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Abuja, Nigeria — September 16, 2026
A member of the House of Representatives representing Kano State, Abdulmumin Jibrin, has cautioned against efforts within the All Progressives Congress (APC) to fight or embarrass Nyesom Wike, warning that the party stands to lose significantly if the Federal Capital Territory Minister eventually joins its ranks.
Jibrin made the remarks during an appearance on Channels Television’s Politics Today, when he was asked about the political calculations surrounding Wike’s relationship with the APC ahead of the 2027 general elections.
“If he comes into APC, we are going to lose a lot. This is not the time to try to embarrass or try to fight Wike,” Jibrin said, urging political actors within the party to exercise caution in how they engage with the former Rivers State governor.
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Jibrin’s intervention comes amid growing friction between Wike and several APC governors over his proposed Rainbow Coalition, a cross-party platform he has used to mobilise support for President Bola Tinubu’s 2027 re-election bid. Wike has repeatedly clarified that his backing for Tinubu does not mean the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) — with which he remains formally associated — will stand down from governorship and legislative contests in 2027, and has insisted the coalition is not an APC vehicle but a platform for mobilising support across party lines.
The FCT minister has recently clashed publicly with APC governors including Hope Uzodimma of Imo State and AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq of Kwara State, accusing some politicians of working against his political activities even as he maintains his primary objective is securing Tinubu’s re-election. APC governors, for their part, resolved at a recent Progressive Governors’ Forum meeting that they would not support any political alliance or arrangement seen as capable of undermining the party or its candidates at any level — a position widely read as a rebuke of Wike’s coalition-building efforts.
Jibrin’s warning adds a further voice to the internal APC debate over how to manage its relationship with Wike and the political network associated with him, as party actors weigh whether to actively court him into full APC membership, tolerate his current cross-party arrangement, or push back against his activities more forcefully. His comments reflect the broader political calculation surrounding an influential figure who, while formally still a PDP member, has become a central and often disruptive presence in APC-aligned politics ahead of 2027.
