Arise Television’s Morning Show anchor, Rufai Oseni, is no man’s friend. This morning he ruffled Nyesom Wike’s feathers in his characteristic manner of checking the excesses of the politicians.
Rufai was reacting to the FCT Minister’s claims that he could deliver victory in Rivers State for President Ahmed Bola Tinubu in 2027. Wike, who is a member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), is rattling the governors under All Progressives Congress (APC) through his Rainbow Coalition. According to the former governor of Rivers State, most of the governors challenging him were weak and lacked the required influence to win in their states for APC. He claimed he has the “capacity” to win Rivers.
But Rufai appeared to think otherwise. He questioned Wike’s so-called political influence, wondering why he failed to beat Alhaji Atiku Abubakar in the PDP presidential primary election 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”, the journalist said.
Rufai also mentioned that BBC reports contradicted Wike’s claims that he “delivered” victory for Tinubu in 2023.
“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 added.
The so-called “structures” politicians claim they won election based on only worked because INEC is not as independent as it ought to be, Rufai argued.
He also challenged Wike’s political influence on the basis of his (Wike’s) own performance in the 2019 governorship race in Rivers State.
“Like I have said before on this show, Minister Wike, let’s x-ray your 2019 governorship victory,” he began. “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”, Rufai said.
Wike has successfully sat on the fence since 2022 after he failed to secure PDP presidential ticket. He declared war on Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, the then-presidential candidate of the party, and prevailed. Atiku lost.
President Bola Tinubu was later to appoint him Minister of Federal Capital Territory (FCT), the position he has used to consolidate his influence to wage many subsequent successful battles that finally buried PDP in his state and nationally.
He has made it clear that he wasn’t joining APC. The Rainbow Coalition is meant to work for Bola Tinubu’s re-election and to support candidates from other political parties.