The Kwara State Publicity Secretary of the Accord Party, Olamilekan Esinrogunjo, has declared that the Rainbow Coalition will fail to make the expected electoral impact in the state, arguing that the alliance is built more around political realignments among elites than a demonstrable transfer of grassroots support.
Esinrogunjo, in a statement on the emerging political alignment ahead of the 2027 elections, said the coalition is faulty, has no governance message and thrives only on personality battles, a development that presents a credibility challenge because of what he described as contradictions in its political positioning.
He particularly questioned the coalition’s decision to combine opposition politics in Kwara with support for President Bola Ahmed Tinubu at the federal level.
According to him, asking voters to reject APC candidates in Kwara while simultaneously mobilising support for the APC presidential candidate creates a political message that cannot sell amongst the electorate.
“You cannot claim to be opposition in Kwara and, at the same time, ask the same people to support the APC at the presidential level. That contradiction is one of the fundamental problems of the Rainbow Coalition,” Esinrogunjo said.
He also dismissed the assumption that the movement of prominent politicians across party lines would automatically translate into votes.
“They can make noise here and there. Politicians can move from one party to another, but votes do not move automatically with them. An alliance of politicians is not necessarily an alliance of voters,” he said.
Esinrogunjo argued that the coalition’s reliance on political heavyweights and former office holders to attract support back to the Saraki dynasty is more noise than impact. According to him, it has no governance or electoral substance and has failed to establish a clear message capable of attracting ordinary voters across Kwara.
He said the central question confronting the coalition was what it actually represented to the electorate.
“What is the Rainbow Coalition offering Kwarans beyond political realignment? Is it an opposition platform, a vehicle for supporting the President, a return to the defeated dynasty or simply an arrangement among politicians seeking new political opportunities?” he queried.
The Accord chieftain further argued that the 2027 election would not be determined solely by defections, endorsements or elite alliances, but by the ability of political platforms to connect with voters, which he said is what the Accord Party is offering from presidential down to state assembly.
“Kwara is not anybody’s political inheritance. The people own their votes, and they will decide who gets their mandate,” Esinrogunjo said.
He maintained that Accord would continue to present itself as the only real opposition platform focused on policy, grassroots engagement and what he described as a “new direction” for the state.
Esinrogunjo urged voters to look beyond the movement of politicians between parties and assess political platforms based on their programmes, candidates, records and capacity to address the challenges confronting the state.
