Hope Uzodinma and Nyesom Wike: Five Issues Behind the APC Rift, From Coalition Control to Senate President Ambitions

The quarrel between Imo State Governor Hope Uzodinma and FCT Minister Nyesom Wike has gone from muttered complaints to public insults, with a snub caught on camera in front of the President. Both men say they want Bola Tinubu re-elected in 2027. They disagree on almost everything else: who runs the campaign, who counts as a loyal ally, and who gets to shape the next Senate.

One point of accuracy: Wike is not an APC member. He is a chieftain of the opposition PDP serving in the APC-led federal government, so this is a rift between Wike and the APC governors’ bloc that Uzodinma leads. Here are the five issues driving it.

1. The Rainbow Coalition and who controls the campaign

The immediate cause is Wike’s “Rainbow Coalition”. It is designed to bring politicians from rival parties into Tinubu’s camp without requiring them to defect to the APC. Wike says its only purpose is to deliver Tinubu a second term.

Uzodinma and the Progressive Governors’ Forum (PGF) see a threat. The governors and other APC leaders have alleged that Wike is using the coalition to back politicians who lost APC primaries and are now contesting on the PDP platform. In their view, a coalition that sits outside party structures can quietly weaken APC candidates for governor, Senate and the House.

The forum’s position, as reported, was blunt: the APC is a rules-based party, not a personal estate for political mercenaries. Wike was just as dismissive. He called the governors politically lazy and said he answers only to Tinubu, not to the governors’ forum.

2. The Senate presidency ambition

This is the sharpest edge of the fight. Uzodinma is completing his second term as governor, and he has already won the APC ticket for the Imo West senatorial district. Many in Abuja believe a Senate seat is a stepping stone to the top job in the chamber.

Wike has said so openly. On TVC’s Journalists’ Hangout on Monday, September 21, he said he would never back Uzodinma to become Senate President. His argument is that the governor is nearing the end of his tenure and is chasing a Senate seat with the long-term aim of leading the chamber. He also claimed that Uzodinma fears senators who lost APC tickets and moved to the PDP could win with Wike’s support and then refuse to back him.

The rules of the chamber add a complication. In May, the Senate amended its rules to require aspirants for Senate President and Deputy to have served at least eight consecutive years, immediately before nomination. The chamber later reversed some procedural changes, but senators said the eight-year requirement stayed in place. Whether that clause narrows the field for 2027 is now a live question in Abuja.

An APC chieftain in Kwara has alleged that Wike would rather see Godswill Akpabio return than back a candidate from the South-East. That is the allegation of one party man, not a confirmed position.

3. The scoreboard: who actually delivers votes for Tinubu?

Wike has repeatedly questioned whether APC governors earned their place at the table. He has said even Uzodinma could not secure 10 per cent of his state’s votes for Tinubu. At the Presidential Campaign Council (PCC) inauguration, he told the President’s Chief of Staff, Femi Gbajabiamila, that if Tinubu did not win in Lagos, nobody should claim victory.

The point is that Wike wants to be judged by results in Rivers and the FCT, where he coordinates the campaign, and wants the governors judged the same way. Uzodinma’s camp answers that its commitment is to Tinubu and to APC candidates at every level. Imo lawyers who held a press conference on the feud argued that if Wike disagrees with the APC Governors’ Forum, he should take it up with the forum and not attack Uzodinma personally.

4. A proxy war over Rivers State and Governor Fubara

The Uzodinma-Wike dispute cannot be separated from the long-running Wike-Fubara quarrel in Rivers. Fubara has moved to the APC, and the party’s national chairman, Nentawe Yilwatda, has described him as the party’s leader in the state. Wike disputes that.

APC sources have said tension flared again after influential APC governors decided to back Fubara’s second-term bid, a move said to have angered Wike. The same reporting says it also encouraged Fubara to challenge Wike’s dominance. From Wike’s side, the governors’ forum looks like a bloc protecting his rival. From the governors’ side, Wike is trying to dictate who wins in a state where he no longer holds office.

5. Tinubu as referee, and a campaign table with no seating chart

The President has so far chosen accommodation over discipline. At the October 14 inauguration of the APC Presidential Campaign Council, Wike, Anambra Governor Chukwuma Soludo and Osun Governor Ademola Adeleke were included in the arrangement. Uzodinma kept his post as council secretary. Wike read it as vindication. He told reporters the coalition has come to stay and that there is nothing anybody can do about it.

The event itself did little to calm things. Wike, Akpabio and Uzodinma each took turns at the podium, and while none named the others, the timing and content of their remarks pointed at one another. Video of the event appeared to show Wike declining to shake Uzodinma’s hand. Wike has denied working against Uzodinma and two other governors, but the footage travelled faster than the denial.

Uzodinma’s own position as PGF chairman has also drawn attention. Ebonyi Governor Francis Nwifuru has publicly rebuked fellow governors accused of plotting his removal from the post. Both sides are now fighting with a general election on the calendar and a President who needs them both.

The APC governors’ forum has not changed its stance that the coalition cannot undermine party candidates. Wike has not softened his opposition to an Uzodinma Senate presidency. And the PCC’s expansion has not settled whether support for Tinubu should automatically extend to every APC candidate.

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