Rainbow without colours: Wike’s Rivers coalition faces inclusion test

DENNIS NAKU writes on the growing cracks within the FCT minister Nyesom Wike-backed Rainbow Coalition in Rivers State, as complaints over unequal distribution of political tickets, alleged exclusion and competing interests raise questions about the unity and purpose of the alliance ahead of the 2027 general elections

An average student of geography knows that a rainbow is a multi-coloured arc that appears in the sky when sunlight passes through water droplets in the atmosphere. Traditionally, it has seven colours.

Interestingly, the rainbow has assumed a different political meaning in Rivers State, where it has become the name of a coalition of political parties.

The Rainbow Coalition, initiated by the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, is primarily aimed at mobilising support for the re-election of President Bola Tinubu in 2027. The alliance appears to be gaining momentum, with six political parties — the All Progressives Congress, Peoples Democratic Party, All Progressives Grand Alliance, Allied Peoples Movement, Labour Party and Action Alliance — coming together under its platform.

However, the unveiling of the coalition’s candidates in Rivers State on Tuesday, October 27, has raised questions about its inclusiveness, particularly as the ruling APC secured the lion’s share of elective positions.

Of the three senatorial seats in the state, the APC got two, while the PDP secured one.

Similarly, the APC produced 10 of the 13 House of Representatives candidates, while the PDP got three. For the 32 State House of Assembly seats, the APC secured 21 tickets and the PDP 11. None of the other four parties in the coalition produced a candidate.

For the governorship election, the other parties that aligned with the coalition were said to have collectively adopted the APC candidate, Kingsley Chinda, alongside his running mate, Major Jack, as their preferred choice.

However, the names of candidates from the other parties, particularly the Labour Party, whose candidates were listed on the Independent National Electoral Commission’s final list for the elections, were not mentioned at the unveiling, despite their reported endorsement of Chinda.

Some political observers in the state described the arrangement as an uneven distribution of political opportunities, with questions emerging over whether the alliance was a genuine coalition or a forced marriage of convenience.

A chieftain of the Labour Party in Rivers State, Favour Reuben, dismissed as unrealistic the promise by the APC governorship candidate, Chinda, to run an inclusive government. Chinda made the pledge after Governor Siminalayi Fubara presented him with the party’s flag as its standard-bearer.

Speaking to journalists in Port Harcourt after the unveiling of the coalition’s candidates, Reuben described such assurances as a familiar political tactic used to win support from unsuspecting followers.

He questioned why the coalition presented flags only to APC and PDP candidates while leaving those from other participating parties with mere promises of future inclusion.

According to him, “It is the language of politicians when they want the support of the people. If you believe in inclusiveness, why not give one Assembly seat to the Labour Party and give them seats in the House of Representatives? If you cannot negotiate before you win, after winning you don’t have a voice because if it is a real coalition, you will say we are giving you three Assembly seats, two reps.

“Don’t wait until you win before you decide what to give. Any promise by politicians that when I win I do this is a lie.”

Reuben also disputed claims that the Labour Party, as an institution, was part of the Rainbow Coalition, arguing that only the party’s state chairman had joined the alliance without the involvement of its wider structure.

“It is the labour union in the form of the Labour Party that joined the coalition. How can you join a coalition without any agreement? How many of the party candidates were there with you? If the Labour Party was in that coalition, you would have seen the cream of the Labour Party, all the local government chairmen, you would have seen all the ward chairmen. As the APC and PDP are mobilising, that is how the Labour Party would have mobilised. So use your tongue to count your teeth,” Reuben stated.

Similarly, the Rivers South-East senatorial candidate of the Action Alliance, Fabeke, rejected his party’s reported decision to join the Rainbow Coalition, accusing its state leadership of taking the decision without consultation and sidelining party members.

In a letter to the party’s state chairman, Fabeke expressed dissatisfaction with what he described as a lack of transparency and disregard for the party’s internal structure. He insisted that he was not consulted, despite being a candidate, before the party reportedly joined the coalition.

He also alleged that some candidates who participated in the party’s primaries and contributed to its growth were secretly removed from the candidates’ list without his knowledge. He said he had personally invested in building the party, from the ward and local government congresses to the state level, including providing financial support to the state secretariat and its leadership.

