Zamfara State Governor Dauda Lawal has challenged Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, to join the All Progressives Congress (APC) if he intends to support President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s re-election bid in 2027.
Lawal said Wike could not simultaneously support Tinubu at the presidential level while backing candidates of other political parties in governorship and legislative elections.
The governor spoke in an interview with Channels Television’s Inside Sources on the sidelines of the 81st United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York.
He said the position of APC governors on Wike’s proposed Rainbow Coalition remained unchanged, insisting that the FCT minister should clearly define his political allegiance ahead of the 2027 elections.
“Our message is very, very clear: Be on one side. You can’t be in two sides. If you’re in APC, please come out and support APC. Not you’re supporting APC here and you’re supporting other political parties somewhere else. It doesn’t make sense. It’s not done anywhere.
“And that is why we maintain our stand, and it is very clear—the message is very clear. He can speak, he can say whatever he wants to say, but our position has been very, very clear: APC all the way from head to toe,” Lawal said.
Asked whether the governors were effectively asking Wike to join the APC, Lawal replied, “Exactly. What’s the essence?”
The Zamfara governor added that he would raise the matter with President Tinubu, stressing that Wike’s political position needed to be clearly defined.
“It’s something that I will take up with the President when he comes back. So, let there be a very, very clear line where this guy belongs to. It’s either he’s in APC or he’s out. It’s simple. And I go with my brothers, the governors,” Lawal said.
The disagreement centres on Wike’s Rainbow Coalition, a cross-party political platform through which the FCT minister has been mobilising support for Tinubu’s 2027 re-election while maintaining that political parties should remain free to field candidates in governorship and legislative elections.
Wike has repeatedly argued that supporting Tinubu for president does not mean endorsing APC candidates in other elections.
In a statement issued earlier this month, the minister said he would support Tinubu for the presidency while the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) remained free to contest governorship, National Assembly and state House of Assembly elections.
He also maintained that the Rainbow Coalition was not an APC platform.
Wike later defended the coalition, saying its objective was to mobilise Nigerians from different political parties and platforms to support Tinubu’s presidential bid.
The minister also questioned the opposition of APC governors to the arrangement, citing the role played by the G5 governors in the 2023 presidential election.
The APC governors, however, have maintained that they would not support any political arrangement capable of weakening the party or undermining its candidates ahead of the 2027 elections.
Lawal also reacted to Wike’s description of some APC governors as lazy, saying the FCT minister knew the people he was referring to.
“Well, I mean, he knows the people he’s referring to, honestly. As for me, I mean, you can’t say that in Zamfara State. The difference is very, very clear. I invite anybody to come and see what we’re doing in Zamfara State,” he said.
