Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, has disclosed that the political camp he belonged to deliberately prevented Peter Obi from winning Rivers State in the 2023 presidential election because an Obi victory would have “sent a signal somewhere”.
Wike, who was governor of Rivers State during the election, made the disclosure on Monday while appearing on TVC’s Journalists’ Hangout.
He said the decision formed part of the strategy adopted by the G-5 governors to frustrate the presidential ambition of the Peoples Democratic Party candidate, Atiku Abubakar, during the 2023 election.
According to Wike, the group allowed Obi, who contested on the platform of the Labour Party at the time, to win some South-South states where the PDP had considerable strength, because it considered Atiku and the PDP its principal political challenge.
“We allowed Peter Obi to win South-South in 2023 as our strategy to bring down Atiku,” Wike said.
“Our problem was Atiku. Therefore, instead of Atiku to make it, let it go to the Labour Party. That was our strategy. In Cross River, the same thing. That’s what we did.”
He, however, said Rivers State was an exception because of the political implications the group attached to an Obi victory in the state.
“It was only in Rivers that we said, ‘No, we have a problem here in Rivers. Obi will not win here because if he wins, it sends a signal somewhere. You people may not understand it.’ And we stopped him,” he said.
The G-5 consisted of Wike and the then governors of Oyo, Benue, Abia and Enugu states — Seyi Makinde, Samuel Ortom, Okezie Ikpeazu and Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi. The governors had opposed Atiku's emergence as the PDP's presidential candidate and withheld their support for his campaign.
Wike said the political circumstances surrounding the 2023 election had changed ahead of the 2027 presidential contest.
He questioned Obi's prospects in several South-South states, including Cross River, Akwa Ibom and Delta, asking how the former Anambra State governor would replicate his 2023 performance in the region.
Wike also argued that some of the issues that influenced voting patterns in 2023, including the controversy over the Muslim-Muslim presidential ticket, were no longer as influential.
He further claimed that Obi no longer enjoyed the level of support he had in the South-East during the 2023 election. These are Wike's political assertions; they are not independently established facts.
Wike rejects Uzodinma's Senate presidency ambition
The FCT minister also ruled out supporting Imo State Governor Hope Uzodinma for Senate President in 2027, amid a growing disagreement between the two politicians over political arrangements ahead of the election.
Wike accused Uzodinma, who chairs the Progressive Governors Forum, of using his position to influence the emergence of senators and members of the House of Representatives in furtherance of a reported ambition to lead the Senate.
“Of course, life or death, I will never support Hope Uzodinma to become the Senate President of Nigeria. Everybody knows that. Nobody should ask me questions about it, it is not personal,” Wike said.
He said some politicians who had failed to secure tickets in the APC nomination process had turned to alternative platforms, including the PDP, to contest the 2027 elections.
According to him, lawmakers who emerge through such alternative arrangements would not necessarily be committed to supporting Uzodinma's reported Senate presidency bid.
Wike also accused the Imo governor of creating an internal political crisis and subsequently resorting to what he described as blackmail rather than resolving the problem.
“You cause internal problem for yourself and you do not have the capacity to solve the problem and all you do is to resort to blackmail,” he said.
He further questioned Uzodinma's reported plan to leave the governorship and seek election to the Senate, alleging that the governor was seeking to influence governors to produce lawmakers who would eventually support his ambition.
The dispute is taking place against the backdrop of Wike's Rainbow Coalition, a cross-party political arrangement he has promoted ahead of the 2027 elections.
Wike has said the coalition is primarily aimed at mobilising support for President Bola Tinubu's re-election while allowing politicians to contest other elective positions on their respective party platforms.
Uzodinma, as chairman of the Progressive Governors Forum, has been at the centre of the APC governors' opposition to political arrangements they believe could weaken the party or affect its candidates in the 2027 elections.
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