Join APC or Get Out, Zamfara Governor Tells Wike Over Rainbow Coalition

Zamfara State Governor Dauda Lawal has drawn a firm line for Federal Capital Territory Minister Nyesom Wike, insisting the minister must fully commit to the All Progressives Congress or step aside from efforts to back President Bola Tinubu’s 2027 re-election through the Rainbow Coalition.

Speaking in an interview with Channels Television’s Inside Sources on the sidelines of the 81st United Nations General Assembly in New York on Thursday, Lawal said Wike cannot straddle two political camps. The governor, who himself defected from the Peoples Democratic Party to the APC earlier this year amid the opposition party’s internal crisis, made clear that APC governors remain united against any cross-party arrangement that allows support for Tinubu at the presidential level while backing candidates of other parties in governorship and legislative races.

“Our message is very, very clear: be on one side, you can’t be on two sides. If you are in APC, please come out and support the APC, not you are supporting APC here and you are supporting some other political parties somewhere else. It doesn’t make sense. It’s not done anywhere,” Lawal said.

He added that the governors’ position would not shift regardless of Wike’s public defences of the coalition. “We maintain our stand and the message is very clear. He can speak, he can say whatever he wants to say, but our position has been very clear, APC all the way from head to toe.”

Pressed on whether this amounted to a demand that Wike formally join the ruling party, Lawal replied: “Exactly.” He said he intends to raise the matter directly with Tinubu when the president returns from his working vacation in France. “It’s something I will discuss with the President when he comes back. Let there be a clear line where this guy belongs to. It’s either he is in APC or he is out, simple. So I go with my brothers, the governors.”

ADVERTISEMENT

The comments sharpen an already tense dispute between Wike and several APC governors. The Progressive Governors Forum has rejected the Rainbow Coalition, viewing the cross-party platform as a potential threat to the party’s ability to secure victories for its candidates in the 2027 elections. Wike, who remains a PDP member while serving in Tinubu’s cabinet, has repeatedly insisted that the coalition is solely about mobilising support for the president’s second-term bid and has no formal ties to the APC. He has maintained that other parties, including the PDP, should still be free to field candidates for governorship, National Assembly and state assembly seats.

Lawal’s intervention carries extra weight given his recent political journey. After weeks of stakeholder consultations and citing the PDP’s deepening legal and internal crises—including a Court of Appeal ruling that further complicated the party’s affairs—he formally joined the APC in March 2026, becoming one of the ruling party’s governors. His stance now aligns him firmly with colleagues who want unambiguous loyalty ahead of the next general elections.

The exchange underscores the delicate balancing act facing politicians who supported Tinubu in 2023 from outside the APC and now seek to back him again without fully abandoning their original parties. As the 2027 race edges closer, the pressure for clearer political alignments is intensifying, with Lawal signalling that APC governors are prepared to take the issue to the highest level.