Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, has said the Rainbow Coalition backing President Bola Tinubu’s re-election bid is intended to expand support for the President across party lines, insisting that the arrangement will not undermine the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Wike stated this during a media parley in Abuja on Tuesday, explaining that the initiative brings together APC members and supporters of Tinubu who belong to other political parties.
He said the coalition was focused on Tinubu’s electoral prospects rather than party divisions, stressing that the APC remained the platform for the President’s re-election.
“If you see that word, PBT/APC, it means those who are supporting the President who are not members of the party, together with the party, are working together to achieve that purpose,” Wike said.
The former Rivers State governor dismissed suggestions that the arrangement had unsettled APC governors or could trigger divisions within the ruling party.
“I don’t know what concerns there are. As far as I am concerned, there is no problem,” he said.
Citinggovernors Babagana Zulum of Borno State and Ademola Adeleke of Osun State among political figures associated with the coalition’s state-level coordination, alongside himself, Wike argued that political realities differed across states and required arrangements that accommodated local interests while pursuing a common national objective.
Using the Federal Capital Territory as an example, Wike said he had appealed to political stakeholders to support Tinubu and APC candidates for the National Assembly while allowing supporters of other parties to make their choices at other levels.
He also rejected the suggestion that cross-party cooperation was entirely new to Nigerian politics, saying politicians had previously supported presidential candidates outside their parties while maintaining separate political interests in their states.
“The major thing is Mr President. Whatever we are going to do, whoever has any idea or anything to contribute is to the success of Mr President. That is the whole thing,” he said.
Wike urged Nigerians to assess Tinubu’s performance on its merits, maintaining that the coalition’s central objective was to secure the President’s re-election and sustain what he described as his achievements.
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