Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, has denied allegations that he manipulated the 2023 presidential election in Rivers State to favour Labour Party candidate, Peter Obi, saying the political strategy adopted by the PDP’s G5 governor was aimed at stopping former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar from benefiting from the party’s traditional strength in the South-South.
Wike, who spoke with journalists in Abuja on Wednesday, said his recent comments on the 2023 election had been deliberately misinterpreted, insisting that the G5 had a strategy and that the group’s major concern was Atiku, not Obi.
The FCT minister had stirred controversy in a recent television interview, when he said the G5 strategy involved allowing Obi to win some southern states, in order to deny Atiku the votes he needed to win the presidential election.
Explaining the strategy further, Wike said the South-South was traditionally a PDP stronghold and that the votes from the region could have significantly strengthened Atiku’s position in the election.
“For example, the South-South, actually, was what you would call the PDP state. Being PDP states, it means that if you look at the difference between what the President had and what Atiku had, the difference was about 2 million.”
According to him, the G5 therefore calculated that allowing Obi to take votes in parts of the region would reduce the number of votes available to Atiku.
“Our strategy was that, listen, you vote, make sure that you vote for Obi to win, in order to deny Atiku the votes.”
Wike said the strategy should not be interpreted as evidence that the election was rigged in favour of Obi, arguing that political parties and candidates routinely adopt strategies based on their assessment of their opponents and the strength of their support.
He dismissed the suggestion that he could simply have altered election results to produce an outcome favourable to Obi.
“So, people wouldn’t understand, and be saying, ‘Oh, how would I have done it? I just took the result sheet, I wrote it, and gave it to INEC?’”
He also challenged those who claimed Obi won Rivers State to produce the evidence they relied on, noting that the 2023 presidential election was challenged in court.
“See, I’ve always said, social media does not win elections. You have polling units of about 7,000, and probably you have seen 300 polling units. And then you jump to the conclusion that so-and-so person has won.”
Wike further questioned whether any result from Rivers State was tendered before the election tribunal to establish that Obi had actually won the state.
“You remember that they went to the tribunal? Did anybody tender any result from Rivers State that, ‘Look, this is the result, we won’? Did anybody? It’s unfair. It’s unfortunate there’s nothing we can do.”
He said the G5’s calculations were based on identifying the candidate it considered the biggest threat and taking steps to limit that candidate’s votes.
“Obi wasn’t the threat. Obi was merely a threat by social media or the South-East or the Igbo people; what is the percentage?
“When you are strategizing to win an election, you look at a lot of factors: Who is my threat? If this is my threat, this is a lesser threat, and I know what to do so as to make sure that the vote of my major threat does not increase.”
Wike said Rivers State presented a different political calculation for the group, insisting that the state could not simply be treated in the same way as other parts of the South-South.
He maintained that he had been directly involved in the political calculations surrounding the election and that the G5 had its own strategy, which he said worked.
“We have our strategy in this election, and whether you like it or not, it’s not for us to let the cat out of the bag.”
Wike also rejected the suggestion that an election could simply be rigged in a place where a candidate lacked popular support.
“When you talk about rigging, you cannot rig an election where you are not popular. You cannot! If you try that, then you see what happens; people will resist it.”
He said Atiku remained the principal political concern for the G5 during the election and argued that allowing Obi to gain votes in parts of the South-South was part of the strategy to prevent Atiku from securing the support he needed.
“Our major problem and opponent was Atiku Abubakar and if we didn’t do that, something would have happened.”
Wike said the controversy surrounding his remarks had largely been fuelled by people attempting to interpret the group’s strategy without understanding the calculations behind it.
He added that the outcome of the 2023 election should be discussed using concrete results rather than conclusions drawn from social media activity.
“Assuming Obi won Rivers State, for example, add it for him, would he have won the election? So, people should come out with clear facts not social media issues.”
The Independent National Electoral Commission declared Bola Tinubu the winner of the 2023 presidential election in Rivers, with 231,591 votes, ahead of Obi with 175,071 and Atiku with 88,468 votes.
