Governor Umo Eno of Akwa Ibom State has thrown his weight behind the Rainbow Coalition led by Federal Capital Territory Minister Nyesom Wike, saying that he will back any coalition that supports President Bola Tinubu’s re-election bid in the 2027 general elections.
Eno stated this while fielding questions during a media chat on Saturday.
“That Rainbow Coalition is simply saying that we support President Tinubu as the President,” he said. “If I will join and be a member of any coalition — whether it is rainbow, call it any name. Any coalition that the central point is supporting the re-election of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, I am for it.”
The governor said that the relationship between the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Akwa Ibom is “good on the ground”.
Eno, who is seeking re-election on the platform of the APC after his defection from the PDP in June 2025, said the two parties had agreed to support Tinubu, the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, and himself in the 2027 general elections.
“I will work with all of them, and I think we are good on the ground in Akwa Ibom when it comes to PDP-APC relationship,” the governor said.
“We have agreed on the fact that we are supporting the President, we are supporting the Senate President, we are supporting the governor, and we have our clear understanding about those things.”
The Rainbow Coalition is spearheaded by Wike to galvanise support for the re-election bid of President Tinubu in 2027.
But the coalition has faced opposition from leaders of the APC.
In October, 2026, Imo State Governor Hope Uzodimma said that the Rainbow Coalition has no presence in the state.
Speaking during the distribution of campaign vehicles under the PBAT Door-to-Door Movement in the state, Uzodimma insisted that the APC would secure victory in the 2027 elections through organic votes.
The governor maintained that the APC was the only recognised political party in the state and urged supporters to vote for the party’s candidates across all levels in the 2027 general elections.
Similarly, Zamfara State Governor Dauda Lawal told the minister to make his political position clear over his involvement with the coalition, insisting that he cannot simultaneously support the APC and other political parties.
“Our message is very, very clear: be on one side, you can’t be on two sides. If you are in APC, please come out and support the APC, not you are supporting APC here, and you are supporting some other political parties somewhere else,” he said during an interview with Channels Television’s Inside Sources on the sidelines of the 81st United Nations General Assembly in New York in October.
