Says I still have more to offer come 2027
BY ONYEKACHUKWU IBEZIM – Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, says President Bola Tinubu knows his worth and does not need prompting by anybody to determine how he relates with him on political matters.
According to him, the people calling for his sack from the Federal cabinet do not need to stress themselves because it is within the right of Mr President to do so if he so wishes.
“Don’t bother about people who say ‘sack him’. If my appointor believes that I cannot offer anything again, he has the right; it is not in your place to tell him what to do”, the Minister said
Rounding-up his “Thank You” visit at home in Obio-Akpor Local Government Area of Rivers State on Sunday, Wike also said that President Tinubu has done so much for Rivers people, and the people are ready to fully return the favour in 2027.
This is as he also took a swipe at detractors, urging them to allow him play his politics having made the choice to be a politician and not a Pastor, a trader, a journalist or public commentator
Hear him: said, “I have told everybody that I am not a trader. I have never told anybody that I am a pastor. I never told anybody that I was a public commentator or a journalist. I chose to be a politician. Choose what you want to be in life.”
Going down memory lane, the Minister acknowledged the support from the people of Obio-Akpor LGA, noting that they have not disappointed him since 1999 when the current democratic dispensation kicked off.
Pointedly responding to those politicians and other interest groups demanding that the President dismiss him as a Minister over the protracted political crisis in Rivers State, Wike said there are no sentiments or emotions in politics, adding; “what matters is interest; the interest of the people.”
In his words: “Power is not given but taken”, even as he further boasted: “For the people of Obio/Akpor, we have the power to dictate who becomes a governor in Rivers. There is no sentiment, there is no emotion. Politics is an interest; the interest of your people.
“Power is not given; we struggle for it. After all, if Donald Trump did not have power, would he go to Venezuela to pick a president? He wouldn’t. Because he has power, that’s why he can act.
“So for the people of Obio/Akpor, we have the power to dictate who becomes governor. All these people commenting from the sidelines, ask them if their local government, which produced only 5,000 votes, can challenge one that produced 40 per cent of the votes? Let us see how it will work.
“So, if you like, abuse us, after abusing us, come and look for our votes and we will punish you with the votes.”
Meanwhile, amid the heightened noise around the impeachment notice issued by the Rivers State House of Assembly against Governor Siminalayi Fubara and his deputy, Professor Ngozi Oduh, more facts are emerging that the exercise is never about constitutional breaches as alleged but control, and entrenched governance interest around the FCT Minister and his group of loyalists.
However, with arguments circling around what many political commentators described as “the unmistakable scent of bad faith”, the Rivers Elders and Leaders Forum (RELF) has cautioned that recent development may further undermine governance in the oil-rich State ahead of the 2027 general elections.
