Wike refuses to confirm his presidential ambition, says he has election strategy

As presidential hopefuls continue to announce their intentions to join the 2023 presidential race, Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State on Tuesday, February 1, 2022, refused to confirm his presidential ambition.

Speaking on Politics Today, a current affairs programme on Channels Television, Wike dodged a question on whether he has a presidential ambition or not.

The governor, however, did not deny or confirm nursing the ambition to lead Nigeria.

When asked if he was running for president, Wike replied: “When is the time limit within which a person can declare to run or not to run? Is there a particular time limit that you can declare (ambition), so that let it not be said that ‘if you don’t declare tomorrow, you may be late?’”

When the governor was reminded about other aspirants who are already declaring their intention to run, he questioned the anchors about the appropriate place to announce his intention.

“So, if I want to declare to run, I must do it before Channels Television; I will not do it before my people?” He asked.

“I’ve always told people that everybody has their own strategy. If I want to run for election, I have my own strategy. If you want to run for election, you have your own strategy. No doubt, people believe that by my performance, I am likely to run. There is no doubt about the belief of the people. But if I want to run for election, everybody will know that I want to run; I will tell Nigerians that today, I am declaring that I want to run for election.”

Wike further said he works with people, saying before announcing his intention, he will have to sit and review everything with them.

“So, it is when we have sat down and reviewed everything, and we believe that ‘yes, we think we can do this; we think we cannot do that.’ That is the way I operate. I don’t operate in isolation,” he said.

Meanwhile, it’s been reported that the former Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Alhaji Atiku Abubakar is considering Wike as his running mate in the upcoming presidential election.

Although Atiku is yet to formally declare his interest in the 2023 presidential race, Raymond Dokpesi, the head of Atiku’s presidential campaign technical committee, has been urging Nigerians to give the former VP a chance to rule the country.