It was widely reported that Governor Nyesom Wike was picked as the Vice Presidential candidate of the People's Democratic Party; however, last minute internal politics among the PDP's ranks saw that the influential governor of Rivers State was dropped while his fellow Niger Deltan governor, Ifeanyi Okowa was officially announced as Atiku's running mate.
Interestingly, the last minute change of plan has been explained by an anonymous source who told the Vanguard Newspaper that some factors which comprise Governor Wike's antecedents, played some role in his being denied the vice presidential position.
According to the unnamed source, Wike's court case against the Federal Government of Nigeria on Value Added Tax (VAT) was considered a demerit on his side due to the fact the vice president is expected to preside over the presidential economic team.
According to the source:
"The candidate has to prove very early enough that he is his own man. The decision for him to pick Okowa was made easy by the fact that he was on the list of those short-listed.
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“There were also pressures from powerful interests who cited Wike’s hard stance on issues of taxation, especially with respect to the Rivers State court case against the Federal Government, on the Value Added Tax.
"Considering the fact that the Vice President will be in charge of the economy, a number of people felt it would be too risky to have someone with Wike’s temperament in charge.
“There is also the issue of legislative liaison. The candidate (Atiku) explained and rightly too Okowa, who was a Senator was better placed to build synergy between legislators and the executive.”
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