The political rhetoric ahead of the 2027 presidential election took a sharper turn weekend.
This is just as Nyesom Wike, Federal Capital Territory Minister, vowed to keep pressure on former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi.
The duo are the two leading opposition figures challenging President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for the nation’s number one job.
Wike is backing Tinubu’s re-election despite remaining a member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
He said he was not interested in making his political opponents comfortable as the contest gathers momentum.
‘My business is to make them not feel well all day, because they will be having high blood pressure. I guess that is my job, to make them have high blood pressure,’ he said in Abuja.
The minister’s remarks underscored the increasingly combative nature of the 2027 contest, particularly as Atiku and Obi remain central figures in efforts to build an alternative political platform against the ruling party.
Wike, however, questioned the capacity of the opposition to mount a formidable challenge, pointing specifically to the prolonged crisis within the PDP.
He said the party would ordinarily have been regarded as Nigeria’s principal opposition force, but its internal divisions had prevented it from occupying that position effectively.
‘Who is the opposition leader? Ordinarily, it would have been PDP, but because of the crisis we have had, you can’t see a formidable party that you will call the leading opposition party,’ Wike said.
His comments came against the backdrop of his increasingly open support for Tinubu.
The development place Wike at odds with Atiku, who is now seeking the presidency on the platform of the African Democratic Congress.
Obi, who contested the 2023 presidential election on the Labour Party platform, is also positioning himself for another presidential bid in 2027.
Wike said the personal reaction of either politician to his attacks was irrelevant to him.
He argued that political contests were inherently adversarial.
‘When you are having a contest with somebody, your business is not to make him feel well. Your business is to make sure that you beat him thoroughly,’ he said.
The former Rivers State governor has recently intensified his criticism of Atiku, particularly over the former vice-president’s pledge to restore petrol subsidy if elected president.
Wike had described Atiku as ‘confused’ over the promise.
He said that the presidential contest could drive politicians to make whatever promises they believe could secure electoral support.
His rivalry with Obi also predates the current 2027 alignment.
In October 2025, Wike dismissed Obi’s presidential ambition, referring to him as a ‘social media presidential candidate’, in another public attack that drew attention to the growing hostility between the two politicians.
Wike’s latest comments suggest that his role in the 2027 political contest will extend beyond his responsibilities as FCT minister, with the former governor openly positioning himself as a campaigner against opposition presidential contenders.
He said he would not hesitate to intensify his political attacks if he believed Atiku and Obi were already under pressure.
‘In fact, if I knew how they feel now, I would add more crises for them,’ Wike said.
The remark captures how far Wike’s relationship with Atiku has travelled since their 2022 PDP battle and how his once more cordial posture towards Obi has evolved into another front in his political offensive.
As the 2027 contest takes shape, Wike appears determined to remain at the centre of that battle but this time from inside the Tinubu administration and against two politicians with whom he has shared very different chapters of Nigeria’s opposition politics.
Daily Trust reports that the bitterness that has defined Nyesom Wike’s attacks on Atiku Abubakar did not begin with the 2027 presidential contest.
Its roots go back to the bruising Peoples Democratic Party presidential primary of 2022 and the fallout over who would occupy the party’s presidential ticket and running mate slot.
That history now provides context for Wike’s latest declaration that he wants Atiku and Peter Obi to remain politically uncomfortable ahead of the 2027 election.
Wike’s relationship with Atiku had already become strained before the running mate controversy.
At the PDP presidential primary in May 2022, Atiku defeated Wike by 371 votes to 237, ending the Rivers governor’s attempt to secure the party’s presidential nomination.
The bigger rupture followed weeks later.
After emerging as the PDP’s presidential candidate, Atiku selected Delta State Governor Ifeanyi Okowa as his running mate, despite Wike having emerged as a prominent contender for the position.
The decision was particularly damaging to relations because Wike had been Atiku’s closest rival at the presidential primary and was widely regarded within the party as one of its strongest southern politicians.
There was, however, an important distinction.
While the political atmosphere created expectations that Wike could become Atiku’s running mate, Atiku’s camp later rejected claims that he had formally promised Wike the position.
Wike did not accept the outcome quietly.
He and four other PDP governors subsequently formed what became known as the G5 or Integrity Group and demanded the removal of PDP National Chairman Iyorchia Ayu as a condition for supporting Atiku’s presidential campaign.
Their argument was that both the presidential candidate and national chairman should not come from the northern part of the country.
The dispute eventually became irreconcilable.
Wike and the other G5 governors refused to campaign for Atiku, while the PDP’s attempts to reconcile the rival camps failed to end the standoff.
Wike’s position subsequently moved beyond an internal PDP disagreement.
By the 2023 election, he was openly associated with political forces opposed to Atiku’s campaign, while continuing to insist that his principal concern was the emergence of a southern president.
That position ultimately brought him closer to Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who defeated Atiku and Obi in the presidential election and later appointed Wike as FCT minister.
The history with Obi is considerably different.
Unlike the Atiku relationship, there was no comparable 2022 personal rupture between Wike and Obi over a presidential ticket or running mate position.
Obi had been Atiku’s running mate in the 2019 presidential election but left the PDP in 2022 before the party’s presidential primary.
He subsequently joined the Labour Party and became its presidential candidate.
For a period, Wike’s public posture towards Obi was even markedly different from what it is today.
In March 2023, as the presidential campaign entered its final phase, Wike described Obi as the ‘hero’ of the election, arguing that the former Anambra governor’s candidacy contributed to the emergence of a southern president.
The relationship later changed.
Wike increasingly attacked Obi’s political style and the movement surrounding his candidacy.
By October 2025, he was dismissing Obi as a ‘social media presidential candidate’, signalling a much more openly hostile posture towards the former Anambra governor.
That evolution separates the two rivalries.
With Atiku, Wike’s hostility grew out of a direct struggle for power inside the PDP, followed by the decision over the running mate slot and the prolonged G5 crisis.
With Obi, the antagonism developed differently, largely through their competing political positions and Wike’s increasingly critical assessment of Obi’s style and presidential ambitions.
Wike has nevertheless continued to place both men in the same political category as opponents of the Tinubu administration.