A spokesperson for President Bola Tinubu’s re-election campaign has urged Federal Capital Territory Minister Nyesom Wike and All Progressives Congress governors to stop trading words in public and channel their energy into mobilising votes for the 2027 election.
Ima Niboro, one of the spokespersons of the APC presidential campaign council, made the call on Wednesday during an appearance on Arise Television’s The Morning Show. He described the dispute between Wike and the governors as a “quarrel among siblings” and said the noise was serving no purpose.
“When I said tone down the rhetoric, I do not mean stop working. Stop talking, go and work,” Niboro said. He added that political leaders should establish authority on their home turf rather than exchange statements in the media.
His intervention followed days of open disagreement within the pro Tinubu bloc. Wike had described APC governors as “politically lazy” after they rejected his proposed cross party coalition to drum up support for the President’s second term bid.
The pushback came most directly from Imo State Governor Hope Uzodimma, who chairs the APC Progressive Governors’ Forum. Uzodimma said the governors would not back any arrangement capable of weakening the party or undermining Tinubu’s re-election, and that their loyalty remained with APC candidates at every level.
Wike responded by questioning the governors’ records at the ballot box. He singled out Uzodimma’s ability to deliver votes for Tinubu in the 2023 presidential election, and said his own focus before 2027 was to mobilise for the President rather than meddle in state politics.
The FCT minister has since sought to clarify where his proposed platform stands in relation to the ruling party. Wike said the coalition he is promoting is working for Tinubu’s re-election but has no formal ties to the APC, a distinction that appears to sit at the heart of the governors’ resistance.
Niboro urged both sides to take their case to voters instead of the cameras. “Get on the TV cameras. Go to the people. Go to the streets. Go to the marketplaces. Go and win the people,” he said, adding that “all this shouting is not taking anybody anywhere.”
He stressed that he was not asking either side to surrender its political territory, but to demonstrate influence through grassroots work. “If you’re a political leader, stop talking. Go and work. That is my point,” he said.
The exchange is notable because Wike, though FCT minister in a Tinubu cabinet, is not a member of the APC. He remains a member of the Peoples Democratic Party and has positioned himself as an ally of the President rather than a party man, which has made his relationship with APC governors a recurring source of friction since 2023.
Niboro himself is a recent addition to the campaign structure. A veteran journalist and former managing director of the News Agency of Nigeria, he served as spokesperson to former President Goodluck Jonathan before being named one of the spokespersons of Tinubu’s campaign council on 12 September 2026. His appointment was part of a broader move to strengthen the campaign’s communications team, which also includes presidential aides Bayo Onanuga, Sunday Dare and Tunde Rahman, along with APC National Publicity Secretary Felix Morka.
The campaign has projected confidence despite the internal friction. Speaking earlier in the week, Niboro said the APC had 12.8 million registered members, a figure he described as a formidable base, and predicted a sweeping victory for Tinubu in 2027. Those membership claims have not been independently verified.
For now, the disagreement remains a contest over method rather than allegiance. Both Wike and the APC governors say they want Tinubu returned to office in 2027. What divides them is whether that goal is better served through a wider coalition of the kind Wike favours, or through the party’s own structures, as the governors insist.