The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship candidate in Sokoto State, Abubakar Sokoto, has described the emerging Rainbow Coalition as another chapter in Nigeria’s long history of political alliances and realignments.
Sokoto, in a statement issued in Sokoto on Tuesday, said political coalitions had remained a recurring feature of Nigeria’s electoral history, with parties and political groups often coming together to pursue shared political objectives.
According to him, while the names, personalities, circumstances and goals behind such alliances may change, political realignment remains an established part of the country’s democratic process. 
He cited the 1999 AD-APP joint presidential ticket of Olu Falae and Umaru Shinkafi as one of the notable examples of political cooperation in Nigeria.
He also recalled the Coalition of Progressive Political Parties ahead of the 2015 general elections, as well as the merger involving the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) and All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), which eventually led to the formation of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
“The greatest lesson from these experiences is that political coalitions are about people as much as they are about parties,” he said.
On the latest political realignment, Sokoto noted that the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, had described the Rainbow Coalition as a multi-party platform mobilising support for President Bola Tinubu’s 2027 re-election bid.
He added that Wike had also maintained that the coalition was not an APC structure.
Sokoto said concerns reportedly expressed by some APC governors over the emerging coalition should be viewed within the broader context of Nigeria’s history of political alliances and realignments.
He urged APC governors and other party leaders to adopt what he described as a pragmatic approach to the developing political configuration ahead of the 2027 elections.
The PDP candidate also called on Nigerians to support efforts aimed at ensuring that the 2027 general elections are free, fair and credible.
