APC Chapters Revolt Against Wike as NDC Guber Candidates Reject Babachir Lawal in North East

…APC to Wike: You can’t be APC by day, PDP by night—Six North-East NDC candidates defy, demand Lawal’s removal as Leader

By Abu Adamu
Political tremors ahead of the 2027 general elections are spreading across the states, with chapters of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) pushing back against the Rainbow Coalition being promoted by Federal Capital Territory Minister Nyesom Wike, while all six governorship candidates of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) in the North-East have rejected the appointment of former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Babachir Lawal, as the party’s regional leader.

The twin disputes have brought the growing battle between national political calculations and state-level structures into sharper focus, as parties and alliances attempt to consolidate their machinery ahead of next year’s elections.

Across several APC-controlled structures, party leaders are insisting that Wike, who remains a member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), cannot build a separate coalition to support President Bola Tinubu while simultaneously backing candidates outside the APC in governorship and legislative contests.

The opposition has emerged from APC chapters in Imo, Gombe, Ondo, Rivers, Anambra, Kwara, Plateau, and Nasarawa, among others, with some demanding that Wike formally defect to the ruling party if his commitment to Tinubu’s re-election is total.

The confrontation intensified after Zamfara State Governor Dauda Lawal declared that Wike must choose where he belongs.

“Our message is very, very clear: Be on one side. You can’t be on two sides,” Lawal said, insisting that support should be “APC all the way from head to toe.”

Lawal said he intended to take the matter up with Tinubu, adding: “Let there be a very, very clear line where this guy belongs. It’s either he’s in APC or he’s out.”

The resistance reflects concerns among state party officials that the Rainbow Coalition could produce parallel political structures and confuse voters by asking them to support Tinubu for President but candidates of other parties further down the ballot.

Ondo APC said its objective was to deliver not only Tinubu but all its senatorial, House of Representatives, and state assembly candidates, while Kwara leaders questioned how voters could practically be mobilised to split their ballots during elections conducted simultaneously.

In Imo, the APC said it recognised no Rainbow Coalition, while Plateau party leaders said the arrangement had been rejected and Wike could not be “APC in the morning and PDP in the night.”

Jigawa APC struck a more conciliatory note, welcoming Wike’s support for Tinubu and saying he would be received if he eventually joined the ruling party. Osun and Delta chapters said the national leadership should ultimately determine the party’s position.

Wike has rejected claims that the Rainbow Coalition is intended to undermine the APC. He maintains that its support is specifically for Tinubu and argues that the arrangement follows the 2023 precedent when he and other G5 political figures supported Tinubu without formally joining the APC.

But even as that argument generates resistance within the President’s wider political camp, the opposition NDC is confronting its own rebellion in the North-East.

All six NDC governorship candidates in the zone have jointly rejected the appointment of Babachir Lawal as regional party leader, describing their position as “collective, firm, and final.”

The statement was signed by Aishatu Dahiru Ahmed of Adamawa, Ibrahim Muhammad Kashim of Bauchi, Rear Admiral S. Kashim Ibrahim (retd.) of Borno, Dr Babayo Ardo of Gombe, Prof. Mohammed Sani of Taraba, and Ibrahim M. Shitu of Yobe.

Addressing the party’s national leader, Senator Henry Seriake Dickson, the candidates said they would neither recognise nor work with Lawal in the capacity assigned to him.

“For the avoidance of doubt, our position is collective, firm, and final: we do not recognise Engr. Babachir Lawal as the Leader of the NDC in the North-East, and we will not recognise him as such,” they declared.

They complained that the appointment was made without consultation with governorship candidates and other stakeholders who had been building party structures and mobilising support across the six states.

Echoing an argument also being heard in the APC controversy, the candidates stressed that “politics is local” and warned that decisions imposed without sufficient engagement with state actors could undermine electoral mobilisation.

They consequently asked the NDC national leadership to review Lawal’s appointment and consult political stakeholders across Adamawa, Bauchi, Borno, Gombe, Taraba, and Yobe.