The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, has said that Governor Ademola Adeleke of the Accord Party won the Osun State governorship election because President Bola Tinubu allowed the poll to be free and fair, drawing a sharp reply from the former presidential aspirant Dele Momodu.
Wike spoke on Tuesday while inspecting flood-affected areas in Maitama, Abuja, where he responded to questions on the outcome of the 15 August election.
The Minister dismissed claims that the Federal Government manipulated the poll, arguing that the result itself is the answer.
“The President called him, congratulating him. What does it tell you? If Tinubu did not allow a free and fair election, would they have won? No!” he said.
He pushed back against the suggestion that federal power is routinely deployed in elections, drawing on his own record.
“When you say force of the federal government, ask those who have survived it, though. People like me who survived federal might. It’s not by saying ‘they say, they say.’ It’s not true,” he said.
The Minister went further, saying the ruling party would not have lost had the President chosen to commit himself fully to the contest.
“I would have been there, and we would have won it, and there’s nothing the governor can do,” he said.
He urged observers to distinguish between an off-season governorship poll and a presidential contest, arguing that the outcome of the former should not automatically be read as an indication of what would happen in the latter.
The remarks drew a response from Dele Momodu, a former presidential aspirant of the People’s Democratic Party in the 2023 general election and now a chieftain of the African Democratic Congress.
Reacting on his X handle to a publication headed “Wike: I’d have been in Osun if Tinubu wanted APC victory at all cost,” Momodu wrote: “Osun people would have demystified you mercilessly. Adeleke is not Fubara!! My kobo advice, stop equating yourself to God.”
Momodu had declared his support for the Osun governor on 11 August, notwithstanding his membership of a rival opposition party, and had urged opposition parties to set aside individual interests and align behind him.
“I joined ADC on the basis that prominent members of opposition parties in Nigeria decided to form a broad coalition of forces against the APC cankerworm that has almost destroyed our economy, social cohesion, religious tolerance and democratic institutions and separation of powers,” he said at the time.
The governor, contesting on the platform of the Accord Party, polled 511,067 votes against the All Progressives Congress candidate, Bola Oyebamiji, who scored 444,815, a margin of 66,252 votes. He won 19 of the state’s 30 local government areas, while Oyebamiji took 11.
The governor, contesting on the platform of the Accord Party, polled 511,067 votes against the All Progressives Congress candidate, Bola Oyebamiji, who scored 444,815, a margin of 66,252 votes. He won 19 of the state’s 30 local government areas, while Oyebamiji took 11.
In his first term, the governor, then the PDP candidate, defeated the former governor and current Minister of Marine and Blue Economy, Gboyega Oyetola, in the 2022 election.
The Minister also addressed the recurring flooding in parts of the capital, saying the problem should not be politicised without examining its underlying causes, and that some critics had used the recent episode to attack the administration rather than acknowledge its work in other areas. He said government officials and residents alike had roles to play in preventing flooding.
He rejected the suggestion that poor residents were responsible for the major structural encroachments on waterways and other restricted areas, saying that many of the structures obstructing drainage channels were built by wealthy Nigerians and had stood for years before the current administration.
A former Governor of Rivers State, Wike was a prominent member of the G5 group of PDP governors who opposed the party’s presidential candidate in the 2023 election. Since his appointment as FCT Minister, he has retained his PDP membership while publicly supporting the President and some policies of the administration, maintaining that his support does not amount to abandoning his party.