Nyesom Wike says the Wike children Obi vote in 2023 came from anger at the Muslim Muslim ticket, and claims that issue no longer helps Peter Obi
Nyesom Wike, Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, said on Monday, 21 September 2026, on TVC News’ Journalists’ Hangout that all his children supported Peter Obi, then the Labour Party presidential candidate, in the 2023 election, while President Bola Tinubu’s same faith ticket was still a live campaign issue.
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The remark was a rare personal aside in a longer attack on Peter Obi’s prospects for 2027.
Nyesom Wike, a former governor of Rivers State, said the choice at home was tied to public anger over the All Progressives Congress pairing of two Muslim candidates.
“In 2023, there was a problem with the Muslim-Muslim ticket. There was this campaign about Christianity. All my children supported Peter Obi. But now, they are saying that they never knew this man, Peter Obi, was like this,” he said.
He argued that many voters had been carried along by that religious argument, and that the argument had since lost force.
“There are a lot of people who were carried away, but that is no longer there now. Tinubu has been able to kill the Muslim-Muslim ticket problem,” Nyesom Wike said.
In the same broadcast he put it more sharply still. “Under 2023 there was this campaign of Christianity, there was this campaign of Muslim-Muslim ticket. There was, there was, seriously, seriously. It’s no longer there now. Tinubu has been able to kill that.”
Peter Obi finished third in 2023 behind Bola Tinubu and Atiku Abubakar. He is now the presidential candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress and is preparing another run in 2027.
Nyesom Wike said that later bid would fail. He claimed the South East support that lifted Peter Obi three years ago had thinned out, and that the South South map had changed too.
He said the G5 governors, the PDP state chiefs who opposed Atiku Abubakar in 2023, had allowed Peter Obi to take some South South votes in order to block the PDP candidate. Rivers, he said, was treated differently.
“It was only Rivers that said, ‘No, we have a problem here in Rivers. Obi will not win here because if he wins, he sends a signal somewhere.’ And we stopped it,” Nyesom Wike said.
He asked how Peter Obi would now win Cross River, Akwa Ibom or Delta. He also told the NDC candidate to wait until 2031. “For this election, leave it for Tinubu. Prepare for 2031. And that’s the truth of the matter.”
Peter Obi has not, in the immediate reporting of the broadcast, answered the family claim or the advice to stand down.
The striking admission does two jobs at once. It concedes that the 2023 ticket caused real unease, even inside Nyesom Wike’s house.
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It also tries to close that chapter before 2027, by arguing that President Bola Tinubu has already answered the fear that once sent the minister’s children towards Peter Obi.
