By TUNDE RAHMAN
To some, especially in the opposition camp, it may seem like a brewing political storm, but the brouhaha in Abuja over Nyesom Wike’s Rainbow Coalition and the Progressive Governors Forum’s pushback is not a crisis. It is a sign that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s political architecture for 2027 is active and working.
To fully grasp this, you must understand the President and why many see him as a master strategist.
The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, has been unambiguous. He has not asked to join the All Progressives Congress. He has not asked the APC Governors for an alliance. As a People’s Democratic Party leader serving in an APC government, he is building a Rainbow Coalition – a platform of PDP, APC, and other party members whose sole mandate is to deliver votes for President Tinubu’s re-election.
In Rivers State, the APC itself has endorsed this model, perhaps because Wike controls both APC and PDP structures in the state. The APC in the state has laid bare a convincing premise for its embrace: all politics is local, and the coalition is needed to protect President Tinubu’s votes.
Many may dislike him for his guts, style and the controversies he seems to cultivate, but in my view, the FCT Minister is not weakening the APC. He is broadening Tinubu’s base beyond the APC, into places the APC cannot ordinarily reach the way he will do.
As former Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Chibudom Nwuche, rightly called it, it is a “political masterstroke that is broadening the President’s support base”.
Conversely, the APC governors led by their Chairman, Senator Hope Uzodimma, have also declared that their commitment is “exclusively to all APC candidates”. They emphasised that they would not support any arrangement that undermines President Tinubu’s re-election.
They are right. As party leaders in their states, their job is to protect the APC ticket from Governor to House of Assembly. But they are worried that a coalition that helps President Tinubu at the top but fields PDP candidates against APC candidates at the bottom could confuse voters and put APC candidates in jeopardy.
That is a legitimate organisational concern. It is not anti-Tinubu. It is pro-party discipline. Both are right to want to protect their turfs and galvanise their respective interests. This is where President Tinubu’s genius comes in.
This situation can be aptly described as two legs of one body. The APC Governors are the first leg, the official party structure, delivering the party vote in 31 states. Wike’s Rainbow Coalition is the second leg, the extra-party structure, delivering votes from PDP strongholds, from Rivers to Oyo to parts of the North.
Does it imply the president shouldn’t care less about what fate befalls candidates of the APC at various levels? By no means! As the APC national leader, he should.
But President Tinubu does not need to choose between the APC Governors and Rainbow Coalition. He needs both. In 2023, he won in Rivers without Wike’s coalition structure fully formed as it is at present. In 2027, he will have both the Progressive Governors Forum and the Rainbow Coalition mobilising for him in different territories.
As Bolaji Adebiyi argued in an article in Thisday on Friday, Wike has demonstrated organisational capacity by fielding PDP candidates in 26 of the 28 states where elections will be held in January, even in several states where opposition parties like the African Democratic Congress and Nigeria Democratic Congress cannot field candidates. The essay noted that such an individual cannot be shoved aside. His support is as important and strategic as it was in 2023.
This rift will not hurt President Tinubu as the opposition may expect, because what matters is whether the coalition will deliver votes for the President. In my view, it can. Those hoping the disagreement will cause a political rift in the Villa should perish the thought.
The President is on vacation in France and is expected to broker a truce himself when he returns, because he is the only leader both sides listen to.
This is not a house divided. It is a big tent that allows mutual accommodation.
The APC Governors will run the official campaign. Wike will run the coalition campaign for non-APC voters who love the President and want him re-elected. Both tendencies report to the same Commander-in-Chief.
In the end, the Rainbow Coalition and the Progressive Governors Forum have one overriding mission: the election of President Tinubu for a second term. Both will have one communique and it will be titled “For Tinubu’s Reelection.” This is not brouhaha. It is a winning strategy.
*Rahman is Senior Special Assistant to President Tinubu on Media and Special Duties.
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