By Ihechi Enyinnaya
The rift between Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, and Imo State Governor, Hope Uzodinma, has deepened, with Wike declaring that he will never support the governor’s reported ambition to become President of the Senate in 2027.
Wike made the declaration on Monday during an appearance on TVC News’ Journalists’ Hangout, as the disagreement between him and APC governors over his Rainbow Coalition continued to escalate.
The latest clash is rooted in a wider dispute over political structures and candidate selection ahead of the 2027 general elections.
How the disagreement began
The immediate source of the confrontation is Wike’s Rainbow Coalition, a cross-party political arrangement he says is designed to mobilise support for President Bola Tinubu’s re-election in 2027.
Wike, although still a member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has openly backed Tinubu and maintained that supporting the President does not require him to join the APC or abandon the PDP.
He has also argued that political parties should remain free to field candidates for governorship, National Assembly and state Assembly elections, even where their members or structures support Tinubu for president.
That position has increasingly put him at odds with APC governors, who maintain that their priority is to strengthen the APC and support candidates contesting under the party’s platform.
The disagreement became more pronounced after politicians who lost APC primaries or faced difficulties securing tickets began turning to alternative political platforms, including the PDP, in some states. Reports indicate that some of those politicians have aligned with Wike’s political structure.
Uzodinma, who chairs the Progressive Governors Forum (PGF), subsequently emerged as one of the leading voices opposing political arrangements that could create parallel structures or weaken APC candidates.
On September 14, the APC governors, through the PGF, declared that they would not support any political arrangement capable of weakening the APC or undermining its candidates in the 2027 elections.
Uzodinma said the governors would campaign for APC candidates at all levels, while also supporting Tinubu’s re-election.
Wike rejected the position, insisting that he had never approached the APC Governors Forum seeking an alliance. He argued that his Rainbow Coalition was not an APC structure and that his sole commitment at the presidential level was to support Tinubu.
He also accused the governors of trying to control the choice of candidates in states, insisting that being a governor did not automatically give anyone absolute control over electoral outcomes.
Wike takes aim at Uzodinma
The disagreement subsequently became more personal between Wike and Uzodinma.
Wike criticised Uzodinma over APC’s performance in the 2023 presidential election in Imo State, questioning how the governor could claim political influence while the APC presidential candidate failed to secure a significant share of the state’s presidential votes.
He also pointed to differences between presidential and National Assembly voting patterns in the South-East, arguing that voters could support different parties for different offices without necessarily being confused.
Uzodinma and the APC governors, meanwhile, have maintained that their concern is to prevent competing political structures from weakening the party’s candidates ahead of 2027.
The disagreement has now extended to the reported ambition of Uzodinma to contest for the Senate in 2027 and potentially seek the Senate presidency.
‘I will never support Uzodinma’
Wike said some politicians who had been denied APC tickets had found alternative platforms and could win elections with the backing of his political structure.
According to him, such politicians would not necessarily support Uzodinma if he eventually seeks to become Senate President.
“Life or death, I will never support a character of Senator Hope Uzodinma to become the Senate President of Nigeria,” Wike said, adding that his position was “not personal.”
Wike accused Uzodinma of creating political problems within the APC and lacking the capacity to resolve them, alleging that the governor had resorted to blackmail.
He also recalled Uzodinma’s emergence as Imo governor and questioned his political trajectory.
Wike alleged that Uzodinma was encouraging governors to influence the emergence of senators and members of the House of Representatives because of his own reported ambition to become Senate President.
The FCT minister argued that politicians elected through alternative platforms with his support would not be bound to support Uzodinma’s Senate presidency bid.
The confrontation therefore goes beyond a personal disagreement between two politicians. It has become part of a larger struggle over how political alliances, party structures and legislative candidates will be organised ahead of the 2027 elections.
Wike insists that his Rainbow Coalition is intended to deliver support for Tinubu across party lines, while the APC governors, led by Uzodinma in the PGF, insist that their political machinery must remain focused on APC candidates.
The widening disagreement has consequently placed Wike and Uzodinma on opposing sides of an increasingly important political contest over the shape of the 2027 elections