Atiku: Why I didn’t pick Wike as running mate in 2023 election

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate in the 2023 election, Atiku Abubakar, has disclosed why he didn’t pick the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, as his running mate in the poll.

There were speculations that Atiku, a former vice president, would pick Wike, the immediate past governor of Rivers State, as the PDP vice presidential candidate in the 2023 election.

Atiku, to the surprise of many Nigerians, picked former Delta State Governor Ifeanyi Okowa as his running mate in the 2023 general election.

Many observers also believed the decision played a role in the leadership crisis that has since been rocking the PDP.

There were speculations that the decision not to pick Wike, who vied for the PDP presidential ticket but lost to Atiku, contributed to the vice president’s loss in the 2023 election, as the former governor led five other PDP governors to rebel against the party’s choice.

Wike later boasted about working against Atiku and delivering Rivers State for the winner of the 2023 presidential election, President Bola Tinubu.

However, speaking in a yet-to-be-aired interview for a television show, Untold Stories, scheduled for broadcast on Wednesday, March 26, Atiku said he had no regrets for not picking Wike as his running mate.

Atiku recalled that he was accused of failing to consult widely when he picked former Anambra State Governor Peter Obi as his running mate in 2019.

Atiku said: “In 2019, when I won the ticket in Port Harcourt, I came back here and then went straight to Abeokuta to meet my boss, President Obasanjo, and told him, ‘Mr. President, I have got the ticket.’ So he asked me, he said, ‘Okay, from where is your running mate going to come from?’ I said, of course, it’s either South-East or South-West.

“He said, ‘No, leave South-West because I was there for eight years. Go to the South-East.’ I said, ‘Okay, sir’.”

The former vice president disclosed that when he asked Obasanjo for a nomination, the former president suggested the current Director General of the World Trade Organization (WTO), Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, who had previously served as Nigeria’s Minister of Finance.

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He added: “So I told him Ngozi was not a member of our party. I believe if I forward the name to the party, they will reject it. He said, ‘Okay. What about Soludo?’ I said Soludo too was not a member of our party, so they will not accept.

“And he said, ‘What about Peter Obi?’ I said Peter Obi is a member of the party. So that was it. So I came back here in this very same building, very same room, and it was a morning meeting of the party leaders – Uche Secondus and others, including Wike himself and Tambuwal. I remember there were about seven of them. I said, ‘Look, I have been to my boss, and this is what he said. Do you have any objection? You are leaders of the party and also leaders of the governors’ forum.’”

Atiku said after they assured him that they had no objection, he asked them to announce Obi as his running mate.

Atiku stated that he later came under criticism for supposedly failing to consult widely.

He said: “They said I did not consult with the party enough. So in 2023, I threw the whole thing to the party. I said, ‘Okay, set up a committee and recommend three people for me to pick as running mate.’

“The committee submitted three names – Ifeanyi Okowa as the first choice, Wike as the second, and then-Akwa Ibom State Governor Udom Emmanuel as the third.

“So I picked number one.”

Atiku disclosed that his decision not to pick Wike was because the FCT Minister was the second choice on the list.

The Star