Wike’s Rivers Coalition Faces Questions on Fairness

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.

In Rivers State, the rainbow has taken on a different meaning in politics. It is now the name of a coalition of political parties.

The Rainbow Coalition, started by Nyesom Wike, the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, aims to gather support for the re-election of President Bola Tinubu in 2027. The coalition seems to be gaining ground with six political parties, the All Progressives Congress, Peoples Democratic Party, All Progressives Grand Alliance, Allied Peoples Movement, Labour Party and Action Alliance, uniting under its banner.

But the unveiling of the coalition’s candidates in Rivers State on Tuesday, October 27, has raised concerns about its inclusiveness. The ruling APC took most of the elective positions.

Of the three senatorial seats in the state, the APC won two, while the PDP took one.

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

For the governorship election, the other parties in the coalition were said to have backed the APC candidate, Kingsley Chinda, and his running mate, Major Jack, as their preferred choice.

However, the unveiling did not mention candidates from the other parties, especially the Labour Party, whose candidates were on the Independent National Electoral Commission’s final list. This was despite reports that they had endorsed Chinda.

Some political observers in Rivers State see this as an unfair distribution of political opportunities. They are questioning whether this alliance is a real coalition or just a forced arrangement.

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

Reuben spoke to journalists in Port Harcourt after the unveiling of the coalition’s candidates. He called such promises a familiar political trick to gain support from unsuspecting followers.

He asked why the coalition only presented flags to APC and PDP candidates while other parties received only promises of 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 challenged claims that the Labour Party was part of the Rainbow Coalition. He said only the party’s state chairman joined the alliance and not the wider party 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?” he asked.

He noted that if the Labour Party was truly in the coalition, key members would have joined. “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, Fabeke, the Rivers South-East senatorial candidate of the Action Alliance, rejected his party’s reported decision to join the Rainbow Coalition. He accused the state leadership of making the decision without consulting party members.

In a letter to the party’s state chairman, Fabeke expressed his dissatisfaction over the lack of transparency and disregard for the party’s internal structure. He insisted he was not consulted before the party reportedly joined the coalition.

He alleged that some candidates who participated in the party’s primaries were quietly removed from the candidates’ list without his knowledge. He said he had personally invested in building the party, providing financial support to the state secretariat and its leadership.

This situation raises questions about what the other parties will gain from an alliance where only the APC and PDP secured political tickets in Rivers State ahead of the 2027 elections.

Public affairs analyst, Jackson Ojo, also questioned the inclusiveness of the Rainbow Coalition. He asked how members of the other parties who failed to secure tickets would be accommodated.

While he recognized that the coalition's goals are not inherently wrong, Ojo said its commitment to fairness should show in how elective positions are shared. He urged the coalition’s leaders to explain how parties and their members without candidates would benefit.

“Rainbow Coalition is not a bad idea because people from different backgrounds can come together to achieve a goal. But at the unveiling, it looked like a one-way traffic. All other political parties under the Rainbow Coalition are not beneficiaries. In a place where your party has no representation, I think it is self-deception,” Ojo maintained.

A Professor of Politics and Governance at Ignatius Ajuru University of Education, Port Harcourt, Kenneth Nweke, said some parties and candidates may have joined the coalition because they feel they have little chance of winning alone.

Nweke argued that some joined out of personal interest rather than a shared commitment to the coalition's goals. “It’s all about what each candidate gets from the government when you have a coalition,” he said.

He also added, “It is about individual interest and not collective interest. Those who are members of these parties are pursuing their personal interest.”

But Chief Loveday Okere, an APC chieftain in Rivers State and member of the Rainbow Coalition, offered a different view. He explained the reasons behind the ticket distribution.

Quoting the principle of “who gets what, when and how”, Okere said Wike has enjoyed goodwill from the ruling party. This coalition is a chance for Wike to align 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, he decided that we shall produce our governor through the platform of the APC so that our governor will always work with the President to bring democracy to the state.”

Okere explained why the APC got most of the tickets. He said it was partly due to the political situation surrounding the parties at that time.

“If you say why not the PDP for the ticket? Why not the APM? Why not Labour? The answer will be that there was a crisis in the PDP that made them play safe and not submit a candidate,” Okere said.

He said the Labour Party may not have had enough population at that time or were not present when decisions were made. “The one with more advantage was the APC. So everybody aligned with them,” he said.

On how parties without tickets would benefit from the coalition, Okere said it was not a winner-takes-all situation. He assured that participating parties would be considered for appointments after the elections.

“As a coalition, it is not a political party getting it all. By 2027, many of these appointments will go to these parties. Because they participated, they will benefit. That is the essence of politicking,” he said.

He also mentioned that the Allied Peoples Movement joined the coalition after the parties had held their primaries. In further defense of the ticket distribution, Okere pointed out that most nominees were serving members of the National Assembly and State House of Assembly under the APC and PDP. He likened the situation of the other parties to “asking a baby who is just crawling why he didn’t win a 100 meters race.”