…Insists support for president transcends party lines

Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, has defended the emerging Rainbow Coalition mobilising support for President Bola Tinubu’s re-election, dismissing concerns that the initiative could undermine the All Progressives Congress (APC) or create divisions among its governors.

Wike, who spoke during a media parley in Abuja on Tuesday, said the coalition was designed to broaden support for Tinubu ahead of the 2027 presidential election by bringing together APC members and supporters of the president from other political parties.

He maintained that the initiative was not intended to displace the ruling party or weaken its political structure, but to rally Nigerians across party affiliations behind the president’s re-election bid.

The minister, who coordinates the coalition’s activities in Rivers State and the FCT, argued that the president’s electoral fortunes should take precedence over partisan considerations, particularly in states where political interests and alliances differ.

“If you see that word, PBT/APC, it means those who are supporting the president who are not members of the party, together with the party, are working together to achieve that purpose,” Wike said.

According to him, the arrangement recognises that support for Tinubu is not limited to APC members and that people from other political platforms should be allowed to contribute to the president’s re-election campaign.

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

Wike dismissed suggestions that the coalition had unsettled APC governors or could trigger political tensions within the ruling party, insisting that there was no cause for concern.

“I don’t know what concerns there are. As far as I am concerned, there is no problem,” he said.
The former Rivers State governor cited the political arrangements in the FCT as an example of how the coalition could accommodate different interests while pursuing a common objective.

He recalled appealing to political stakeholders in the territory to support Tinubu and APC candidates for the National Assembly while allowing supporters of other parties to make their choices at other levels of the elections.

Wike said such arrangements reflected the political realities in different parts of the country, where local interests might not always align with the affiliations of those supporting the president at the national level.

He argued that political leadership required the ability to persuade people with different loyalties to work towards a shared goal, rather than insist that support for a presidential candidate must come exclusively from members of the candidate’s party.

The minister also rejected suggestions that cross-party support for presidential candidates was unprecedented in Nigeria, noting that political actors had previously backed candidates outside their parties while maintaining separate political interests at the state level.

He said the current arrangement had, however, become more visible and formalised as political actors began organising support for Tinubu across party boundaries ahead of the 2027 election.

Wike maintained that the coalition’s central objective was to secure Tinubu’s re-election, arguing that political differences should not prevent those who support the president from working together.

While Wike insisted that the Rainbow Coalition posed no threat to the APC, its ability to accommodate supporters from rival parties raises questions about how such alliances would operate alongside the ruling party’s formal structures and the competing ambitions of political actors in different states.

The minister urged Nigerians to assess Tinubu’s performance on its merits rather than allow party affiliations to determine their judgment of the president’s administration.