Barring any unforeseen circumstance concerning the February 25th, 2023 Presidential election, the Rivers state Governor Nyesom Ezenwo Wike leader of the 5-aggrieved Governors popularly known as G-5, is very fearful about the backlash of his making open declaration on the preferred Presidential candidate his team and loyalist will campaign for. First among his list of fears about his suspension from PDP remains his cohorts in G-5 have Oyo state Engr. Seyi Makinde running for re-election under PDP, Enugu state Governor His Excellency Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi running for Senatorial election in Enugu state while in Rivers State, his worst fears remain his choice of Governorship candidate in Rivers state being Siminialaye Fubara who is contesting as PDP Governorship candidate. Apart from that his loyalists who are contesting for elections as 32 House of assembly candidates, 13-Federal House of Representatives Candidates, 3-Senatorial candidates all will be lost should he be suspended from PDP.
Supporting the PDP Presidential candidate His Excellency Atiku Abubakar the Rivers state Governor sees it as not offering him a chance to make a come back in 2027 when the first tenure of the incoming administration must have elapsed. It is worrisome how Nyesom Wike’s political permutation for 2027 is driving his agitation for not allowing Senator Iyorchia Ayu to continue in office as National Chairman of PDP since certain decisions concerning the control and influence of the Peoples Democratic Party in the next two years being Mid term of the incoming administration will surely affect his ambition to be elected as Presidential candidate of PDP which will meet a brick wall for the second term of that administration.
So, supporting All Progressives Congress-APC Presidential candidate Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu as best option for Nyesom Wike’s 2027 Presidential permutation remains his best bet politically instead of having an Easterner Igbo Presidential candidate His Excellency Peter Obi of Labour Party will surely jeopardize his game plan in the next two years. In any error where come 25th February, 2023 Peter Obi gets elected as President of Federal Republic of Nigeria, it will be difficult for Wike to get home support from South-South and South Eastern Nigeria but supporting a South Westerner in 2023 will offer him a comfortable ground to solicit for support from that geo-political zone in the next two years irrespective of who wins the 2023 presidential election either Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu or His Excellency Atiku Abubakar.
It has been gathered that several meetings being held between Rivers state governor or his proxies with Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s proxies are all targeted on how to support a South-western Presidential candidate in both material resources and other political strategies with the employment of over five Hundred Thousand (5000,000) political Aides who will recruit five voters each in the Polling Units within the 319 electoral wards in Rivers state 23-Local Government Areas. While at an electioneering campaign stump Governor Wike repeated his usual anti-Atiku Abubakar rhetoric by listing candidates in his list who voters should cast their votes for except the PDP Presidential candidate H.E Atiku Abubakar who he alleged had never solicited for his support and that will any anyone support someone who never requested for support in this election? He told supporters of PDP at Grand Bonny island that they should wait for direction on the choice of Presidential candidate they should vote but that all PDP candidates should be surely returned at the polls come 25th February and 11th of March 2023 elections.
Already, the foot soldiers of the Rivers state Governor Nyesom Wike are all in the know about the Governor’s Preferred Presidential candidate of which Ikwerre Local Government Council Chairman, Engr. Samuel Nwanosike Ph.D has been quoted by a section of the Media of having Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu of All Progressives Congress-APC as the one to be voted for by Rivers state loyalists and supporters to the Governor.