Despite appeals from the elders of the oil-drilling Rivers State to retract his comment to the former governor, Peter Odili, the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, has insisted that he doesn’t owe the elder statesman any apology over his response to the former governor’s allegations on who has turned the state to its private estate.
Wike, who boasted that his comments were based on verifiable facts and not on rumour, challenged the former governor to a public debate or publication on who has over the years cornered every opportunity in the state to himself.
The minister stated that rather than Rivers State elders requesting for his public apology to Odili, they should have cautioned the former governor after making a injurious allegations against him which were untrue.
He noted that the elders demanding for his apology should have directed Odili to take back his comments alleging that he was trying to convert Rivers State to personal estate and mediate as an elder statesman on face-off between him and the State Governor, Siminalayi Fubara.
Wike’s response came after he criticized Odili, who accused him of attempting to turn the state into the latter’s private estate, saying an elder statesman should not be a trader and a sycophant all the time.
The FCT minister, who vowed not to take back his words during a luncheon in Port Harcourt attended by stakeholders from the All Progressive Congress and People Democracy Party on Friday, noted that he will never back down for being outspoken.
He said, “I should apologize, for what? I never said anything. Maybe they don’t understand English, that’s why they could not pass through Stella Maris College. An elder statesman who speaks from both sides of his mouth, saying one thing today and another tomorrow, is not someone I’ll apologize to. I said our elder statesman was the one telling people the kind of mansion and castle I built. I didn’t say I said so.”
“I never said so. I paid money for Rivers people to be medical doctors. I am trying to make Rivers State the medical hub of South-South Nigeria. How did I now come to convert Rivers State into a personal estate?” Wike questioned. “I am the best governor that Rivers State has ever produced. How did I convert Rivers State as my estate? And people will not answer simple questions,” he added.
The feud between the two former governors started when Odili, during an event in Port Harcourt on December 28, commended the state governor, Siminalayi Fubara, for preventing Wike from turning the state into the latter’s private estate.
According to his words, “It is now over 12 months, since the 25th October 2023, when a fierce existential fight, though unnecessary, was waged against Governor Fubara over the soul of Rivers State.”
The statement seems to have triggered the FCT minister, causing division among the state’s political members on who to support, with Wike replying with every chance he gets.
Responding to the two-time Rivers governor earlier, Wike said, “It was painful that Odili, out of political sycophancy, has forgotten all that he said in the past, adding that; ‘All of you here remember when I was governor, this same Odili praised me to high heaven. In fact, he said then that all past governors in Rivers State combined did not do better than me.’
‘In 2007, after he left office, he couldn’t come near power in the State because Amaechi was the governor then. He was gone!’ ‘Between him and myself, who has turned Rivers State to his personal estate? His wife is a Chairman of Governing Council, his daughter is a commissioner, his other daughter is a judge, and he is the general overseer. Who has now turned Rivers State to his private estate? I am sure if care is not taken, if there is a chance, he can even arrange a marriage for the governor.”
