By Oluwasore Alabi
In Nigerian politics, a resignation can be a headline or a weapon, depending on who announces it first. In Cross River on Saturday, a faction of the Peoples Democratic Party chose the second. Julius Udayi, governorship candidate of the PDP faction led by Kabiru Tanimu Turaki, said the so-called Rainbow Coalition in the state has collapsed.
His evidence was a single departure: the resignation of Venatius Ikem, whom Udayi described as the chairman of the rival faction backed by FCT Minister Nyesom Wike. According to Udayi, Ikem was no ordinary member. He said Wike had assigned him to coordinate his faction’s affairs and promote its candidates across the state. Ikem’s exit, Udayi argued, is therefore a sign that the coalition is losing momentum.
He praised Ikem for what he called the courage to pull out, said he would gladly welcome him into the Turaki fold, and told supporters to stay calm and united while the coalition fades away with its architects. He also repeated a claim that the Turaki faction is the “authentic PDP.” Udayi said he is confident a court judgment will confirm his faction’s candidates as the party’s true flag-bearers for the 2027 elections in Cross River.
Until then, he said, preparations will continue. He added a campaign pledge. If elected, his administration would harness the state’s human and natural resources to promote self-sufficiency, inclusive development and economic prosperity. The reports contain one gap that matters. None of them carries Ikem’s own explanation, or a response from the Wike camp.
The claim that he “repented” of his assignment, and that the coalition has therefore died, is Udayi’s reading of events, delivered by a man who benefits politically from it. Whether Ikem’s departure is a defection, a protest or something else is something only he, or the Wike side, can say. The rivalry is bigger than one state.
The Rainbow Coalition is backed by Wike and has been the source of friction within the ruling All Progressives Congress as well. Vanguard reported in September that APC blocs in Rivers, Kwara, Gombe and Cross River were concerned about the coalition’s multi-party structure, fearing it could complicate President Bola Tinubu’s re-election. Wike has insisted that the coalition exists to mobilise support for Tinubu and has nothing to do with the APC’s candidates in other elections.
In Cross River, the incumbent is the APC’s Governor Bassey Otu, and the PDP also fields other governorship and legislative candidates. That leaves Cross River’s PDP in a familiar bind. Two factions claim the party’s name, each says its candidates are the real ones, and a court has yet to decide. A voter in Calabar or Ogoja who wants to vote PDP cannot yet tell whose ballot logo will count.
The coalition may be collapsing, as Udayi says, or one chairman may simply have changed his mind. What is certain is that the fight over who owns the PDP is far from over, and that the person who will decide it is probably a judge, not a politician.
