Several state chapters of the All Progressives Congress have rejected the Rainbow Coalition being promoted by the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, with party leaders asking the former Rivers State governor to formally join the ruling party if he is genuinely committed to President Bola Tinubu’s re-election.
The reactions followed a renewed confrontation between Wike and APC governors over the political structure the FCT minister is assembling ahead of the 2027 general elections.
Wike is a Peoples Democratic Party member serving in a federal government led by an APC president.
The former Rivers governor was appointed FCT minister by Tinubu after the 2023 election, despite having remained a prominent PDP politician and having contested the presidency under the opposition party.
While some APC state chapters welcomed Wike’s support for Tinubu and said they would receive him if he decided to defect to the ruling party, others opposed the coalition outright, arguing that a politician could not simultaneously support the APC at the presidential level and candidates of other parties in governorship and legislative elections.
The development has exposed a growing disagreement within the President’s political camp over how support for his 2027 re-election should be organised and, more importantly, who should control the political structures through which such support is mobilised.
The latest dispute was triggered by Zamfara State Governor and APC governor Dauda Lawal, who told Wike to choose between joining the APC and remaining with the Rainbow Coalition.
Speaking in an interview with Channels Television’s Inside Sources on the sidelines of the 81st United Nations General Assembly in New York, Lawal said the position of the APC governors was unchanged.
“Our message is very, very clear: Be on one side. You can’t be on two sides. If you’re in APC, please come out and support APC. Not you’re supporting APC here, and you’re supporting other political parties somewhere else. It doesn’t make sense. It’s not done anywhere,” Lawal said.
The Zamfara governor added, “And that is why we maintain our stand, and it is very clear—the message is very clear. He can speak, he can say whatever he wants to say, but our position has been very, very clear: APC all the way from head to toe.”
Asked whether the governors were asking Wike to join the APC, Lawal responded, “Exactly. What’s the essence?”
He further disclosed that he intended to raise Wike’s political position with President Tinubu.
“It’s something that I will take up with the President when he comes back. So, let there be a very, very clear line where this guy belongs to. It’s either he’s in APC or he’s out. It’s simple. And I go with my brothers, the governors,” Lawal stated.
The demand has since received varying degrees of support from APC chapters across the country.
Coalition faces resistance
In Imo State, the APC Publicity Secretary, Jones Onwuasoanya, said Wike was attempting to maintain an ambiguous political position and urged him to formally identify with the ruling party.
“Decency demands that an individual who claims so much allegiance to the philosophies and programmes of a political party should fully align with that political party, rather than playing hide and seek with his loyalty to the party,” Onwuasoanya told The PUNCH.
He added, “If Wike is sincere about his support for President Tinubu, then he should join the APC and begin to campaign for our party across all positions rather than being selective.”
The Imo APC spokesman dismissed the Rainbow Coalition as a political structure with little relevance in the state.
“As long as the All Progressives Congress in Imo State is concerned, there is nothing like a Rainbow Coalition or whatever it might be called. The APC is the only viable political platform in Imo State and Imolites are fully aligned with us,” he said.
He maintained that the party was confident of victory in 2027, saying, “There is no political arrangement or structure outside the APC that poses any threat to our Party’s electoral chances.”
In Gombe, the APC Publicity Secretary, Murtala Usman, similarly urged Wike to complete his political transition to the ruling party.
“My opinion is the same as the people who are advising him to join APC because APC doesn’t need any rainbow coalition for now,” Usman said.
He warned that such an arrangement could create confusion within the ruling party.
“That rainbow coalition will cause some confusion in the APC because those who are stakeholders in the APC, particularly in some states, will find it very difficult to handle,” he stated.
Usman argued that recent defections of PDP governors to the APC had already created difficulties for some long-standing party members.
“So Wike should switch to APC completely. Since he is doing the work of APC, let him be a full member, not a partial member,” he said.
Dual-loyalty concerns
In Rivers State, where Wike served as governor and remains a major political actor, the controversy has an additional dimension.
The factional APC led by Emeka Beke backed the Progressive Governors Forum’s opposition to the coalition.
The faction’s publicity secretary, Darlington Nwauju, said Wike could not simultaneously maintain loyalty to the PDP and work with the APC.
“The truth remains that if you look at the background or the context of Nigerian elections and if you cast your mind to the fact that the level of political education in Nigeria is still way behind,” Nwauju said.
He argued that asking voters to support candidates from different political parties at different levels could create confusion.
“You cannot confuse the electorate by thinking that you can order them into voting for candidate A in party A and candidate B in party B on the same election day,” he stated.
Nwauju said the APC governors were therefore justified in asking Wike to either join the party or stay away from its internal affairs.
“My belief is that the Progressive Governors Forum is in the right with the advisory that they have issued. Join the APC or leave her alone. You cannot stand [and] use your association with the APC to rebuild the PDP,” he said.
He further alleged that Wike’s activities could contribute to a revival of the PDP, describing that as a concern for the ruling party.
The Anambra State APC chairman, Senator Emmanuel Anosike, described Wike’s coalition as an affront to the party and its governors.
“It amounts to an insult to the integrity and sensibility of the APC and its governors for Wike to make such comments,” Anosike said.
He argued that Wike, as a PDP member, had no basis for intervening in the internal affairs of the APC.
“The minister is not a member of the party, hence should stop meddling in the internal affairs of the party,” he stated, noting that the APC governors had sufficient political structures to deliver Tinubu in 2027.
“Governor Hope Uzodimma of Imo State is the leader of the APC Governors Forum, and he is in full control of the party structures across the country through the members of the Forum and has shown capacity having delivered Mr President at his first term election and still has all that it takes to do it again in 2027,” he said.
He described Wike’s intervention as an attempt to remain politically relevant, adding that the Anambra APC did not recognise the Rainbow Coalition as an alternative political structure.
Kwara questions coalition strategy
The Kwara State APC chairman, Sunday Fagbemi, questioned the practicality of the Rainbow Coalition’s proposed electoral strategy.
Fagbemi described it as “a grand deception and a confusing strategy”, particularly because presidential, senatorial and House of Representatives elections are held simultaneously.
“What is the level of enlightenment of Nigerian voters? How do you explain to someone that, out of the five elections, at least three—the presidential, senatorial and House of Representatives elections—will be conducted on the same day?” he asked.
He continued, “Will you stand by the ballot box and tell a voter to vote for one party for President and another party for Senate? Even if that were possible, do you want to populate the National Assembly with opposition parties to the President? What kind of support are you giving the President that way?”
Fagbemi said APC members were expected to vote for the party’s candidates across the ballot.
“I believe the party has been very clear about this: if you are an APC member, the election is five out of five, not even three out of five. As APC members, everyone should vote for the party and its candidates,” he stated.
Plateau condemns coalition
The Plateau State APC chairman, Rufus Bature, said the party had no knowledge of any Rainbow Coalition structure in the state.
“We don’t know anything about Rainbow Coalition in Plateau State. I’m just coming from a retreat in Maiduguri with the APC National Chairman and other members of the National Working Committee and Rainbow Coalition was condemned totally for every state,” Bature said.
“If it is going to work in Rivers, that is their problem, but for other states, nobody should go and do anything like Rainbow Coalition,” he added.
However, Bature said Wike remained free to join the APC.
Credit: PUNCH
