APC governors warn they will not back any alliance that undermines Tinubu’s 2027 bid

All Progressives Congress (APC) governors have warned against parallel political structures they say could hurt President Bola Tinubu’s 2027 re-election bid, a stance widely read as a reply to the Rainbow Coalition linked to Federal Capital Territory Minister Nyesom Wike.

Progressive Governors Forum chairman and Imo State Governor Hope Uzodinma, whom Wike recently accused of sponsoring attacks on him, read the position on Monday night after a closed meeting at the Imo Governor’s Lodge in Abuja. Tension inside the APC has grown over the coalition. Some blocs fear candidates flying other party flags will confuse rural voters and split the ticket. The friction is already visible in Rivers, Kwara, Gombe and Cross River.

Uzodinma said the forum would not join, support or endorse any alliance that undermined the president, weakened the APC or harmed the party’s candidates at any level. Governors would campaign only for APC nominees. “The governors’ campaign commitment is exclusively to all APC candidates. All levels of the party campaign architecture will align with the expectations of Mr President and the strategic objectives of the party.”

Wike remains a registered member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) while arguing that the Rainbow Coalition exists to re-elect Tinubu. The governors’ line draws a harder boundary: official APC structures only. A coalition that fields PDP or other labels on the same day as the presidential ballot is, in their reading, a split ballot dressed as loyalty.

The communiqué does not name Wike. It does not have to. A forum of APC governors has now said divided flags are not an acceptable method of supporting the president. What happens next is whether those governors can enforce that line in states where the coalition already has candidates and money on the ground—or whether the warning remains a lodge statement while the posters stay mixed.