2027: Rufai Oseni Questions Wike’s Political Popularity

Arise Television’s Morning Show co-anchor, Rufai Oseni, has openly questioned the political clout of the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, asking why he failed to defeat former Vice President Atiku Abubakar during the 2022 Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential primary election.

Oseni made the observations on Wednesday while evaluating recent public claims by Wike regarding his political weight and capability to secure electoral victories for President Bola Tinubu in the upcoming 2027 presidential contest.

Wike, a PDP leader serving in Tinubu’s cabinet, has drawn significant scrutiny, with several governors on the platform of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) raising concerns about his political manoeuvres ahead of 2027.

Dissecting the Minister’s track record, the broadcast journalist scrutinized the circumstances surrounding Wike’s victory in the 2019 Rivers State governorship election, specifically drawing attention to the extended halt in result compilation.

He also cited an independent investigation by the BBC regarding the 2023 presidential election in Rivers State, which raised serious doubts about the credibility of the official returns.

When politicians beat their chest that they delivered somebody, it’s a total fallacy, Oseni stated. Like I have said before on this show, Minister Wike, let’s x-ray your 2019 governorship victory. Why was the counting of that election stopped midway?

At a point, there was a certain person up there, and the counting of the results stopped, and it took about 22 days before INEC announced the victory in favour of Mr Wike, he noted.

Referencing international media tallies, he added, Based on the BBC’s report, while the official result in the state gave a majority to Bola Tinubu of the ruling All Progressives Congress, our tally suggested that Peter Obi of the Labour Party actually received more votes in the state by a wide margin.

Oseni questioned what political figures truly mean when claiming to possess electoral structures that guarantee victory.

So, what is this strange structure that they say they have that they won based on? What is it? Is it the structure that we can turn INEC around? Is it because INEC is not as independent as an institution as it should be? he asked. Yes, we can say INEC’s official result, but we’ve also seen shenanigans in the official result.

The journalist further contended that self-proclaimed declarations of delivering election victories should not be mistaken for genuine grassroots acceptance. He noted that if Wike possessed the political dominance he frequently touts, he would have secured the PDP ticket in 2022.

So, I keep hearing, ‘I delivered this, I delivered that, I delivered it,’ and it’s as if they say it as if they have the full recognition of the people. If Wike was that popular, why didn’t he win the primaries in the PDP and beat Atiku Abubakar? He didn’t beat Atiku Abubakar in the PDP primaries, and we keep hearing the conversation here. Politicians keep acting as God, Oseni concluded.