Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Nyesom Wike declared Monday that he would coordinate President Bola Tinubu’s 2027 re-election effort in the FCT and Rivers State, formalizing an unusual cross-party alliance that brings opposition politicians into the president’s campaign orbit.
At a stakeholders’ meeting of the Rainbow Coalition in Abuja, politicians from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) agreed to work together for Tinubu’s second term.
Several PDP National Assembly candidates publicly backed their APC counterparts, a sign of the alliance’s reach beyond the presidential contest.
Wike, a former Rivers State governor who remains a PDP member while serving in the APC-led federal government, said the coalition would rally behind Tinubu as well as APC candidates for Senate and House of Representatives seats in the FCT.
“For the presidency, all of us have agreed that it is Bola Ahmed Tinubu,” he said.
“I am going to coordinate the FCT and Rivers State”, Wike added.
He cast himself as the campaign’s operational leader in the capital: “I am in charge of the FCT election. I am the commander of field operations as far as the FCT election is concerned”, the minister stated.
The meeting drew party chairmen, serving and former senators, National Assembly candidates, and political leaders from the FCT’s six area councils.
Wike urged participants to subordinate partisan labels to the shared presidential objective.
“For the purpose of this election, we are together,” he said.
The minister sought to contain the political fallout by saying the arrangement is principally aimed at the presidential election, leaving individual parties to decide their positions in other races.
That distinction has become a flash point: APC governors have criticized the Rainbow Coalition as a parallel structure that could weaken the ruling party, while Wike has insisted it is a pro-Tinubu platform rather than an APC organ.
He pointed to Edo State’s 2024 governorship election as evidence that cooperation among APC and PDP interests can determine outcomes, saying the alliance helped prevent the incumbent governor from installing a successor.
Wike framed Tinubu’s re-election bid around infrastructure and institutional changes in the FCT, challenging critics to name an area council that had not benefited from projects under the administration.
He cited the creation of the FCT Civil Service Commission, the appointment of a Head of the Civil Service from within the territory’s workforce, and new Women Affairs and Youth Development secretariats.
He also pointed to road construction and rehabilitation, school renovations, police stations, and other public facilities as evidence of federal investment in the capital.
On the economy, Wike acknowledged that the administration’s reforms have imposed hardship but argued that difficult measures were needed to correct long-standing structural problems.
“Changing the economy of a country is not like a prayer,” he said, adding that benefits may take time to materialize.
He also endorsed the proposed creation of state police as a step toward addressing Nigeria’s security challenges.
The declaration sharpens the FCT Minister’s role in the 2027 campaign and tests whether a coalition built across the nation’s partisan divide can deliver votes without fracturing the president’s own party.
