Zamfara State Governor Dauda Lawal on Thursday said he supports the position of All Progressives Congress governors against the Rainbow Coalition associated with FCT Minister Nyesom Wike, urging the minister to make his political allegiance clear ahead of the 2027 elections.
Lawal made the position known in an interview with Channels Television on the sidelines of the 81st United Nations General Assembly in New York.
The disagreement followed the decision of the Progressive Governors Forum, the platform for APC governors, to reject political arrangements that they believe could weaken the party or affect its candidates in the 2027 election.
Wike, who is a member of the Peoples Democratic Party, has been promoting the Rainbow Coalition as a cross-party platform supporting President Bola Tinubu’s re-election bid. He has maintained that the coalition is separate from the APC and is intended to mobilise support for Tinubu across different political parties.
Lawal said the APC governors would not change their position on the matter and argued that Wike should not support Tinubu for the presidency while backing candidates from other political parties in governorship and legislative contests.
The Zamfara governor also said the issue would be raised with Tinubu when the President returns from his working vacation in France.
Lawal’s comments came after Wike criticised the APC governors over their opposition to the coalition. The FCT minister has defended the arrangement and said his support for Tinubu does not require him to support APC candidates in every other election.
The dispute has therefore created a fresh disagreement between Wike and some APC governors over how support for Tinubu should be organised ahead of the 2027 elections.
While the APC governors have maintained that they will support Tinubu alongside candidates officially presented by the party, Wike has continued to argue for a broader political platform involving people from different parties.
Lawal said he remained aligned with the position of the APC governors as the political debate over the Rainbow Coalition continues ahead of the 2027 general elections.