What happens next? Nyesom Wike has convened Rainbow Coalition leaders in Port Harcourt for closed-door talks to choose who will replace Governor Siminalayi Fubara.
Sources at the meeting told DAILY POST that the gathering includes senior figures drawn from across party lines, with allies from the All Progressives Congress, factions of the Peoples Democratic Party and other political actors present. Organisers have kept the session private, conducting consultations away from the public eye.
Insiders said the conversation centres on finding a consensus candidate to carry the coalition’s banner in the Rivers governorship contest, and that the likely pick would come from the All Progressives Congress. Those accounts reflect years of cross-party alignments under the Rainbow Coalition, the platform Wike established to mobilise backing for President Bola Tinubu and to shape leadership choices in Rivers State.
The meeting follows a withdrawal by the incumbent governor, Siminalayi Fubara, from the race, creating an opening the coalition now seeks to fill. Rumours have circulated that the APC candidate Ogundu Kingsley Chinda is Wike’s preferred choice, but Wike told attendees at a public event in Port Harcourt that no final decision has been taken.
The closed-door session pits the coalition’s strategic aim of presenting a single flag-bearer against competing party interests inside the alliance. How those tensions resolve will determine whether the coalition endorses an APC nominee or coalesces around another figure drawn from its cross-party ranks.
The immediate outcome of the Port Harcourt meeting is a potential candidate name and a public signal of who the Rainbow Coalition intends to back. Observers should expect a formal endorsement or further negotiations to follow, once stakeholders report back from the closed discussions.
