Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has fired back at FCT Minister Nyesom Wike, declaring that Rivers State voters are “not political slaves” after Wike claimed Atiku would secure less than 10 per cent of the state’s ballots in the 2027 general election.
In a strongly worded statement issued Monday through his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, the African Democratic Congress (ADC) presidential candidate accused Wike of treating Rivers electorate as personal property.
Wike, a former Rivers State governor, made the assertion on Saturday at a luncheon honouring Rainbow Coalition candidates for the 2027 polls, boasting that no candidate outside his coalition would win the state’s governorship election.
But Atiku dismissed the remarks as evidence of “growing panic” within President Bola Tinubu’s camp over the emergence of a formidable opposition coalition under the ADC.
“Rivers votes are not your property. The people of Rivers State are not political slaves,” Atiku’s statement read. “They are intelligent, independent-minded Nigerians who will make their choices based on the realities confronting them and the future they desire for their children.”
He added: “No individual, regardless of influence or access to federal power, can dictate how an entire state will vote.”
Atiku said Wike’s comments were both amusing and disturbing, arguing that Nigerians are far more concerned with soaring living costs, worsening insecurity, and economic hardship than the “political predictions of a minister who appears to have abandoned governance for perpetual electioneering.”