Arise Television’s Morning Show anchor, Rufai Oseni, has questioned the political influence claimed by Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, particularly Wike’s assertion that he can help deliver electoral victories for President Bola Tinubu in the 2027 elections.
Oseni raised the issue on Wednesday while discussing the ongoing political disagreements involving Wike and governors elected on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Wike, a member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has declared his support for Tinubu’s re-election despite the PDP’s plans to field candidates in the 2027 governorship and National Assembly elections.
Oseni also challenged politicians’ frequent references to their political “structure” as evidence of their ability to influence election outcomes.
He cited Wike’s 2019 re-election as governor of Rivers State, when the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) suspended the collation of results following disruptions to the electoral process.
INEC subsequently announced that collation and declaration would resume between April 2 and 5, 2019. Wike was eventually declared the winner after the process was completed.
Oseni said:
“When politicians beat their chest that they delivered somebody, it’s a total fallacy.
“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.”
INEC’s official records show that Wike won the 2019 Rivers State governorship election with 886,264 votes, defeating the African Action Congress (AAC) candidate, Biokpomabo Awara, who polled 173,859 votes.
Oseni also referred to reports concerning the 2023 presidential election in Rivers State, questioning the difference between official election results and independent tallies.
He said:
“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,” he said.
He subsequently questioned the nature of the “structure” politicians often cite when discussing their electoral influence.
Oseni further stated:
“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?
“Yes, we can say INEC’s official result, but we’ve also seen shenanigans in the official result.”
Oseni then turned his attention to the 2022 PDP presidential primary, in which Wike contested against former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and other aspirants.
Atiku won the primary with 371 votes, while Wike finished second with 237 votes.
Questioning Wike’s repeated claims about delivering political candidates, Oseni argued that such claims should be considered alongside the actual results recorded in party primaries and elections.
He said:
“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 said.
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