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By Oscar Okhifo
The controversy surrounding the proposed Rainbow Coalition ahead of the 2027 elections has intensified, with Minister of Works David Umahi, Zamfara State Governor Dauda Lawal and APC chieftain Farouk Aliyu rejecting aspects of FCT Minister Nyesom Wike’s political activities and his recent criticisms of members of the ruling party.
Umahi, a former governor of Ebonyi State, said on Saturday that there was no Rainbow Coalition in the state, insisting that any political arrangement involving Wike would not form part of his political structure.
“If Wike has candidates here, he has not told me. And his candidate cannot break our relationship, but his candidate is not part of our relationship. There is no Rainbow Coalition in Ebonyi State,” Umahi said.
His position comes amid growing disagreements between Wike and sections of the APC over the coalition, which the FCT minister has promoted as a cross-party platform to mobilise support for President Bola Tinubu’s re-election.
Wike has maintained that the coalition is not an APC structure and that politicians involved in it can support Tinubu for president while backing candidates of their respective parties in governorship and legislative elections.
He has also compared his position with that of the PDP’s G-5 Governors, who opposed the party’s presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, ahead of the 2023 election.
However, the Progressive Governors Forum has rejected political arrangements that could undermine the APC or weaken its candidates in the 2027 elections.
The disagreement has since spread beyond the governors to other influential figures within the ruling party.
Umahi’s latest comments are notable given his long political relationship with Wike. Both men were PDP governors, with Umahi governing Ebonyi and Wike Rivers State.
Their relationship came under strain in December 2019 after Wike jokingly referred to Umahi as “Buhari’s man” at a gathering in Port Harcourt. Umahi reportedly reacted angrily, drawing attention to Wike’s own photographs with then-President Muhammadu Buhari.
The relationship became more politically strained in 2020 when Umahi defected from the PDP to the APC.
At the time, Umahi said he left the PDP because of what he described as the “injustice” against the South-East, including the party’s failure to zone its 2023 presidential ticket to the region.
Wike, who was then Rivers governor and a PDP member, rejected the explanation, accusing Umahi of using the issue of South-East marginalisation to justify his defection. He also said he believed Umahi was interested in becoming president.
Years later, however, Umahi now describes Wike as his “friend and brother”, even as he draws a clear political boundary against the Rainbow Coalition in Ebonyi.
The Works Minister also warned politicians seeking to campaign in the state against inflammatory rhetoric.
“Anybody that wants to campaign, come and campaign. But don’t dish out hate speeches and you want to take those speeches, and you want that we should lay a red carpet for you. We will not do that,” he said.
“Nobody can foment crisis in Ebonyi State,” Umahi added.
Lawal had earlier challenged Wike to clarify his political allegiance.
The Zamfara governor, speaking in an interview with Channels Television’s Inside Sources on the sidelines of the 81st United Nations General Assembly in New York, said Wike could not simultaneously support the APC and candidates of other political parties.
“Our message is very, very clear: be on one side, you can’t be on two sides,” Lawal said.
“If you are in APC, please come out and support the APC, not you are supporting APC here and you are supporting some other political parties somewhere else.”
Lawal said APC governors would maintain their position and that he would raise Wike’s political status with President Tinubu.
“Let there be a clear line where this guy belongs to. It’s either he is in APC or he is out, simple. So I go with my brothers, the governors,” he said.
Asked whether the governors were effectively asking Wike to join the APC, Lawal replied, “Exactly.”
Lawal’s comments followed Wike’s recent description of some APC governors as “politically lazy” after they opposed his Rainbow Coalition initiative.
Wike has defended his position, saying his support is specifically for Tinubu’s presidential re-election and does not require opposition parties to abandon their candidates in other contests.
Aliyu, a former Minority Leader of the House of Representatives and APC chieftain, also criticised Wike’s description of some APC governors as “419ners” and “lazy”, saying such language was unacceptable.
“We in APC reject this name calling by Wike, calling our governors ‘Lazy, 419,’” Aliyu said during a television interview.
He argued that Wike could not expect APC members to accept the kind of internal political confrontation he previously engaged in within the PDP simply because he now serves in an APC-led administration.
“When Wike was doing that to his party, PDP, that’s his party really, but now this is our own party,” Aliyu said.
“So just because he did it to his party, you think we should condone doing it to our party? No, we will not condone it. Certainly, we will not.”
Aliyu, however, acknowledged Wike’s contribution to the APC’s political fortunes and said there was no opposition to his appointment as FCT minister. He also said he believed Wike had performed well in office.
He called on President Tinubu to intervene and engage Wike and other party leaders, arguing that the disagreements should not be allowed to continue playing out publicly.
The latest developments indicate that the dispute over the Rainbow Coalition has moved beyond a disagreement between Wike and the APC governors.
While Umahi has ruled out the coalition in Ebonyi, Lawal has challenged Wike to clarify his political allegiance and Aliyu has warned against what he described as excessive attacks on APC governors.
Wike, meanwhile, continues to insist that his objective is to secure Tinubu’s re-election and that the Rainbow Coalition is a broad, cross-party platform rather than an alternative APC structure.
His position places him in a politically unusual situation: he remains a PDP member while serving as a minister in an APC-led Federal Government and openly campaigning for Tinubu’s re-election.
The unfolding dispute leaves open the question of whether Wike’s coalition strategy can be accommodated within the competing interests of APC governors and other party stakeholders as the 2027 elections draw closer.