Abati To Wike: “Stop Talking Recklessly, Unintelligently, You Have Character Issues

By Charles Igbo

Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Nyesom Wike, has   been asked by Dr. Reuben Abati, to exhibit some, decorum and intelligence when speaking publicly about others.

Dr. Abati, a Lawyer, veteran Journalist, former Presidential Spokesman to former President Goodluck Jonathan, and the anchor, Arise Television’s popular The Morning Show, also asked the Minister to limit his reckless manner of speaking about others, or saying they have no character when, in fact, he is the one who should look inwards at his own character.

Abati spoke  Tuesday on the heels of Wike’s attack on Peter Obi, Presidential Candidate of the Labour Party in the 2023 election who he dismissed as a man without character. Wike also advised Jonathan not to throw his hat into the 2027 Presidential election, and spoke down on former Kaduna State Governor who was also a former FCT Minister, Malam El-Rufai.

Minister Wike spoke during his monthly Media parley with select Journalists from select Media Houses in Abuja.

At the parley, the Minister, noted for his caustic tongue, had derided Obi’s much speculated return to the PDP and dismissed it as a potential disaster.

But Abati is of the opinion that Wike is not in any position to advise the PDP, or determine its destiny since he, Wike, is already in another political party.

He, also, blamed the Media for giving him air time to viciously attack people because of the money he pays, without given his victims same air time to respond. He noted: “If he’s talking about the FCT, yes, fine. But if it is disparaging all the political opponents, the Media has an obligation to give all other persons that have been disparaged a right of reply.”

Abati: “Now he is saying that if Mr Peter Obi comes back to the PDP, the PDP will be destroyed, because Peter Obi doesn’t have the character having condemned PDP as a rotten party to come back to.

“Wike is not in a position to talk about character. Okay, he is not the one to talk about character. In fact, if he talks about character, he should question his own character.

“I don’t know why people have problems with basic intelligence and decorum. He goes on television, and he says, you know, ‘Peter Obi doesn’t have character. Peter Obi left PDP and went to Labor Party, now he’s in ADC’. In fact, it is Wike himself that destroyed the party.

“Yesterday, (Monday), he was talking about Peter Obi. He was talking about President Jonathan. He was talking about Nasir El-Rufai. What gives him that moral high ground to talk recklessly and unintelligently?

“Because the media, what is the media looking for? The media, they are the ones who go to interview him. They are the ones who collect money to put him on the air.

“If he’s talking about the FCT, yes, fine. But if it’s disparaging all other political opponents, the media has an obligation to give all the other persons that have been disparaged a right of reply.

“So, we should not create a situation whereby, for monetary reasons, the Nigerian Media is sucking up to a Minister of the Federal Republic, who, in my view, is overreaching himself.”

For the records, Wike, as Rivers State Governor, had sworn he would never have anything to do with APC, and compared the party to  one suffering from cancer, and PDP to one suffering malaria. He said he would prefer to suffer malaria to suffer from cancer. He has since left malaria and taken refuge with “cancer”.