Wike Says He Stopped Obi In Rivers, NDC Chair Replies 'Not In Our State'

Nyesom Wike, the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, said openly that he and the defunct G-5 Governors stopped Peter Obi from winning Rivers State in 2023, and the NDC chairman in Rivers, Success Jack, has now replied him plainly: 'Whatever the Minister said, I wish him well, but not in our Rivers State.'

Let us be honest about what Wike actually admitted. A sitting minister boasting that he decided how Rivers people voted is not a small matter, it is a confession dressed as confidence. Success Jack's counter is that the system has changed, that voters will now police their ballots from the polling unit to the INEC portal, and that no security agent will come and kill everybody in one polling unit. I have lived long enough in this country to know that machinery has a way of testing new rules, so I will not clap yet.

What troubles me is the mindset itself. A man who could stand up and claim he stopped millions of people from choosing their own candidate is telling us what he thinks of the voter. In 2027, I hope Rivers people, and indeed all of us, will remind him that the ballot is not a gift from any godfather. Am I the only one who thinks Wike's statement is worse than whatever he did in 2023?