Presidency 2023: Wike flops as Tinubu rejects conditions for alliance at London meeting

Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State may have overshot his relevance, plunging himself into a tight situation as the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in 2023, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, rejected the governors conditions at the London meeting last week for an alliance. Governor Wike, thereafter, ran back for negotiation with the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), former Vice President Atiku Abubakar.

The Rivers State governor was said to have requested that Tinubu and the APC should concede four states to him and his PDP allies during the 2023 general elections. He had given the conditions that APC should not have governorship candidates in Rivers, Oyo, Benue, and Abia states in the 2023 elections.

Tinubu was said to have accepted to concede Rivers State but said he cannot guarantee the three other states of Oyo, Benue and Abia states. These are PDP controlled states.

Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State, Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue State and Governor Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia State been in the camp of Wike who has been threatening the PDP since he lost the party’s presidential ticket and the VP slot.

Wike, however, returned to negotiation with Atiku Abubakar, giving further stiff conditions that Atiku must not serve for more than one tenure, including the immediate resignation of the PDP National Chairman, Iyorchia Ayu, and returning the PDP chairman to the south.

Wike had also held negotiation meeting with Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP), including former President Oluseguyn Obasanjo, while holding meetings in London last week.