The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, has dismissed criticisms of the Rivers State Local Government election by former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and former Anambra State Governor Peter Obi, describing their positions as hypocritical and lacking in moral weight.
Atiku had described the conduct of the poll as a “travesty to the very notion of electoral democracy”, while Obi said it was “rascality taken too far”.
But responding during a media chat on Monday, Wike said both men lacked credibility to comment on the matter.
“Let me take Atiku first. The court stopped the last local government election, right? The government went ahead and conducted the election. The same Atiku hailed the government for disobeying the court order.
“The Federal High Court gave an injunction. The election should not be held. And we thought, as a man who occupied that number two position, all he would have done was to say: we are in a democratic system; it doesn’t matter how the judgment went; the rule of law must be respected.’ But he supported the election taking place,” Wike said.
The minister accused Atiku of ignorance and recalled that, as Vice President, he had failed to understand constitutional powers under a state of emergency.
He said, “Because he was recalcitrant to his boss, he didn’t know that his boss signed the emergency rule in 2004. If he knew, if he was obedient and working along with his boss, he would have known that the President has the power to make regulations as per the governance of the emergency areas. So he was not in tune. He doesn’t know. And like I said, what you don’t know, don’t comment about it.”
He further slammed Atiku’s frequent defection across political parties, saying, “Look at the man. In 1999, he was in the PDP. In 2007, he ran for Action Congress. In 2011, he came back to PDP. In 2015, he went to APC. In 2017, he came back to PDP and became the candidate in 2019 and 2023. Now again, he has left for ADC to seek the presidential ticket. Did they prescribe drugs for presidency for him?”
On Obi, Wike dismissed his description of the poll, saying, “Who can be more rascal than Obi? Obi was governor for eight years. He conducted local government elections two months before leaving office. Doctors were on strike for 13 good months under him. Hospitals were shut down. Are we saying Nigerians are not aware? So what do you mean by ‘rascality’? Who’s more rascal?”
The FCT minister accused both men of playing politics to secure relevance and funding. “The anger is that they are looking for where they will get funding. And that’s no longer going to go to the state. They have no capacity or morals to even talk about it.”
On the performance of the Rivers State Independent Electoral Commission, Wike defended the conduct of the polls, saying they were the most peaceful in recent history.
“For the first time in our history, no gunshot, no violent snatching of ballot boxes, no kidnapping of returning officers. When somebody has done well, say the person has done well. If I have my way, I will recommend the chairman and members to the president at the national level,” the minister said.
The former Rivers governor also dismissed ongoing talks about moves to bring Obi back to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) ahead of 2027.
“To what? Bringing Obi to where? You want to kill the party? Obi, who was abusing the party, saying it is rotten, so the party is now good enough for him? Ambition can make people even go to Satan’s house,” Wike stated.
He warned that such a move would only destroy the PDP’s remaining ideological foundation. “If you want to destroy this party, dare it — bring Obi. There’s no way he will come back just because of ambition. No more ideology, no longer principle.”
