Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, has said former Vice President Atiku Abubakar was considered a bigger political factor than Peter Obi during the 2023 presidential election, explaining that his camp supported Obi in parts of the South-South to deny Atiku votes.
Wike made the disclosure while explaining the electoral strategy adopted by the five aggrieved Peoples Democratic Party governors, popularly known as the G5, during the 2023 presidential contest.
According to him, the strategy was designed around the strength of the PDP in the South-South, which he described as a traditional stronghold of the party.
“I would say that Atiku was more of a factor in that election than Obi. So our strategy was: make sure that you vote for Obi to win in order to deny Atiku the votes,” Wike said.
The former Rivers State governor explained that the group believed allowing the PDP to dominate the South-South would strengthen Atiku, who was the party’s presidential candidate.
“South-South was purely a PDP state, purely PDP state. And so, if you had voted for PDP, then Atiku would have won. And that was a threat. Obi wasn’t a threat,” he said.
Wike had previously explained that the G5 adopted a similar approach in Edo and Cross River, where it considered the PDP strong enough to give Atiku a significant advantage. The group therefore preferred votes in those states to go to Obi rather than to Atiku.
He said Rivers was treated differently because of the political implications of an Obi victory in the state.
“It was only Rivers that said no; we have a problem here in Rivers. Obi will not win here because if he wins, it sends a signal somewhere, people may not understand it,” Wike said in the earlier explanation of the strategy.
The official 2023 presidential election results in Rivers showed Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress winning the state with 231,591 votes, followed by Obi of the Labour Party with 175,071 votes and Atiku with 88,468 votes. Tinubu won 14 of the state’s 23 local government areas, while Obi won five and Atiku four, according to the collated results.
Wike also rejected the argument that social media trends could be used to determine the winner of an election, stressing that presidential election results were based on votes recorded and collated from polling units.
“You see, I’ve always said social media does not win elections. You have polling units, about 7,000, and probably you have seen 300 polling units, and then you run to the conclusion that so-and-so person won,” he said.
He argued that political actors were entitled to develop strategies around their perceived major opponents and did not have to publicly disclose those plans before an election.
“Our major problem, our major opponent, was Atiku Abubakar. And if we didn’t do that, something would have happened,” Wike said.
The minister also challenged claims that Obi won Rivers State in 2023, asking critics to produce the polling-unit or other electoral evidence they presented during the legal proceedings that followed the election.
Wike further maintained that electoral manipulation could not succeed where a candidate lacked genuine support among voters.
“I’ve always told people, you cannot rig an election where you are not popular. You cannot.
If you try that, then you’ll see what will happen. People will resist it,” he said.
His comments come amid renewed debate over the role played by the G5 in the 2023 presidential election and Wike’s political activities at the time. The G5 consisted of Wike and former governors Seyi Makinde of Oyo, Samuel Ortom of Benue, Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia and Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Enugu.