The development has raised questions about what the other parties stand to gain from an alliance in which only the APC and PDP secured elective tickets in Rivers State ahead of the 2027 elections.

A public affairs analyst, Jackson Ojo, also questioned the inclusiveness of the Rainbow Coalition, particularly how members of participating parties who failed to secure tickets would be accommodated.

While acknowledging that there was nothing inherently wrong with the coalition’s objectives, Ojo said its commitment to fairness should be reflected in the distribution of elective positions to ensure that members of all participating parties had a sense of belonging.

He urged the coalition’s leaders to explain how parties and their members without candidates would benefit, arguing that the pattern of candidate unveiling and flag presentation suggested a one-sided arrangement.

“Rainbow Coalition is not a bad idea because people from different beliefs, from different backgrounds can decide to come together and work together to achieve a particular goal.

“But if you look at what happened at the unveiling, you discover that it is a one-way traffic. All other political parties under the Rainbow Coalition are not beneficiaries. And in a place where you are representing a political party and your political party has no representation, I think it is self-deception.

“It would have been a coalition when each of the political parties had one or two elective officers,” Ojo maintained.

A Professor of Politics and Governance at the Ignatius Ajuru University of Education, Port Harcourt, Kenneth Nweke, said some parties and candidates might have joined the coalition because they believed they had little or no chance of winning elections independently.

Nweke argued that some parties and candidates might have joined the coalition more out of personal political interest than a shared commitment to its objectives.

“It’s all about what each candidate gets from the government when you have a coalition. It’s not about whether your name actually features to win the election. It is whether you are part of the government in the state or part of the government at the centre.

“Then at the time when sharing comes, are you part of those that will be recipients or those that will be rejected? So that’s typically what the Rainbow Coalition politics is all about,” Nweke said.

He added, “So it is about individual interest and not collective interest or a particular political party, because those who are members of these political parties or those who are candidates of these political parties are pursuing their personal interest.”

However, a chieftain of the APC in Rivers State and member of the Rainbow Coalition, Chief Loveday Okere, offered a different perspective, explaining the considerations behind the distribution of tickets.

Quoting the political principle of “who gets what, when and how”, Okere said the FCT Minister had enjoyed considerable goodwill from the ruling party, making the coalition an opportunity for Wike to reciprocate President Tinubu’s gesture by aligning Rivers State with the Federal Government.

He said, “For the first time, a ruling party appointed somebody from the opposition into a key ministry as the FCT Minister. And to God be the glory, the Minister has performed beyond expectations according to Mr President.

“Now, to also reciprocate as one who means well and one who wants his state to queue in, he decided that we shall produce our governor through the platform of the APC so that our governor will always work with the President at the centre to bring the dividends of democracy to the state. That was the calculation,” he revealed.

Explaining why the APC secured most of the tickets, Okere attributed the arrangement partly to the political circumstances surrounding the parties when the decisions were being made.

“If you say why not the PDP for the ticket? Why not the APM? Why not Labour? The answer will be that as at when all these were going on, there was a crisis in the PDP that made PDP to play safe not to submit the candidate.

“The Labour Party may not have the population as at then or they were not present when all these things were decided. So also other political parties. The one with more advantage, very free to get the ticket was the APC. So everybody is aligned,” he said.

On how parties that failed to secure elective tickets would benefit from the coalition, Okere said the arrangement was not a winner-takes-all affair, assuring that participating parties would be considered for appointments after the elections.

“In as much as it is the Rainbow Coalition, what is important is that it is no longer a political party get it and take it all. By 2027, you will see that the majority of these appointments will go to some of these political parties. Because they participated, they are bound to benefit. That is the essence of politicking,” he said.

He also explained that the Allied Peoples Movement joined the coalition after the parties had concluded their primaries.

Further defending the distribution of tickets, Okere said most of those who secured nominations were serving members of the National Assembly and State House of Assembly under the APC and PDP. He likened the situation facing the other parties to “asking a baby who is just crawling why he didn’t win a 100 metres race.”