Nyesom Wike, Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), has said the five governors who formed the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) G5 deliberately allowed Peter Obi, then presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), to win in parts of the South-South during the 2023 presidential election.
Wike made the disclosure on Monday during an appearance on TVC’s Journalists’ Hangout, explaining that the strategy was adopted to prevent Atiku Abubakar, the PDP presidential candidate at the time, from securing votes in the region.
According to Wike, the G5 governors considered the South-South a stronghold of the PDP and believed Atiku posed a greater political challenge to them.
“When you talk of South-South, I can tell you what happened. How did he (Obi) win? We, in the G5, had our strategy. We said, PDP is stronger in the South-South. And our problem would be Atiku,” he said.
Wike said the group consequently decided that allowing Obi to win some states would deny Atiku votes from the region.
“Therefore, instead of Atiku to take it, let it go to the Labour Party. It was only in Rivers, I said, ‘No, Obi would not win here because if he does, it would send a wrong signal somewhere and people would not understand it.’ And we stopped it,” he said.
He added that the strategy was aimed at weakening Atiku’s performance in the region rather than promoting Obi.
“But we agreed that Atiku is a problem and PDP is strong in the South-South. So, if PDP does not win in the South-South, it is a disappointment to Atiku. An Obi win won’t help him anywhere. We did that,” Wike said.
The minister also attributed Obi’s performance in some states during the 2023 election to several factors, including the campaign against a Muslim-Muslim presidential ticket.
“In 2023, there was this campaign of Christianity, Muslim-Muslim ticket. And it was serious. My own children had this support for Peter Obi,” he said.
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Wike, however, argued that the political circumstances that existed in 2023 had changed ahead of the 2027 election.
“But now, things have changed. There is no more Muslim-Muslim ticket. It doesn’t work anymore because Tinubu has been able to kill it,” he said.
He also claimed that Obi no longer has the level of popular support he enjoyed during the 2023 election.
“What people need now, Obi does not have it and he would never have it. So for 2027, leave it for Tinubu. Come back in 2031,” Wike said.
Wike, a member of the PDP, was appointed FCT Minister by President Bola Tinubu in August 2023 and has since supported the president’s bid for a second term.
His political disagreement with Atiku dates back to the PDP presidential primary in 2022, following Wike’s opposition to the party’s decision to nominate Atiku as its presidential candidate.
Wike had also questioned the decision to produce the party’s presidential candidate from the North while the PDP national chairman at the time was also from the region.
The dispute culminated in the formation of the G5 by Wike and four other PDP governors, who declined to support Atiku’s 2023 presidential campaign.
The group comprised Seyi Makinde of Oyo State, Samuel Ortom of Benue State, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Enugu State and Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia State.
Since then, political relationships within the group have changed, with Makinde subsequently distancing himself from Wike amid disagreements over the FCT minister’s support for Tinubu’s 2027 re-election bid.