Powerful blocs within the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) have raised concerns over the impact of the National Rainbow Coalition, led by Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, on the party’s candidates and President Bola Tinubu’s re-election bid in the 2027 general elections.
The coalition, which brings together politicians from different parties, says it is committed to supporting Tinubu’s presidential ambition while allowing its members to contest other elections on different party platforms.
However, APC governors and party stakeholders fear the arrangement could confuse voters, split support for the president and weaken the party’s candidates in state and National Assembly elections.
The disagreement has intensified in Rivers, Kwara, Gombe and Cross River states, where the coalition is backing candidates opposed to APC candidates while maintaining its support for Tinubu.
Wike, a prominent figure in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) recognised by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), has rejected claims that the coalition is working against the APC or the president.
Speaking during a media chat in Port Harcourt last week, the minister accused Imo State Governor and Chairman of the Progressives Governors Forum, Hope Uzodimma, and Kwara State Governor and Chairman of the Nigerian Governors Forum, AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, of leading opposition against him.
“Take for example, Kwara, he has been the one championing this campaign against me everywhere. Yes, I have confronted him too. I don’t talk about what I cannot defend,” Wike said.
He said AbdulRazaq had accused him of sponsoring candidates against the governor’s preferred choices in Kwara.
Wike argued that the governor should appreciate his efforts to provide a platform for aggrieved APC members rather than allowing them to join political groups opposed to Tinubu.
The minister also referred to his strained relationship with Uzodimma, recalling that the Imo governor had previously declined to support him despite the assistance he had offered.
Despite the disagreements, Wike insisted that his priority remained Tinubu’s re-election and that personal disputes would not distract him.
He challenged those accusing him of working against the APC to identify the support they had provided during his own political battles.
Sources close to the APC governors said the coalition could undermine Tinubu’s vote tally because its members were fielding candidates under different parties for elections taking place on the same day as the presidential poll.
The coalition has backed PDP candidates for National Assembly elections while claiming to support the APC presidential candidate.
According to the sources, the arrangement could leave voters, particularly in rural communities, uncertain about which party to support at different levels of the election.
They argued that many voters traditionally cast their ballots along party lines and might find it difficult to distinguish between a coalition’s presidential preference and the parties fielding candidates for other offices.
The sources cited the 2023 election in Oyo State, where the PDP lost National Assembly seats while voters supported Tinubu’s presidential bid on the APC platform.
They also recalled the 2003 elections in the South-West, when the Alliance for Democracy (AD) lost five governorship seats and most National Assembly seats in the region as voters backed President Olusegun Obasanjo’s re-election on the PDP platform. Tinubu, then governor of Lagos State, retained his seat, as did his National Assembly candidates.
The sources said the coalition’s activities could benefit opposition presidential candidates, including Atiku Abubakar of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), who is seeking votes across the North.
“This will hurt Tinubu badly, if he does not get maximum votes from North-Central and South-East,” one source said.
The concerns have prompted calls for the APC leadership and the presidency to intervene.
In Rivers State, the coalition has created uncertainty over the governorship election. Its members cut across the APC, PDP and Labour Party, among others, and the group has said it will present a consensus candidate acceptable to the coalition and the people of the state.
The coalition emerged in January 2026 during the political crisis between Wike and Governor Siminalayi Fubara. Its activities gained momentum after Fubara joined the APC and publicly displayed his party registration number.
Wike, who remains a PDP member, later backed former House of Representatives Minority Leader, Kingsley Chinda, as the coalition’s governorship candidate on the APC platform.
Chinda’s movement from the PDP to the APC remains the subject of litigation ahead of the election.
The choice has generated discontent among some coalition members, particularly those from the riverine areas of Rivers State, who argue that the governorship ticket should have gone to a riverine candidate.
Fubara is from the riverine area, and some members say the region should be considered for the remaining period of the governor’s tenure following the declaration of a state of emergency in the state by Tinubu.
The coalition has selected the state House of Assembly Majority Leader, Major Jack, as Chinda’s running mate. Jack is related to Dumo Lulu-Briggs, the governorship candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), who is also from the riverine community of Abonnema in Akuku-Toru Local Government Area.
The competing candidates have deepened the uncertainty among voters, with the APC presenting an upland candidate while the NDC is fielding a riverine candidate.
Dr Jackson Omenazu, Chancellor of the International Society for Social Justice and Human Rights, questioned the coalition’s political direction.
“The Rainbow Coalition must answer a simple question: Which party should Rivers people actually vote for? When candidates fly different party flags but claim to belong to one coalition, are they offering Rivers state a political alternative or deliberately creating confusion?” he asked.
Omenazu said Rivers voters deserved clear choices and a political coalition based on principles rather than political interests.
