Crisis brews in the All Progressives Congress (APC) as party northern leaders may pull out of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s re-election campaign over reports that the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Nyesom Wike is using his political connection with the President to pursue a 2031 Presidential ambition.
Party sources hinted that Northern elements in the APC are miffed that while power should return to the north in 2031 under the power swing understanding, Wike, who is from the south, is reportedly using his connection with the President to pursue a Rainbow Coalition agenda that will enable him consolidate a hold on the APC as well as the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in furtherance of an ambition to vie for presidency in 2031.
APC leaders fear that Wike’s reported 2031 Presidential ambition may jeopardize Tinubu’s 2027 re-election bid as the party’s northern elements may withdraw support for the president following their calculation that supporting President Tinubu in the 2027 election will be to Wike’s advantage in 2031 which will be against the interest of the power shift to the north
According to a northern APC leader who spoke on condition of anonymity, “This Wike’s Rainbow Coalition is completely anti-north. We can see through it. Since his appointment as minister, he has been building his own political influence in which has metamorphosed into this Rainbow Coalition.
“So, it is a well-crafted anti-north scheme conceived, designed and being operated to perfect a political grip on states and retain power in the South in 2031. Wike has been unambiguous about his intentions to take over APC-controlled states. He has also infiltrated and hijacked APC structures in many states. So, we know the plan.
“Beneath the veneer the Coalition scheme is a long-game project that is not merely reacting to present-day political mathematics. It will become an assembling of a national network of loyalists and IOUs, across party lines plotted to deliver power to the south in 2031. We in the north will never accept that. We hope President Tinubu is seeing the danger ahead” he said.
Wike, the acclaimed National Leader of a faction of the PDP is floating a Rainbow Coalition arrangement comprising of his faction of the PDP, some elements of the Labour Party, NNPP sympathizers and aggrieved APC figures. He has also used his influence to install and position many of his loyalist in political offices including ambassadors, heads of parastatals and sensitive agencies, a development northern party leaders describe as a deliberate scheme for power hold.
Neither the minister nor his spokespersons could be reached at the time of filing the report