How Atiku, Obi lost to Tinubu in 2023 — Wike

By Omeiza Ajayi

ABUJA — Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Nyesom Wike, has disclosed how he and his political allies worked to undermine the presidential ambition of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and Labour Party candidate Peter Obi in the 2023 election, paving the way for President Bola Tinubu’s victory.

Wike also said he would be among the first politicians to face political victimisation if Atiku, the presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress, ADC, or Obi, candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress, NDC, defeats Tinubu in the 2027 presidential election.

Speaking during a media chat in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, monitored in Abuja on Wednesday, Wike said his open support for Tinubu’s re-election had made him a target of opposition politicians, but insisted that he had no regrets about his position.

“I will be the first politician that I think they will come after. I will be the first politician. I know they will come for my head.

“Each day I sleep, I am thinking about the President’s re-election. When I am eating, I think about the President’s re-election. Everything I am doing now is about the President’s re-election,” he said.

The minister then explained how he and his allies allegedly worked to reduce Atiku’s chances in the 2023 election, particularly in the South-East.

“Forget about all the noise about Obi. We gave it to him — take the South-East,” Wike said.

He explained that the then Governor of Benue State, Samuel Ortom, was central to the strategy because of his reservations about the Muslim-Muslim presidential ticket of the All Progressives Congress, APC.

“We knew his bias, we knew what was going to happen because of the Muslim-Muslim ticket. We wanted to block Atiku, so we said, support Obi. It was a strategy. We wanted to defeat him, yes. And he took it,” Wike said.

The FCT minister maintained that the strategy deprived Atiku of significant support in the South and contributed to his defeat, saying the outcome was largely influenced by internal political calculations within the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.

On his relationship with some governors ahead of the 2027 elections, Wike accused the governors of Kwara and Imo states, AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq and Hope Uzodimma, respectively, of working against him despite political support he claimed to have given them in the past.

Wike said AbdulRazaq had been at the forefront of what he described as a campaign against him, adding that he had personally confronted the Kwara governor.

“Take, for example, Kwara, he has been the one championing this campaign against me everywhere. Yes, I have confronted him too. I don’t talk about what I cannot defend,” he said.

According to Wike, AbdulRazaq had accused him of sponsoring candidates against the governor’s preferred choices in Kwara.

He argued that the governor should instead appreciate his role in providing a political platform for aggrieved APC members who left the party and joined the PDP rather than aligning with the opposition coalition against Tinubu.

Wike also recalled his strained relationship with Uzodimma, saying the Imo governor knew the support he had previously offered him.

“Governor Hope, he knows the support I gave to him,” Wike said.

Despite the disagreements, Wike said his priority remained ensuring Tinubu’s re-election, adding that personal disputes with the governors would not distract him from that objective.

He also maintained that he had never concealed his political intentions and challenged those accusing him of working against APC governors to state what support they had given him in his own political battles.

“Any Nigerian who knows me know that I have never hidden my intention,” he said.

On Tinubu’s prospects in the North in 2027, Wike predicted that the President would secure at least 25 per cent of the votes in every state in the region, while Atiku would fail to cross the 10 per cent threshold in several Southern states.

“There is nowhere in the North that the President will not make 25 per cent. There are so many places in the South that won’t have 10 per cent,” he said.

Wike specifically listed Plateau, Nasarawa, Kwara and Kogi among North-Central states where he predicted victory for Tinubu.

“Let us take North Central. Who will win in Plateau? The President will take Plateau. He will win Nasarawa. He will win Kwara. He will win Kogi,” he said.

The minister also dismissed suggestions that economic hardship would undermine Tinubu’s chances in 2027, arguing that economic difficulties had featured in previous elections without necessarily determining their outcomes.

“Is there any election that had no hunger in Nigeria? Mention one election. Even Buhari’s election, people were talking about insecurity, hunger. Everybody still voted,” he said.

Wike said he had been subjected to intense criticism over his support for Tinubu but remained committed to the President’s re-election.

“I don’t see where anybody in this country today has been called names the way my name has been. I am not bothered about people who say their own thing. My business is, like I said, I am going to support Mr President,” he declared.

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