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- Says Rainbow Coalition not the APC, must not be allowed to confuse party
The APC Grassroots Governance Organisation has issued a warning regarding what it referred to as Nyesom Wike’s attempt to sow division in the party.
Speaking in a press statement issued on Wednesday, the group commended Imo State Governor Hope Uzodimma for his exemplary leadership as the Chairman of the Progressives Governors Forum, while noting the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike’s recent remarks.
The group reiterated that Wike’s Rainbow Coalition is not the APC, nor is it an organ of the party. It added that any attempt to blur that line is deliberate.
“We have sadly noted that what the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, has attempted in recent days is clear: to isolate Governor Uzodimma, Chairman of the Progressive Governors Forum, and set him against the party. Governor Uzodimma has done nothing to warrant this personal campaign. We thank him for refusing to descend to that level. The party is bigger than any individual quarrel.
“Wike’s latest remarks are not about loyalty to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. They are about creating confusion, sowing division inside the APC, and presenting a parallel platform as if it were an extension of the ruling party. It is not.
“We reiterate that the Rainbow Coalition is not the APC. It is not an APC organ. It is not an APC campaign structure. It does not speak for APC governors, APC candidates, or APC members. Any attempt to blur that line is deliberate. It is meant to make ordinary members believe that a cross-party arrangement and the APC are one and the same. They are not. They are not working together as a party. They must not be allowed to look as if they are.
“A man who still remains in the PDP, who insists he will not join the APC, and who now seeks to dictate how APC governors should campaign, cannot claim to have the President’s interest at heart. Support for Mr President cannot be separated from support for the party that produced him and the candidates running on that same ticket. Divided loyalty is not strategy. It is sabotage dressed up as mobilisation.
“Wike himself was a PDP governor. He should answer a simple question: if he had been offered the vice-presidency in 2023, would he have worked with Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu? Those who now lecture APC governors about “coalitions” and “inserting governors” should first explain their own political history.
“There was no need to drag APC governors into a structure that is not APC, does not answer to APC, and will field candidates against APC in states and constituencies,” the statement said.
It added, “The Progressive Governors Forum has already spoken with one voice: APC governors will campaign for the President and for every APC candidate at every level. That is the correct position. That is party democracy. No minister, no coalition, and no personal network has the authority to rewrite it.
“Therefore, we call on Wike to stop this course. Stop the insults. Stop the attempt to pit the Chairman of the Progressive Governors Forum against the party. Stop presenting a non-APC platform as if it were an APC alliance. Nigerians are not confused. Party members are not confused. The Rainbow Coalition is not the APC.
“Our loyalty is to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, to the All Progressives Congress, and to every candidate duly sponsored by the party. Anything else is a distraction that we will not accept, and ready to resist fully.”
