From Local Government Chairman to Abuja’s Most Controversial Minister, and Now Architect of a Rainbow Coalition That Is Rattling the Political Establishment
There is something happening around Nyesom Ezenwo Wike that deserves more than the usual Nigerian political gossip.
Something bigger is taking shape.
And judging from the increasingly public reaction of some governors, particularly within the APC, they have noticed it too.
The man is building a political machine that does not fit neatly inside any political party.
He calls it the Rainbow Coalition.
And whether it ultimately succeeds or collapses under the contradictions inherent in Nigerian politics, one thing is becoming obvious:
Wike has got their attention.
ENTER THE RAINBOW COALITION
What began essentially as a Rivers political arrangement has started acquiring national implications.
In Rivers State, Wike’s Rainbow Coalition brought together political actors associated with parties that ordinarily fight one another — PDP, APC, Labour Party and Action Alliance.
Wike has publicly said that the coalition will collectively determine the political direction of Rivers State, including the choice of governorship candidate.
But there is an even bigger objective.
The coalition has declared its support for President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s re election in 2027.
Then Wike began speaking about something larger.
A National Rainbow Coalition.
Politicians belonging to different parties, retaining their individual platforms while simultaneously supporting Tinubu for President.
That is where things become politically fascinating.
Because Wike is effectively challenging one of the oldest assumptions in Nigerian politics:
That supporting a presidential candidate automatically requires supporting his political party from top to bottom.
Wike is saying something different.
Tinubu for President?
Yes.
But APC governor?
Not necessarily.
APC senator?
Not necessarily.
APC House of Representatives candidate?
Not necessarily.
Politics, according to Wike, is local.
And therein lies the problem.
NOW THE GOVERNORS ARE GETTING NERVOUS
The APC governors have now publicly drawn a line.
The Progressive Governors Forum declared on September 15 that its members would not support any political arrangement capable of weakening APC candidates at any level.
That declaration did not emerge from nowhere.
The governors understand the implications of what Wike is constructing.
Because imagine this political mathematics.
A PDP structure supports Tinubu for President but retains its PDP governorship candidate.
A Labour Party structure supports Tinubu for President but fights APC for Senate.
Another political bloc supports Tinubu while attempting to remove an APC governor.
Suddenly, the President can potentially accumulate votes across party lines while the governors standing beneath him on the ballot receive no corresponding benefit.
That is political nightmare territory for some governors.
Wike’s response has essentially been:
That is your problem.
His Rainbow Coalition, he insists, exists to mobilise for Tinubu, not to guarantee the political survival of APC governors, senators or other candidates.
And that distinction changes everything.
This is why I believe beneath all the communiqués, party loyalty and carefully worded objections lies something much more basic.
Political self-preservation.
The governors are not merely debating political philosophy.
Some are looking at 2027.
And they are doing their arithmetic.
WIKE HAS CREATED A POLITICAL PARADOX
This is the genius, and potentially the danger, of Wike’s strategy.
He is supporting an APC President without becoming an APC politician.
He is serving in an APC Federal Government while retaining his PDP political identity.
He is assembling politicians from competing parties around one presidential objective without necessarily demanding that they surrender their local ambitions.
That is not a conventional coalition.
It is closer to a powerful political network.
And powerful networks can sometimes become more dangerous to established politicians than political parties themselves.
A party has boundaries.
A network can penetrate every party.
Wike appears to understand this.
Which perhaps explains why he seems remarkably relaxed while others are increasingly running scared and issuing statements.
THE MAN WHO REFUSES TO WHISPER
Wike’s greatest political asset may not even be infrastructure.
It may be his refusal to be intimidated.
Nigeria has produced many powerful politicians.
But relatively few politicians appear to enjoy political warfare as much as Wike.
Attack him and he responds.
Challenge him and he names names.
Corner him and he fights.
He has confronted presidents, governors, party chairmen, presidential candidates and former political allies.
Some battles he has won.
Others he has lost.
But he has demonstrated an extraordinary capacity to remain politically relevant after every confrontation.
He seems almost more comfortable in turbulence than tranquility.
That makes him extremely difficult to predict.
And difficult politicians are dangerous politicians because opponents cannot easily calculate their next move.
LOVE HIM OR LOATHE HIM, IGNORE HIM AT YOUR PERIL
Let nobody misunderstand this article.
This is not canonisation.
Wike is not above criticism.
His politics can be brutally combative.
His influence deserves scrutiny.
His Rainbow Coalition deserves scrutiny.
And any attempt by anybody, Wike included, to accumulate excessive political power should be examined critically in a democracy.
But criticism must never become blindness.
There is a difference between disliking a politician and refusing to recognise genius political ability.
Nyesom Wike understands power.
He understands structure.
He understands patronage.
He understands grassroots mobilisation.
He understands political loyalty.
And, perhaps most importantly, he understands timing.
That combination has taken him from Obio/Akpor Local Government Chairman to Governor of Rivers State, federal minister and now one of the men attempting to redraw Nigeria’s political alliances ahead of 2027.
AND THAT IS WHY THEY ARE WORRIED
The governors can issue communiqués.
Party leaders can complain.
Political opponents can abuse him.
But none of those things answers the fundamental question Wike’s Rainbow Coalition has introduced:
Can Tinubu build a presidential majority bigger than the APC itself?
If the answer is yes, the consequences will travel far beyond Wike.
It would mean politicians could campaign:
Tinubu for President, but somebody else for Governor.
That sentence alone is enough to give some APC governors serious sleepless nights.
Because presidents want votes.
Governors want political control.
And those two interests do not always travel together.
Wike appears to have discovered the space between them.
That is where the Rainbow Coalition lives.
And that is precisely why the governors are pushing back.
HISTORY WILL JUDGE THE REST
Long after today’s political quarrels have disappeared, Wike’s career will ultimately be judged on two separate fronts.
What did he build?
And what political architecture did he leave behind?
On the first question, Rivers State and Abuja provide considerable physical evidence.
On the second, 2027 may provide the answer.
Perhaps the Rainbow Coalition will become an extraordinary political machine.
Perhaps Nigerian party interests will eventually tear it apart.
Politics has a way of humiliating predictions.
But one thing is already beyond dispute.
Nyesom Wike has forced powerful people to pay attention.
He built roads when others gave speeches.
He built bridges when others gave excuses.
And now he is trying to build perhaps the most complicated bridge of his political career, a bridge across Nigeria’s political parties.
Whether that bridge ultimately carries Bola Tinubu comfortably into a second term, rearranges the political fortunes of governors and senators, or collapses beneath the weight of its own contradictions remains to be seen.
But nobody serious about Nigerian politics should dismiss what is happening.
Because Nyesom Ezenwo Wike is no longer merely playing politics inside a political party.
He is experimenting with politics above the parties.
And when governors begin meeting, issuing warnings and publicly distancing themselves from your political structure, you know one thing for certain:
They are worried.
They are watching.
And, in my assessment, some of them are running scared.
By Hon. Chima Nnadi-Oforgu
Duruebube Uzii na Abosi
OBLONG MEDIA GLOBAL INTELLIGENCE
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