The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Mr Nyesom Wike, has denied allegations that he manipulated the 2023 presidential election in the South-South to favour President Bola Tinubu over Labour Party candidate Peter Obi.
Wike made the clarification in Abuja on Wednesday, describing the allegation as a narrative largely driven by social media.
The minister had recently disclosed that the G5, a group of five Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governors opposed to the party’s presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, adopted a strategy that allowed Obi to win in some South-South states in the 2023 election.
Wike said the strategy was aimed at preventing Atiku from taking advantage of the PDP’s traditional strength in the region. He said Rivers State was treated differently because of its particular political implications.
Responding to allegations that he personally altered election results in favour of Tinubu, Wike questioned how an individual could manipulate results across thousands of polling units.
“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?” he asked.
Wike said social media commentary should not be used as a substitute for verified election results, noting that Nigeria had about 176,000 polling units during the 2023 elections.
“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,” he said.
The minister also questioned whether the allegations of electoral manipulation were substantiated during the legal challenges that followed the 2023 election.
“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’?” he asked.
Explaining the G5’s strategy, Wike said the group considered Atiku a stronger political threat in the South-South because of the PDP’s traditional strength in the region.
“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,” he said.
Wike said the strategy was applied in states such as Edo and Cross River, where the G5 believed allowing Obi to gain votes would reduce Atiku’s advantage.
He said the G5 deliberately prevented Obi from winning Rivers because of the political implications he believed such an outcome would have.
“It was only Rivers I said no; we have a problem here in Rivers. Obi will not win here because if he wins, it sends a signal somewhere they may not understand it,” he said.
Wike maintained that political strategy should not be equated with electoral rigging, arguing that manipulating an election in areas where a political party lacked grassroots support would be difficult.
“When you talk about rigging, you cannot rig an election where you are not popular. You cannot,” he said.
The minister urged political analysts and members of the public to examine electoral processes and verified results rather than draw conclusions from social media commentary.
“We had our strategy, and that strategy worked well for us,” Wike said.
