By Ehichioya Ezomon
The importance and relevance of former Rivers State Governor and Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, Chief Nyesom Wike, to the election of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu in 2023 and his contribution to the cabinet therefrom were brought home to members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) by ex-Edo Governor and Senator representing Edo North, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, on Friday, January 3, 2025.
It’s at a New Year luncheon organised by Wike in Port Harcourt, the Rivers capital city, where Oshiomhole, likening then-Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to a football club allowing its “best player” (Wike) to join a rival club (APC) without collecting a transfer fee, praised the PDP under which Wike governed Rivers from 2015 to 2023, and deployed the platform to secure victory for Tinubu and the APC at the February 25, 2023, presidential poll in Rivers.
Oshiomhole said: “Thank you to PDP for giving us Nyesom Wike to help us fix Abuja. I don’t belong to any club, I only belong to Bendel Insurance (Edo State governornment-owned football club) but I listen to those who say they are Manchester United fans (and the likes). When you are giving your best player to another club, you pay heavily” – an allusion Theconclaveng reported on January 4, 2025, as “a dig at the PDP.”
Noting that Wike would “step on toes” to set things right, Oshiomhole appreciated the minister “for his dedication to duty,” saying, “Tonight, we are celebrating a Nigerian who is adding value to the FCT; who is showing there has to be the rule of law and that we must respect certain environmental laws. So, thank you for what you are doing in Nigeria; thank you for what you are doing in Abuja.”
Hinting that the APC would want Wike to join the party, and that members won’t be willing to return him to PDP “due to the good works he is doing,” Oshiomhole added: “Thank you for what you’re helping us in APC to do. PDP Rivers lent you to us without saying we should pay a transfer fee. We may not be happy to return you; we would even create a toll gate to prevent that.”
Though Oshiomhole made light of the reference to the PDP “transferring its best player (Wike) to APC without asking for a fee,” the significance of the declaration wasn’t lost on the audience, and certainly not now on the party members and the watching public in light of ongoing spat between Wike and APC Governors over the minister’s alleged simultaneous pursuit of victories for the APC and PDP in the 2027 General Election.
Wike comes under a “Rainbow Coalition,” a platform of several political parties similar to what he and four PDP state governors of Abia, Benue, Enugu and Oyo, known as “G-5 Governors” (G-5), formed and used in 2023 to get his preferred candidates elected, including Tinubu over then-PDP candidate and former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, who lost the five states: Benue, Rivers and Oyo to Tinubu, and Abia and Enugu to former Anambra Governor and candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Mr Peter Obi.
Wike also employed the coalition to secure five of six Area Councils for the APC in the FCT poll early in 2026, and the legislative by-elections in Rivers, and has promised to expand its scope nationwide for the 2027 poll; and that’s giving the APC governors the jitters that Wike could be out for no good for Tinubu and other APC candidates.
The governors, via the Chairman of the Progressives Governors’ Forum (PGF) and Imo State Governor Hope Uzodimma, voiced their opposition to Wike’s arrangement with the “Rainbow Coalition,” saying “they would not participate in, support or endorse any alliance” that could “undermine President Tinubu’s re-election bid or affect APC candidates or weaken the party at any level.”
The governors fear Wike’s overbearing influence, even on a splintered PDP he controls its main faction, recognised by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), which’s fielded candidates for virtually all positions in 2027, rivalrying the APC that’s candidates for all offices on offer.
The governors argue that under the cover of working for the re-election of Tinubu, Wike and the coalition could undermine the president’s chances, and the interests of the APC across the country, as Wike equally wants his PDP candidates elected into office.
The only assurance for the governors is for the coalition not to field PDP candidates against APC’s flagbearers at the January 16, and February 6, 2027, national and subnational elections – a desire or request which seems difficult going by Wike’s blistering response to the governors’ rejection of the coalition and what it stands for.
In his characteristic rhetoric, Wike, in an interview on Arise TV’s ‘Prime Time’ on September 15, 2026, dismissed the governors’ concerns, arguing that his support for Tinubu “doesn’t mean he has abandoned the PDP or that other parties should be prevented from fielding candidates.”
Labelling the governors as “politically lazy” for opposing his “Rainbow Coalition” ahead of the 2027 election, Wike said the body “can support Tinubu at the presidential level, while backing candidates outside the APC in other contests,” adding that his support for the president “does not require him to support APC candidates across the board.”
