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The Rivers State governor, Nyesom Wike, has disagreed with those who believed the 2023 general elections were fraught with irregularities.
Wike made his feelings known while speaking at the State banquet he organised in honour of the President-elect, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, on Wednesday, May 3, 2023.
Tinubu, who is in Rivers on the instance of Wike, had earlier in the day commissioned the Rumuokwuta/Rumuola Road Flyover in Port Harcourt.
Speaking at the commissioning, the President-elect hailed the governor for playing an important role in his victory at the February 25 presidential election.
Tinubu thanked Wike for proving himself to be dependable during the presidential election and commended his insistence that power must shift to the southern part of the country even though his party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), picked a northern candidate.
Meanwhile, speaking at the banquet, Wike congratulated the President-elect on his election victory which he said was duly earned.
It'd be recalled that the two main opposition parties, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the Labour Party have approached the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal (PEPT) seeking the nullification of Tinubu's victory over claims that the process that produced him wasn't transparent and credible.
The parties also accused the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) of reneging on its promise to upload the presidential election results on its results viewing portal in real time which they said marred the entire process.
But, Wike disagreed with such claims by insisting that the election that produced Tinubu was free, fair and credible.
"Election was rigged? That's unfair," the governor wondered as he questioned the common belief among a section of Nigerians that only elections that are won by the opposition parties that are credible.
Wike said: "It's only in Nigeria where I see if opposition wins election, that election was done well. It's only in Nigeria I have seen that. If as a governor now, I contested for Senate and I lost that election, they will say that election is free and fair. Why? Because a sitting-governor lost.
"We saw governors who lost elections. Bola Tinubu lost Lagos. Presidential election, is it not correct?" The governor asked the rhetorically.
Continuing, Wike said "election was free and fair in Lagos. Was it not free and fair in Lagos because Bola Tinubu lost in Lagos?
"That is the kind of things we do. If I have lost his election in Rivers State, 'but we said it, his own time is over. How do you think Wike would have won.'
"Now that I have won, they said don't worry, he just manipulated. That is just our (Nigerian) own system. Look at states that governors lost election, nobody is talking about it. Those elections were free and fair. Senators lost election, that election was free and fair,' he added.