Wike, a prominent figure in the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and a key supporter of President Tinubu, has maintained that the coalition is primarily aimed at securing the President’s re-election. His opponents, however, argue that fielding candidates under different political parties could confuse voters and lead to vote splitting during the elections.
The development has already generated political tension in states including Rivers, Kwara, Gombe and Cross River.
Speaking during a media chat in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Wike accused Imo State Governor and Chairman of the Progressives Governors Forum, Hope Uzodinma, and Kwara State Governor and Chairman of the Nigeria 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 alleged that AbdulRazaq accused him of sponsoring candidates against his preferred choices in Kwara, arguing that the governor should instead appreciate his role in providing a platform for aggrieved APC members who left the party for the PDP rather than joining the anti-Tinubu coalition.
Wike also referenced his strained relationship with Uzodinma, recalling that the Imo governor had previously declined to support him despite the support he had offered.
The minister insisted that his focus remained on securing Tinubu’s re-election and that personal disagreements with APC governors would not distract him.
Sources close to the APC governors said the Rainbow Coalition could create confusion among voters and ultimately reduce Tinubu’s votes.
Sources close to the President also said Tinubu had been informed that the coalition could affect his electoral performance across several states.
The Wike-led coalition has fielded candidates under the PDP for National Assembly elections scheduled to hold alongside the presidential election in 2027. Critics argue that the arrangement could fragment Tinubu’s support base, particularly where coalition members are contesting against APC candidates.
They alleged that some members of the coalition could publicly support Tinubu while privately directing their followers to vote for opposition candidates at other levels.
The development has reportedly unsettled some APC governors, who fear that many voters, particularly in rural areas, may not distinguish between the different parties and could vote along a single party line.
They cited previous elections as examples of how split-ticket voting could affect candidates at different levels.
In the 2023 election in Oyo State, for instance, the PDP-controlled state lost several National Assembly seats while its presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, and other candidates competed against the APC.
A similar pattern was recorded in the South-West in 2003 when the Alliance for Democracy lost five governorship seats and most National Assembly seats in the region while supporting President Olusegun Obasanjo’s re-election bid. The then Lagos State governor, Bola Tinubu, was among the notable survivors.
The sources said the emergence of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar as the presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress, ADC, could further complicate Tinubu’s calculations, particularly in the North-East and North-West.
“This will hurt Tinubu badly, if he does not get maximum votes from North-Central and South-East,” a source said.
The political situation is particularly fluid in Rivers State, where the Rainbow Coalition has members drawn from the PDP, APC, Labour Party and other political platforms.
The group emerged in January 2026 during the political crisis between Wike and Governor Siminalayi Fubara and was initially positioned as a counterweight to Fubara’s political movement.
Following Fubara’s subsequent movement into the APC, Wike intensified efforts to consolidate the coalition ahead of the 2027 elections.
The coalition has reportedly adopted former PDP Minority Leader in the House of Representatives, Kingsley Chinda, as its preferred governorship candidate under the APC.
Chinda’s defection from the PDP to the APC has, however, remained a subject of litigation.
His emergence has also generated discontent among some coalition members, particularly those from the riverine areas who argue that the governorship ticket should have gone to a riverine candidate.
The coalition has selected the Majority Leader of the Rivers State House of Assembly, Major Jack, as Chinda’s running mate.
The arrangement has created another layer of uncertainty, with voters potentially having to choose between Chinda on the APC platform and candidates from other parties who are also members of the coalition.
Dr Jackson Omenazu, Chancellor of the International Society for Social Justice and Human Rights, questioned the clarity of the arrangement.
“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.
He said Rivers voters deserved clarity, credible choices and a coalition built on principles rather than political opportunism.
Similarly, the House of Assembly candidate of the Action Democratic Party, Desmond Stephen, said the arrangement could be an attempt to create voter apathy by making people believe that the election had already been won by the coalition.
“Rivers people are wiser,” he said.
Wike, however, has maintained that candidates backed by the coalition would win the election.
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 arrangement has been interpreted as another example of the coalition’s strategy of supporting Tinubu at the presidential level while challenging APC candidates at the state level.
The coalition has also intensified political activities in Kwara State, where former Senate President Bukola Saraki has aligned with Wike-backed PDP elements and several former APC members.
Senator Saliu Mustapha recently resigned from the APC and joined the PDP after losing the APC governorship primary and subsequently losing his return ticket to Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, who is seeking the Kwara Central senatorial seat.
Mustapha has since secured the PDP ticket for Kwara Central and is expected to challenge AbdulRazaq in 2027.
Another former APC chieftain, Kolo Jiya, also defected to the PDP and secured the party’s ticket for Kwara North.
