Wike and the triumph of the Rainbow Coalition

When it started many considered it a flash in the pan. And that it is simply to retain Rivers state under his control. But later event saw it has extended to the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), where the founder of the Rainbow Coalition, Barrister Nyesom Wike, is the minister.

And because he has a vision and a mission, and many didn’t take Wike seriously beyond his state and FCT, in a jiffy, the spread is going beyond the arm, reaching dangerously to some APC states.

Then the governors woke up to realise that the Coalition is within their territory. But it was too late for them to drive back the tide. The governors rose in unison to condemn the movement, but the train has left the station.

Wike has always maintained that the primary objective of the Coalition is to ensure the re-election of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. But some of the governors disagree, insisting it will cause confusion within the party. 

In Wike’s explanation, the Rainbow Coalition is a cross party political movement assembled by him in Rivers State. According to him, it unites members from various political parties into a single support base dedicated to backing President Tinubu’s re-election in 2027.

The difference is that it is not operating strictly through formal party lines like the APC leadership wanted it to. The governors stood stoutly against the Coalition insisting that Wike is using it to build his political landscape in preparation for the 2031 election.

But Wike, on the other hand, said it is strictly to ensure the victory of President Tinubu come January 16 next year. He told them that the sky is wide enough to accommodate as many support groups as possible as long as the common mandate is to ensure the re-election of Mr President.

According to the minister, some of the governors fighting him and his movement are simply afraid of their shadow. To him, since his party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has no serious contender, everything should be done to see to the re-election of President Tinubu.

He specifically mentioned some states where he believed the Coalition is working to discourage those who lost out at the APC primaries to gang up with the opposition ADC or NDC. To him, it is better to have them in a friendly party than for them to join the opposition and deplete the votes for APC. 

As the saying goes, there are many routes to the market and what is important is that the end result is to reach the market. And in this case, everything should be done to ensure President Tinubu has a smooth sail back to the Villa. Wike in hysteria on the rooftop said that he has more at stake in galvanising the re-election of Mr President than some of the APC governors fighting him.

He has not denied the fact that besides ensuring the re-election, after all, he is not a member of the ruling APC but of PDP extraction. To him, he should be allowed to operate at his sphere as long as his support for President Tinubu is not in doubt.

“I have my political party which is PDP and I will ensure the party’s candidates win, but for the presidency there is no vacancy for any political party but only the candidature of APC flag bearer.But the governors’ of APC, certainly not all but few, that have problems in their various states are bent on checkmating the FCT minister at all cost.

Their reasoning is worth considering especially if one is of the APC extraction. According to them, there might be confusion on the electorate as both the presidential and the National Assembly elections are holding on the same day of January 16, 2027.

According to them, not all the voters would understand the differences as either they would vote for PDP in both instances or have their ballots disenfranchised by the confusion that would follow.

An APC stalwart in Abuja said those in the rural areas might find it difficult to distinguish between the two parties. And there is the likelihood of those in the rural areas to be confused on which party to vote.

A typical example was what happened in the FCT in the last election. The PDP stalwarts were said to have told the electorate to vote Peter Obi’s Labour Party for the presidency and vote PDP for the National Assembly. The villagers who are the majority of the voters voted for the Labour Party down to the National Assembly election.

By the time the party chieftains realised the miscalculation, the damage had been done. It was too late for any corrections and that’s how Obi won in the FCT and Senator Ireti Kingibe benefited from the confusion.

And this is what some of the antagonists of Wike are putting forward. Their argument is that in the confusion that may arise from the infusion of the Rainbow Coalition, APC might be the loser.

Another fear is that in a situation where the voters eventually voted PDP, the National Assembly might be populated by the opposition thereby putting the APC presidency in a tight corner.

According to Wike hisnarrangement recognises the political realities in different states while providing a common platform for those who believe the president deserves another term.

But Wike maintained that where his Rainbow Coalition is of use and relevant, are in the states that the governors cannot deliver their states to APC.

He insisted that in such a situation, the intervention of his Coalition would still be an advantage to Mr President. He said those that have been pushed out of the APC at the primaries in these states are finding succour in PDP. To him, it’s agreed that PDP members should vote for President Tinubu. 

Some of the APC governors kicking against his coalition, he said, have lost grip on the control of the party in their states. Wike argued that the initiative was not intended to displace the APC but to mobilise support for Tinubu across political affiliations.

“The major thing is Mr President. Whatever we are going to do, whoever has any idea or anything to contribute to the success of Mr President. That is the whole thing,” he said.

The minister also dismissed suggestions that the coalition had unsettled APC governors or could encourage defections from the ruling party. “I don’t know what concerns there are. As far as I am concerned, there is no problem,” he said.

To him, the coalition reflected an effort to move beyond the traditional boundaries of party politics and build broader support for the president. Wike also rejected suggestions that the arrangement represented an entirely new development in Nigerian politics, saying political figures had previously supported presidential candidates outside their parties while maintaining separate interests at the state level.

However, he said the current political environment had made such cooperation more visible and formalised. Wike is a man that doesn’t bother about the naysayers. He is determined and feels nothing should stop his dream in ensuring President Tinubu’s re-election come January 16 next year.

They called him names, some even described him as a meddlesome interloper but he doesn’t give a hoot. And now Mr President has expanded his campaign council making a Rainbow Coalition. President Tinubu indeed bought Wike’s idea that the aim of any election is to win and if one could use other opposing political parties to achieve this, then the common slang, everything is fair in politics, stands.

And the victory came for the Rainbow Coalition when President Tinubu rejigged the APC Presidential Campaign Council and added three opposing parties into the Council. As for the fear that some governors’ might, because of Wike, work against the party and President Tinubu by aligning with the opposition like the ADC or NDC, the Wike group dismissed this as wishful thinking. “Mr President is smarter than this and those that might play that card would regret their actions if at the end Mr President is re-elected.”

The opposition party governors who are now part of the Rainbow Coalition at the national level are Governors Ademola Adeleke of Osun state (Accord Party), Prof Chukwuma Soludo of Anambra State (APGA) and Wike, the PDP leader.

With this composition, Wike’s Rainbow Coalition has won the day and every hand is expected to be on deck for the journey ahead come January 16. Wike, therefore, urged Nigerians to assess the president’s performance on its merits rather than allow partisanship to determine their judgment.

Abdul writes from Abuja via [email protected]