Wike’s questioning of the governors’ capacity to win the 2027 election in their states, and his claim of their alleged poor performance with huge monthly allocations, reinforced rather than allay their fears and anxiety.
Moreso as a statement issued on September 15, 2026, by the PDP National Publicity Secretary, Jungudo Mohammed, said Wike’s every constitutional and democratic right to decide whom he supports politically, and that as a serving appointee of President Tinubu, “there is nothing contradictory about supporting him, while maintaining his political identity and relationships within the PDP,” New Telegraph reported on September 15, 2026.
Mocking the APC governors, the PDP said: “Their demand that Wike should not support or field candidates capable of challenging the APC governors and their anointed candidates is a fundamental political miscalculation. Elections are contests, and every political party has the democratic right to present candidates before the electorate.
“It is particularly revealing that governors, who earlier claimed to be confident of their performance are now asking their opponents not to field candidates against them. If they have truly performed and retained the confidence of their people, they should welcome a contest and allow the electorate to decide.”
The leadership of the APC in the South-East has also backed the Imo Governor Uzodimma-led PGF, rejecting Wike’s criticisms of the governors. In a joint statement by the APC National Vice Chairman (South-East), Dr Ijeomah Arodiogbu, and the party chairmen in Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu and Imo states on September 17, 2026 in Abuja, the leaders described Wike’s remarks against the governors as “most unfortunate, reprehensible and completely unacceptable.”
“The Progressive Governors are not abstract politicians; they are performing leaders whose records speak for themselves,” the leaders said, adding that Wike “has no authority over independent elected governors,” who should be treated as leaders with respect.
“It is more troubling that Wike’s growing tendency to insult, diminish and plot to remove sitting Progressive Governors in 2027 is increasing each day,” the leaders said, and urged Wike to withdraw his attacks on the governors and return to “party discipline, mutual respect and collective responsibility.”
Also weighing in on the controversy in a statement on September 17, 2026, former South-East spokesman to President Tinubu, Denge Josef Onoh, attributed the face-off to what he describes as the minister’s long history of using alliances to weaken established political structures, and his continued influence over structures outside the APC, PUNCH reported.
“Having been absorbed into an APC-led administration while stubbornly trying to hold onto the remnants of the PDP structure in Rivers State, he now finds himself in a friction zone. Higher political forces within the national framework continue to tolerate and utilise Wike to destabilise opposition strongholds and manage geopolitical balances,” Onoh said.
“Wike’s political journey, from his roots as a local government chairman to his contemporary standing, reveals a consistent, troubling pattern,” Onoh said, adding, “Rather than a trajectory of independent statesmanship, it is a legacy defined by bitter political controversies and a recurring role as a political wrecking ball used by higher authorities to decimate political opponents.”
Amid the obviously genuine concerns by the APC governors, words of caution have come from worried party members not to attack Wike seen as an asset to President Tinubu’s administration. Arguing that the APC should leverage Wike’s support for Tinubu’s second-term bid, an APC House member from Kano, Abdulmumin Jibrin, has urged members to stop publicly attacking the minister, and engage him through dialogue rather than public attacks.
Speaking on September 16, 2026 on Channels Television’s ‘Politics Today,’ amid criticism of Wike by the governors, Jibrin said: “Wike is an asset to the APC. I don’t think Wike should be embarrassed at this moment with public statements,” recalling APC’s gaining of political ground in Rivers State and the FCT, where Wike asked some of the PDP candidates to step down for APC candidates during the FCT council election.
“Wike handed over Rivers to APC. He had candidates for the FCT election but asked them to step down for APC,” Jibrin said, adding, “For the governors, they should take Wike as part of them,” even as he said his defence of Wike wasn’t based on personal ties, as he had only met the minister twice.
What the APC governors need in the circumstance is behind-the-scenes frank engagement and dialogue with Wike, and not public disparagement and recrimination over fears that he’s playing coy for 2027, to the poll detriment of President Tinubu and the APC. No use splitting hairs and breaking heads over a hypothetical “Wike won’t play ball” that doesn’t align with his past electoral deliveries for Tinubu and the APC!
_• Mr Ezomon, Journalist and Media Consultant, writes from Lagos, Nigeria. Can be reached on X, Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp @EhichioyaEzomon. Tel: 08033078357._
