked the capacity to mobilise voters in their states for Tinubu.
A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Osita Okechukwu, has urged President Bola Tinubu to embrace the Rainbow Coalition being promoted by the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, ahead of the 2027 elections.
He made the claim in a 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 argued that the governors should have addressed their concerns about the coalition through the party’s internal mechanisms rather than publicly opposing it.
“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 the coalition has generated disagreements between Mr Wike and governors of the ruling APC over allegations that the minister is using the platform to support politicians who lost the APC’s primaries and are now contesting elections on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
The Progressive Governors Forum (PGF), the union of the APC governors, chaired by the Imo State Governor Hope Uzodimma, had opposed any political coalition or alliance that could threaten the chances of the party and its candidates in the 2027 elections.
Mr Uzodimma, who is also the secretary of the Tinubu Campaign Council, said aligning with such a political arrangement could undermine Mr Tinubu’s re-election bid and weaken the APC ahead of the elections.
Mr Wike, in response, said he had never promised that the PDP would not field candidates in the 2027 elections. He also urged the governors to pay greater attention to Mr Tinubu’s re-election campaign than they did during the 2023 election.
The PDP has also publicly expressed support for Mr Wike to continue using the coalition to mobilise support for Mr Tinubu’s second term, despite the party having its own presidential candidate, Sandy Onor.
Amid the disagreement, the APC national leadership has not publicly taken a position on whether it supports Mr Wike’s coalition, leaving observers to wonder how the party will manage the dispute between the minister and the governors.
Mr Okechukwu urged President Tinubu not to disregard Mr Wike’s efforts to mobilise support for his re-election, referencing the minister’s role in the 2023 election.
“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 mobilise support for Mr Tinubu does not amount to disregarding the APC governors, but could serve as an additional strategy for securing 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.