Two members of the Kwara State House of Assembly, Olushola Odetundun and Saba Yisa Gideon, have also defected from the APC to the PDP.
The Kwara State House of Assembly has declared their seats vacant, while the National Assembly is yet to take a decision on Mustapha’s defection.
The APC aggrieved members have since come together under the banner of Otoge Progressives, launching the Kwara chapter of the National Rainbow Coalition on August 26, 2026.
The coalition allows members of different parties to work towards Tinubu’s re-election while supporting different candidates for other elective positions.
Prominent figures associated with the movement include Yahaya Oloriegbe, Kolo Jiya, Yahaya Seriki and Dele Belgore, among others.
The movement also includes former APC aspirants and members of the G15 group who oppose the political leadership and succession plans of Governor AbdulRazaq.
The immediate past Head of the Department of Political Science at the University of Ilorin, Dr Abdul Kareem Jimoh, said APC governors had reasons to be concerned about Wike’s activities.
“The governors are right to be angry because Wike is affecting their own interest. Wike has collaborators within the presidency and among the party in Abuja and their concern is that so far as the president’s interest has been taken care of, they are less concerned about what will happen to the party at various state levels,” Jimoh said.
He, however, warned that Wike’s political strategy could have consequences beyond 2027.
“The consequences will be on the ruling party APC not today but in 2031, that is when Wike would have probably satisfied Tinubu’s interest and APC will want to pick another candidate and Wike will now become a serious threat and challenge,” he said.
A lawyer, Jimoh Muhammed, said the disagreement between Wike and AbdulRazaq was primarily a political matter.
He said Wike had the right to express his views but questioned the absence of a strong response from the APC leadership.
Media practitioner and politician Raheem Adedoyin, meanwhile, criticised politicians who, after benefiting from the APC platform, later worked against the party.
“Kwara has a sad history of people stepping into offices on the platform of APC where they were exposed to the resources of the party but would later work against the APC,” he said.
Adedoyin described the current arrangement as problematic because, according to him, APC resources could be used to challenge APC candidates.
In Cross River State, the coalition is also challenging APC candidates, including Governor Bassey Otu.
The PDP has fielded Arthur Jarvis as its governorship candidate, alongside candidates for the Senate, House of Representatives and State House of Assembly.
However, uncertainty remains over whether PDP candidates and their supporters are aware of the coalition’s reported plan to support Tinubu at the presidential level.
About 500 APC members recently defected to the PDP in Cross River State under the Osopel Support Group, which has members across seven local government areas of the Cross River South Senatorial District.
The group’s leader, Abel Bassey, said they defected because they considered the PDP “more reliable and humane” than the APC.
Dr Lyon Ebamane, a lecturer at the University of Calabar, said Wike’s attempt to redirect PDP votes to Tinubu could prove difficult.
“I can assure you that the PDP members in this state are all going to vote for PDP during the presidential ballot and that would tantamount to waste of votes,” he said.
Politics Editor of Arise News, Sunna Sambo, also warned that the coalition could hurt Tinubu’s chances in 2027.
Sambo said the APC should be cautious because voters might struggle to reconcile different parties contesting state and federal elections while being asked to support the same coalition.
“The governors in the APC are already advising President Tinubu to be cautious of this coalition that Nyesom Wike is trying to put because they are afraid that on election day, not many people will be able to decipher between voting for President APC, and then voting for governors PDP, and then maybe voting for some other party,” he said.
He also pointed to the reception received by opposition figures, including Peter Obi and Rabiu Kwankwaso, during recent visits to Port Harcourt as evidence that Rivers voters could defy political calculations.
Sambo said the state’s cosmopolitan nature meant that voters could not simply be assumed to follow the instructions of political leaders.
Wike, however, has remained confident in his strategy.
Speaking with journalists in Abuja during an inspection of ongoing projects, he said the coalition was firmly committed to Tinubu’s re-election.
He also described Osun State Governor Ademola Adeleke as a member of the coalition who was supporting the President.
“Adeleke was a member of the PDP, but because of the internal wranglings, and for him to be able to secure a ticket to run for a second term, he had to find a platform,” Wike said.
He added, “In the next few weeks, watch what is going to happen. You will see the Rainbow Coalition in this country supporting Mr President.”
Wike also said his objective was to weaken opposition figures ahead of the election.
“My business is to make them not to feel well. It is not my wish that they should feel well. My business is to make sure that you beat him thoroughly and he will be sick all through. And that is what we are doing to them,” he said.
He further dismissed the existence of a dominant opposition force, saying, “When you say we are leading opposition, I have told you there is no opposition. What do you have? People who are just trying to see whether they can be relevant.”
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