The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, has strongly dismissed allegations that he manipulated the 2023 presidential election results in the South-South in favour of President Bola Tinubu against Labour Party candidate Peter Obi.
Addressing journalists in Abuja on Wednesday, Wike described the claims as a “baseless narrative” largely driven by social media commentary. The controversy intensified after his earlier remarks on TVC’s Journalists’ Hangout, where he revealed that the G5 group of governors deliberately allowed Obi to win in certain parts of the South-South.
Critics and opposition figures seized on those comments, accusing Wike of confessing to voter manipulation. The minister, however, insisted the outcomes resulted from a calculated political strategy aimed at neutralising a bigger threat, not from illegal interference.
Responding to suggestions that he altered result sheets for Tinubu, Wike asked how one person could single-handedly control 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 said.
He stressed that social media projections often ignore the scale of Nigeria’s electoral system. “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 further noted that opposition parties failed to produce concrete evidence of rigging when they challenged the results in court. “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’?”
Detailing the G5 strategy in the traditionally PDP-dominated South-South, Wike explained that Atiku Abubakar was viewed as the primary threat. To prevent Atiku from sweeping the region, the group channelled support toward Obi in selected areas to split the opposition vote.
“We felt that Atiku was more of a factor in that election than Obi. So our strategy was that, make sure that you vote for Obi to win in order to deny Atiku the votes. 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,” he said.
He downplayed Obi’s national momentum, describing it largely as a social media phenomenon. Even if Obi had taken Rivers State outright, Wike argued, it would not have changed the overall presidential result. “Obi wasn’t a threat. Obi was merely a threat by social media… Assuming Obi won Rivers, add it for him. Would he have won the election?”
Wike maintained that genuine popularity is a prerequisite for any electoral success in Nigeria. “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 urged the public and analysts to prioritise verified facts and the realities of electoral mechanics over online narratives. “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.”