Hon Desmond Stephen, an Action Democratic Party (ADP) House of Assembly candidate, dismissed the suggestion that Rivers voters were confused.
“The confusion they are setting is that they want to hoodwink the people to believe falsely that the election has been contested and won by their so called rainbow coalition so that there will be voters apathy on election-day. That will not happen. Rivers people are wiser,” he said.
Wike has maintained that all candidates backed by the coalition will win the election.
His opponents, however, argue that voters may use the poll to protest the declaration of a state of emergency in Rivers and what they described as the treatment of Fubara.
The PDP has traditionally dominated Rivers politics, but the party’s internal crisis has opened the race to candidates from other platforms, including Gabriel Pidomson of the ADC and Dumo Lulu-Briggs of the NDC.
In Gombe State, former Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Isa Pantami, has moved to the PDP with the backing of the Rainbow Coalition.
The development is seen as another example of the coalition’s strategy of supporting Tinubu at the national level while opposing APC candidates in state elections.
In Kwara State, the alliance between Wike and former Senate President Bukola Saraki has increased tension within the APC.
The coalition’s activities gained momentum after Senator Saliu Mustapha, who represents Kwara Central and chairs the Senate Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development, left the APC for the PDP.
Mustapha had contested the APC governorship ticket but lost to Speaker Salihu-Yakubu Danladi. He also lost the opportunity to retain his Senate seat on the APC platform after AbdulRazaq emerged as the party’s candidate for Kwara Central.
Following his defection, Mustapha received the PDP senatorial ticket for Kwara Central, setting up a contest against AbdulRazaq in 2027.
Another APC chieftain, Kolo Jiya from Patigi Local Government Area, also joined the PDP and secured the party’s Kwara North senatorial ticket.
Two members of the Kwara State House of Assembly, Olushola Odetundun and Saba Yisa Gideon, representing Irepodun and Edu constituencies respectively, also defected from the APC to the PDP.
The state House of Assembly has declared their seats vacant, while the National Assembly has yet to make a decision on Mustapha’s defection.
The APC’s national leadership and the presidency have not publicly commented on the political developments.
The aggrieved APC members formed the Otoge Progressives (T.O.P.) and launched the Kwara chapter of the National Rainbow Coalition in Ilorin on August 26, 2026.
The group includes former APC aspirants and politicians opposed to AbdulRazaq’s leadership and succession plans. Prominent members associated with the movement include Yahaya Oloriegbe, Kolo Jiya, Yahaya Seriki and Dele Belgore.
The coalition says its members are free to support different parties in state and legislative elections while uniting behind Tinubu at the presidential level.
Former Head of the Department of Political Science at the University of Ilorin, Dr Abdul Kareem Jimoh, said the APC governors had reasons to be concerned.
“The governors are right to be angry because Wike is affecting their own interest,” Jimoh said.
He argued that some politicians within the presidency and the APC leadership appeared more concerned about securing Tinubu’s re-election than protecting the party’s interests at the state level.
Jimoh said the consequences of the coalition’s activities could extend beyond the 2027 elections and affect the APC’s political calculations ahead of 2031.
A lawyer and Chairman of the Nigerian Bar Association, Ilorin branch, Jimoh Mohammed, said Wike was entitled to express his political views.
He, however, questioned why the FCT minister was using the platform of the APC-led federal government while opposing an APC governor.
“There may be political issues, political differences between the two of them,” Mohammed said, adding that the national leadership had not publicly condemned Wike’s actions.
Media practitioner and politician Raheem Adedoyin described the development in Kwara as damaging to the APC.
He accused politicians who defected from the APC to the PDP of using resources and positions acquired through the ruling party to weaken its structures.
“I don’t want to go personal. All I know is that anybody who contested under the platform of the APC ought to relinquish the offices they got through the APC as well and test their popularity in their new party,” he said.
In Cross River State, the coalition is challenging APC candidates, including Governor Bassey Otu.
The PDP has fielded Arthur Jarvis, owner of Arthur Jarvis University and son of former military governor of the state, Brigadier Dan Archibong, as its governorship candidate.
The party also has candidates for the Senate, House of Representatives and House of Assembly elections who are campaigning across the state.
However, the candidates have not publicly declared their position on Tinubu’s presidential bid, creating uncertainty over how coalition supporters will vote.
About 500 APC members recently defected to the PDP in Cross River through the Osopel Support Group, which operates across seven local government areas in the Cross River South Senatorial District.
The group’s leader, Abel Bassey, said the decision was part of a broader political realignment ahead of the 2027 elections.
The developments across the four states have intensified calls for the APC leadership to clarify the coalition’s role and prevent internal disagreements from affecting the party’s electoral prospects.
The central question remains whether the Rainbow Coalition can deliver support for Tinubu while running candidates against the APC in other contests without splitting the party’s votes or confusing the electorate.
