Key Takeaways
- FCT Minister Nyesom Wike dismissed allegations of rigging the 2023 presidential election in the South-South for President Bola Tinubu.
- Wike clarified that his earlier statement about allowing Labour Party's Peter Obi to win was a strategic move, not electoral manipulation.
- The strategy, he explained, aimed to deny the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, Atiku Abubakar, crucial votes in the region.
- He argued that social media projections often misrepresent electoral realities and that rigging is impossible without genuine grassroots popularity.
- Wike challenged critics to provide substantiated evidence of rigging, noting the absence of such during tribunal proceedings.
The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Mr. Nyesom Wike, has strongly refuted claims that he manipulated the 2023 presidential election results in the South-South region to favour President Bola Tinubu over Labour Party candidate, Mr. Peter Obi. Speaking in Abuja on Wednesday, Wike labelled the accusations as a 'baseless narrative propagated primarily on social media', seeking to set the record straight amidst ongoing political discourse.
The controversy ignited following Wike's remarks during an interview on TVC's 'Journalists' Hangout', where he suggested that his G5 group of governors strategically facilitated Obi's victory in the South-South. This statement triggered widespread criticism from political commentators, opposition figures, and the public, many of whom interpreted it as a public admission of voter manipulation and a confession to electoral malpractices.
In his rebuttal, Wike clarified that the election outcomes were not the result of illegal manipulation but rather a product of a 'calculated electoral strategy' designed to neutralise specific political threats. He scoffed at the notion that any single individual could unilaterally dictate results across thousands of polling units, questioning, "People who don't understand, how can they say I rigged the election? How would I have done it? So, I just took the result sheets, wrote it, and gave it to INEC?"
The former Rivers State Governor further emphasised the disconnect between social media projections and the intricate reality of Nigeria's vast voting infrastructure. He highlighted that online trends often fail to capture the complete picture across the nation's 176,000 polling units. "I've always said social media does not win elections. You have about 176,000 polling units, and probably you have seen 300 polling units, and then you rush to the conclusion that so-and-so has won. Election outcomes are not predicted this way," Wike asserted, urging a focus on verifiable data over online speculation.
Wike also pointed out that despite the public outcry and allegations of rigging post-election, opposition parties ultimately failed to substantiate their claims in court. He challenged critics to recall the tribunal proceedings: "You remember that when they went to the tribunal, did anybody tender any result from Rivers to say, 'Look, this is the result; we won?'" This absence of concrete, court-admissible evidence, he implied, undermines the credibility of the rigging allegations.
Detailing the tactical approach adopted in the South-South, a region traditionally considered a stronghold of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Wike explained that the PDP presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, was identified as the primary threat to their political coalition, the G5. To prevent Atiku from securing the region's substantial votes, their strategy involved routing votes toward Peter Obi in specific areas. This move was intended to split the opposition base and significantly suppress Atiku's margin of victory.
"We felt that Atiku was more of a factor in that election than Obi. So our strategy was to make sure that you vote for Obi to win in order to deny Atiku the votes," Wike elaborated. He stressed the strategic imperative: "South-South was purely a PDP state, and so if we had voted for PDP all through, then Atiku would have won. That was a threat." The minister dismissed Obi's broader national surge as largely 'cosmetic', noting that their strategic calculations required focusing on hard numbers rather than online popularity. "Obi wasn't a threat. Obi was merely a threat by social media. Even if Obi had secured Rivers outright, it would not have altered the outcome of the presidential race. Assuming Obi won Rivers, add it for him. Would he have won the election?" he questioned.
Wike concluded by arguing that attempting to manipulate an election without genuine grassroots popularity is an impossible feat in Nigeria's current political landscape. "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 will happen to you. People will resist it," he stated. He urged political analysts and the public to focus on electoral mechanics and verified facts rather than online commentary, reaffirming, "We had our strategy, and that strategy worked well for us. Our major opponent was Atiku Abubakar, and if we didn't do that, something would have happened.\