Zamfara State Governor Dauda Lawal has challenged the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, to clarify his political allegiance amid growing disagreements over the Rainbow Coalition ahead of the 2027 general elections.
Lawal made the call in an interview with Channels Television’s Inside Sources on the sidelines of the 81st United Nations General Assembly in New York, where he backed the position of governors elected on the platform of the All Progressives Congress.
The Zamfara governor said Wike could not simultaneously support the APC and other political parties, urging him to make his position clear.
“Be on one side, you can’t be on two sides,” Lawal said, adding that if Wike wanted to support the APC, he should come out openly and do so.
Lawal also said he intended to discuss Wike’s political position with President Bola Tinubu when the President returns from his working vacation in France.
The dispute centres on the Rainbow Coalition, a cross-party political platform associated with Wike and other politicians seeking to mobilise support for Tinubu’s 2027 presidential bid.
Wike, who remains a member of the Peoples Democratic Party, has maintained that the coalition is not an APC structure. He said its purpose is to mobilise support for Tinubu across political parties and that his support for the President does not mean the PDP should refrain from fielding candidates for governorship and legislative elections.
The position has drawn opposition from some APC governors, who have expressed concern about political structures operating across party lines ahead of the 2027 elections. The Progressive Governors Forum has argued against arrangements that could undermine the ruling party and its candidates.
Lawal’s latest comments therefore add to an increasingly public disagreement over whether support for Tinubu’s presidential bid should operate through the APC’s existing structure or through a broader multi-party coalition.
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