Rainbow Coalition: Nnamani Faults APC Governors’ Opposition, Backs Wike’s Support For Tinubu

A chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Enugu State, Chief Samson Chukwu Nnamani, has faulted the opposition of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Governors Forum to the Nyesom Wike-led Rainbow Coalition, saying support for President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s 2027 re-election should not be restricted to APC members.

Nnamani, who backed the Rainbow Coalition promoted by the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, said the support for Tinubu should be viewed as a national political project that could cut across party lines and affiliations.

The PDP chieftain was reacting to the position of the Progressive Governors Forum (PGF), chaired by Imo State Governor Hope Uzodimma, which said APC governors would not support any political arrangement capable of undermining President Tinubu’s re-election, weakening the APC or adversely affecting the party’s candidates in the 2027 elections.

Nnamani argued that Wike’s decision to support Tinubu did not require him or other members of the Rainbow Coalition to abandon their political parties, adding that Nigeria’s multiparty democracy allows politicians to make different choices at different levels of an election.

He said the right to express political opinions and associate with others is protected by the 1999 Constitution, as amended, noting that Section 39 guarantees freedom of expression while Section 40 provides for freedom of association, including the right to form or belong to political parties and other associations.

Nnamani further urged APC governors to distinguish between support for a presidential candidate and partisan contests for governorship and legislative seats.

According to him, supporting Tinubu for president does not necessarily mean abandoning another political party or refusing to support its candidates in governorship, Senate, House of Representatives or State House of Assembly elections.

He said the Rainbow Coalition should therefore be regarded principally as a presidential mobilisation platform and not as a merger, defection arrangement or attempt to turn the PDP into an appendage of the APC.

Nnamani noted that Wike had consistently explained that the coalition was established to mobilise support across political parties for Tinubu’s re-election.

Wike had earlier said the Rainbow Coalition was a platform for politicians from other parties who supported Tinubu’s re-election and maintained that it had nothing to do with the APC. He also said the PDP and other political parties remained free to field candidates for governorship and legislative elections in 2027.

Nnamani recalled that Wike and other members of the G5 governors supported Tinubu’s presidential bid in the 2023 election while remaining members of the PDP and participating in other electoral contests under the party’s platform.

He said the development demonstrated that voters and politicians could make independent choices at different levels of an election.

Speaking in defence of Wike, the PDP chieftain said the FCT minister had never presented the Rainbow Coalition as an APC structure or as a mechanism for taking over the ruling party.

He described it instead as a coalition of politicians and supporters from different political parties who had chosen to support Tinubu in the 2027 presidential election.

Nnamani said, “The Rainbow Coalition is not an APC project, neither is it a platform designed to destroy or weaken the APC. It is a broad-based political mobilisation platform for Nigerians and politicians from different political parties who have decided to support President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for the presidency in 2027.

“Those who belong to the coalition do not, by that decision, cease to be members of their political parties. They retain their identities, structures and political interests, particularly at the state and legislative levels.

“Presidential politics is not the same thing as every other contest on the ballot. A person can support Tinubu for president and still support the candidate of his or her party for governor or the National Assembly. That is democracy.”

The development comes amid an intensifying political disagreement between Wike and some APC governors over the Rainbow Coalition and the political strategy surrounding Tinubu’s 2027 re-election campaign.

The APC governors have maintained that they would not endorse political arrangements that could undermine the APC or its candidates, while Wike has continued to insist that his coalition is focused on Tinubu’s presidential bid and is separate from the APC.