Wike's Rivers Coalition Faces Questions About Fairness

An average geography student knows that a rainbow is a multi-coloured arc that shows up in the sky when sunlight hits water droplets. Typically, it has seven colours.

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

The Rainbow Coalition, set up by the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, aims to gather support for the re-election of President Bola Tinubu in 2027. The alliance is building momentum with six parties, the All Progressives Congress, Peoples Democratic Party, All Progressives Grand Alliance, Allied Peoples Movement, Labour Party, and Action Alliance, coming together under this platform.

But the recent unveiling of the coalition’s candidates in Rivers State on Tuesday, October 27, has raised questions about how inclusive it is. The APC secured most of the elective positions, which has led to concerns.

Out of the three senatorial seats in the state, the APC won two, while the PDP got one.

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

For the governorship election, the other parties that joined the coalition reportedly chose the APC candidate, Kingsley Chinda, and his running mate, Major Jack, as their preferred choice.

However, the names of candidates from the other parties, especially the Labour Party, were not mentioned at the unveiling. This was despite their names being on the Independent National Electoral Commission’s final list for the elections and their reported support for Chinda.

Some political observers in Rivers State see this situation as unfair. They question whether the alliance is a real coalition or just a forced marriage of convenience.

Favour Reuben, a leader in the Labour Party in Rivers State, dismissed as unrealistic the APC governorship candidate Chinda’s promise to run an inclusive government. Chinda made this promise after receiving the party’s flag as its candidate from Governor Siminalayi Fubara.

Reuben spoke to journalists in Port Harcourt after the unveiling. He said such promises are typical political tactics to win support from unsuspecting followers.

He questioned why the coalition only presented flags to APC and PDP candidates while other parties were left with only promises of future inclusion.

He said, “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 disagreed with claims that the Labour Party was part of the Rainbow Coalition. He argued that only the party’s state chairman joined the alliance without the broader party’s agreement.

“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, Fabeke, the Rivers South-East senatorial candidate of the Action Alliance, rejected claims that his party joined the Rainbow Coalition. He accused the party leadership of making this decision without consulting party members.

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

He also alleged that some candidates who took part in the party’s primaries were secretly removed from the candidates’ list without his knowledge. He mentioned he invested in building the party at various levels, providing financial support to the state secretariat and its leadership.

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

Public affairs analyst Jackson Ojo also questioned the inclusiveness of the Rainbow Coalition. He wondered how members of participating parties without tickets would fit in.

While he agreed that there is nothing wrong with the coalition’s goals, Ojo said fairness should be shown in how elective positions are distributed. He thinks all parties should feel included.

He urged the coalition’s leaders to explain how parties without candidates would benefit. He argued that the way candidates were presented suggests 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.

Kenneth Nweke, a Professor of Politics and Governance at Ignatius Ajuru University of Education, Port Harcourt, said some parties and candidates might have joined the coalition because they felt they would not win elections on their own.

Nweke argued that some might have joined the coalition for personal political reasons rather than for a shared commitment to its goals.

“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.”

Chief Loveday Okere, a leader in the APC in Rivers State and a member of the Rainbow Coalition, provided a different view on the distribution of tickets.

He mentioned the political principle of “who gets what, when and how.” Okere said the FCT Minister has enjoyed goodwill from the ruling party. This makes the coalition a chance for Wike to support President Tinubu 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.

Okere explained why the APC got most of the tickets. He said it was partly because of the political circumstances when decisions were 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 did not secure tickets would benefit from the coalition, Okere said this was not a winner-takes-all situation. He assured that other 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 added that the Allied Peoples Movement joined the coalition after the parties finished their primaries.

Defending the distribution of tickets further, Okere said most of the nominated candidates were serving members of the National Assembly and State House of Assembly under the APC and PDP. He compared the situation of the other parties to “asking a baby who is just crawling why he didn’t win a 100 metres race.”