The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, has said he could have helped President Bola Tinubu secure victory for the All Progressives Congress in the August 15 governorship election in Osun State if the President had been determined to win the poll “at all costs.”
The Punch reported that Wike, a member of the Peoples Democratic Party, made the remark on Tuesday while inspecting flood-prone locations in Maitama, Abuja.
According to the former Rivers State governor, the Federal Government deliberately refrained from using its political influence to sway the election in favour of the APC.
He said he would have supported Tinubu if the President had chosen to deploy his political influence to secure an APC victory.
“If the President had wanted to win the Osun State election at all costs, I would have been there, and we would have won it, and there’s nothing the governor can do,” Wike said.
The minister said the outcome of the election showed that the Federal Government did not deploy what he described as its “federal might” to influence the result.
“There was no federal might used in Osun. When you see the force and might of the Federal Government, you will know,” he said.
Wike also suggested that Osun State Governor, Ademola Adeleke, could have been an APC member if political developments had taken a different course.
“Ordinarily, Adeleke would have been with the APC if things had worked out well,” he said.
Adeleke, who contested the election on the platform of the Accord, was declared the winner after securing 511,067 votes across 19 of the state’s 30 local government areas.
His closest challenger, the APC candidate Bola Oyebamiji, polled 444,815 votes, while the ADC candidate, Najeem Salaam, received 17,180 votes.
Despite remaining in the opposition PDP, Wike has continued to support Tinubu and expressed confidence in the President’s prospects ahead of the 2027 presidential election.
He predicted that Tinubu would face a less challenging contest in 2027 than he did in 2023, attributing this to what he described as the weakened condition of opposition parties.
“The 2027 elections will be the easier one for the President compared to 2023,” he said.
“This time around, the opposition has been crippled, homeless, no feather,” Wike added.
