In a fiery address at Obafemi Awolowo University’s 2025 Distinguished Personality Lecture, FCT Minister Nyesom Wike vowed to aggressively pursue tax defaulters in Nigeria’s capital, declaring: “I will touch you, if the right thing is not done. That is leadership, they didn’t appoint me as minister for a beauty contest.”
The minister’s uncompromising stance came days after his administration sealed the PDP national headquarters and other properties over unpaid ground rents – a move the opposition party called “irresponsible.” Wike dismissed such criticisms, asserting: “Mention one poor man who has a house in Maitama, all are rich men, they don’t want to pay tax, you will pay it. You will pay, if you don’t pay, I will touch you and heaven will not fall, but rather be at peace.”
Delivering his lecture titled ‘Nigeria of our dreams,’ Wike diagnosed the nation’s developmental stagnation as stemming from timid leadership. “Indeed, some of these leaders were ab initio, even reluctant to take on the mantle of leadership,” he observed, lamenting the resulting infrastructure and institutional deficiencies across healthcare, judiciary and the economy.
The former Rivers governor prescribed bold, visionary leadership modeled after Dubai’s transformation under Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid. He praised President Tinubu’s political courage in removing fuel subsidies despite “inevitable, unintended and sometimes orchestrated consequences,” noting how the policy has improved state finances and reduced debt accumulation.
Ooni of Ife Oba Adeyeye Ogunwusi and OAU Vice-Chancellor Professor Simeon Bamire applauded Wike’s track record in public service during their remarks.
The lecture crystallized Wike’s governing philosophy – that transformative leadership requires making tough decisions regardless of political fallout, with tax compliance being his current battleground for restoring fiscal order in Abuja.
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