By Suleiman Anyalewechi
The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory FCT, Nyesom Wike, on Thursday, June 5, 2025, hailed President Bola Tinubu as a bold and courageous leader who dared where others before him quivered.
This is as the Ooni of Ife, Oba Enitan Ogunwusi described Wike, as a political enigma that deserves to be studied by academics and research scholars
At the 2025 Obafemi Awolowo University, OAU, Distinguished Personality Lecture held in Ife, Osun State, Wike, who has been in the eye of the storm for what not a few perceive as his determined quest to kill and bury his political party, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, also waved aside claims of the existence of a cabal within the Tinubu’s cabinet.
According to him, the driving force behind Tinubu’s Presidency is his capacity to take bold and courageous decisions and not the influence of a non-existent cabal
Referencing the removal of petroleum products subsidy, the PDP chieftain and immediate past Governor of Rivers state lauded the President for doing what former Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo, Goodluck Jonathan, and Mohammadu Buhari could not do.
” He ( Tinubu) has shown that he has the courage. Under Tinubu, there is nothing like cabal .This is a President that is truly in charge” Wike stated.
In his key note lecture, the FCT Minister regretted that former leaders of the country could not muster enough courage to remove the parasitic and corruption-ridden petroleum products subsidy, noting that the failure to do so contributed in no small measure to the economic quagmire Nigeria is facing.
He, also, expressed disappointment that past Presidents of the country were not bold enough to unify the foreign exchange regime.
Wike noted that many people unjustly benefitted from the lose subsidy regime at the detriment of the economic wellbeing of the country.
According to him, same people could have still been milking the country had President Tinubu not demonstrated enough political will to end the infamy.
He expressed the optimism that despite the draw- backs of many years, the country can still rediscover itself and, once again, occupy its natural pre-eminence position in Africa, and globally giving the right leadership.
Such new Nigeria, he insisted, will not just fall from heaven, but will require bold, courageous, and focused leadership.
Wike berated critics, and opponents alike calling for his removal as a Minister.
This is just as he maintained that ground rent debtors must fulfill their statutory obligations or have themselves to blame for the consequences.
Meanwhile, the Ooni of Ife, in his address at the occasion noted that it has remained a big puzzle how Wike from the rival PDP has been able to weather the storm in an APC Government.
He urged Nigerian Universities and political science scholars to commence the understanding of the currents that have made it possible for the FCT Minister to hold his own amidst a strange arrangement.
“For your career, I will particularly say that I give a very strong honour to the father of the Nation, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
“You belong to different political parties, yet are able to work together. You are part of this Government.
“It is still a mystery. I don’t even know how it happened. For me, it is something that Universities should be studying, and I mean it.
“It is very important. Hate him, or like him, what will be will be. Wike is a politician to be studied. I don’t know how he has managed to be actively relevant for about 20 years now.
“Though, not everybody will like Wike, but some of us have a lot of respect for him because of his fearlessness ” Ooni stated.
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