State chapters of the All Progressives Congress have turned their backs on the Rainbow Coalition being pushed by Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, with party leaders telling him to properly join the APC if he truly wants to back President Bola Tinubu’s 2027 re-election.
The backlash, reported by The Punch, followed a fresh clash between Wike and some APC governors over the political structure he is assembling ahead of the next general election.
Wike, still a Peoples Democratic Party member, sits in the APC-led Federal Government after President Tinubu appointed him FCT minister following the 2023 election.
He has kept his PDP membership and once chased the party’s presidential ticket, yet continues to declare support for Tinubu — a contradiction that has fuelled debate in political circles.
Some APC state chapters reportedly welcomed his backing and signalled they would take him in if he defected. Others rejected the Rainbow Coalition outright, arguing it makes no sense for a politician to back the APC presidential candidate while supporting other parties’ candidates in governorship and legislative races.
The rift has laid bare divisions within the President’s camp over how support for his 2027 bid should be coordinated and who should control the mobilisation structures.
Plateau State APC Chairman Rufus Bature said the party knew nothing about any Rainbow Coalition structure in his state.
He revealed that the matter was condemned at a retreat in Maiduguri he attended with the APC National Chairman and other members of the National Working Committee.
“Nobody should go and do anything like Rainbow Coalition,” he warned, adding that if it works in Rivers, that is that state’s problem.
Bature said Wike is free to join the APC, noting the party does not shut its doors to anyone, but insisted Wike cannot belong to both the APC and the PDP at once.
He also hinted that the coalition may be part of Wike’s long-term calculation, possibly a structure for 2031 or 2035.
Asked whether the coalition could threaten the APC, Bature admitted it might, but said the party is not taking it lightly.
On the retreat in Maiduguri, Bature said, “We don’t know anything about Rainbow Coalition in Plateau State. I’m just coming from a retreat in Maiduguri with the APC National Chairman and other members of the National Working Committee and Rainbow Coalition was condemned totally for every state.”