By Samuel Olusegun Precious
Several state chapters of the All Progressives Congress (APC) have rejected the Rainbow Coalition being promoted by the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, urging him to formally join the ruling party if he is genuinely committed to President Bola Tinubu’s re-election in 2027.
This followed a renewed confrontation between Wike and APC governors over the political structure the FCT Minister is assembling ahead of the 2027 general elections. It was learnt that some of the APC governors visited President Tinubu while on holiday in the UK and France to make their position known and their displeasure over Wike’s growing influence and his alleged efforts to frustrate them while building a political structure ahead of the 2031 General Election.
Wike allegedly harvested aggrieved APC aspirants, who lost in the primaries, especially those who felt were unjustly denied tickets by their state governors. The aggrieved APC aspirants were handed tickets in the rainbow coalition in the states, mostly to scupper the governors’ influence on who will emerge as principal officers in the next National Assembly. Sources close to the Progressives Governors Forum, noted that the governors were not comfortable with the arrangement which prompted a widely publicised public calling out of Wike. Wike, on his part, quickly arranged a media chat in which he launched tirades against the governors branding them “lazy”. The FCT Minister particularly attacked Kwara State Governor Abdulrahman Abdulrazak and Imo’s Hope Uzodinma. Uzodinma is contesting for the Senate and is hoping to become the next Senate President if the calculations of the ongoing political horse trading comes to fruition.
Wike, who remains a member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), was appointed FCT Minister by President Tinubu after the 2023 election. His Rainbow Coalition is designed as a cross-party platform to mobilise support for Tinubu’s presidential bid, while allowing member parties to field their own candidates for governorship and legislative elections.
The dispute intensified after Zamfara State Governor, Dauda Lawal, last week told Wike to choose between joining the APC and remaining outside the party.”Our message is very, very clear: Be on one side. You can’t be on two sides,” Lawal said in an interview with Channels Television’s Inside Sources on the sidelines of the 81st United Nations General Assembly in New York.
Wike, however, rejected the position of the governors. In a statement through his spokesman, Lere Olayinka, he insisted that the Rainbow Coalition has nothing to do with the APC and that his commitment is specifically to Tinubu’s re-election.
In Imo, APC Publicity Secretary Jones Onwuasoanya said Wike should formally identify with the ruling party if his support for Tinubu was genuine. In Ondo, Secretary Alex Kalejaiye rejected an arrangement that would support Tinubu for president while backing other parties in other elections and urged Wike to collapse his structures into the APC.
In Plateau, Chairman Rufus Bature said the chapter does not recognise the Rainbow Coalition but Wike is free to join the party, while Gombe State chapter also asked the Minister to defect. Jigawa chapter, however, adopted a more welcoming stance, saying Wike would be received if he decides to defect.
