***Unless we win, party may implode, says NGF

THE infighting within the fold of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) and calculations towards the 2031 election cycle have been advanced as chief reasons why the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, refused to join the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).

A close ally of the FCT Minister and incumbent governor of one of the Northern States told The Guardian that last Saturday’s flag-off of the APC Presidential Campaign in Kaduna State proved that “all was not really well with us.”

Speaking on condition of strictest confidence, he recalled that the off-cycle Osun State governorship election exposed how far the disunity among the Progressives Governors’ Forum (PGF) has gone, regretting that the same division played out both in the outing and choice of Kaduna as venue for the presidential campaign.

Contrasting the Kaduna campaign flag-off and the inauguration of the expanded Presidential Campaign Council at the Presidential Villa, the governor said that it has become obvious that cohorts in the Rainbow Coalition are the ones providing excitement for President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s re-election campaign.

Recall that the Vice President, Senator Kashim Shettima, had pleaded with APC governors to avoid working at cross-purposes with other stakeholders, saying that the party must fight as a united family to repeat the 2023 electoral triumph in the presidential ballot.

But the governor explained that the cleavages among the state governors followed speculations that the Vice President may be dropped from the APC presidential ticket, adding that some governors loyal to the VP banded together with the Chairman of PGF, Senator Hope Uzodimma, to stonewall any attempt to drop the former Borno State governor.

On the issue of Rainbow Coalition, the governor disclosed that attempts to bring Wike into the coalition failed because the FCT Minister did not want to have close political association with some of the APC governors, adding that the crises between the incumbent Rivers State governor and the State Assembly made matters worse.

He stated: “Some of us close to Wike actually tried to bring him into APC, but he gave his reasons. As a politician, he is entitled to his own calculations. However, the alliances and re-alignments for the 2027 election caused three distinct groups among the governors.

“You have the Shettima group led by Uzodimma, the Lagos caucus headed by Dapo Abiodun. Here in the North, those from the North West who think they are entitled to the Presidency also formed their own bloc. Of course, the nomination of Senator Yari to head the PCC was an attempt to assuage the feelings of alienation by the North East group.

“Those of you in the media do not understand some of the challenges we are facing as the ruling party. There are those who think that the President’s reforms will not allow the party to win elections in the North. That apart, some leaders of the party in the South East do not seem eager to promote the party for the presidential election for their own personal interest.

“For us in the North, we are worried that if President Tinubu does not return for a second term, APC would go the way of PDP (Peoples Democratic Party). I think that Wike foresees that likelihood and decided to prepare an alternative platform. I did not want to respond to you about whether Rainbow Coalition would likely transform to a political party, because I was outside the country.”

The second-term governor noted that what happened in Kaduna last week has convinced every loyal party man that much needs to be done for APC to assert its dominance as the ruling party, adding that managing the interests of some powerful individuals ranks high on the challenges.

On the schism among the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, Senator Adams Oshiomhole and the Chairman of the PGF, he regretted that the three prominent leaders do not recognise that there was an election to be won before consideration for influential positions.