The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, has launched a scathing attack on former Transportation Minister Rotimi Amaechi, describing his recent comments about joining opposition forces due to “hunger” as an insult to Nigerians. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Amaechi, during his 60th birthday celebration last Friday, had stated he was “hungry” and wouldn’t mind aligning with Atiku Abubakar’s coalition to challenge President Bola Tinubu in 2027. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Wike, responding during a media interaction in Abuja on Monday, dismissed Amaechi’s claims as dishonest and power-driven. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
“I don\u2019t know why a man would choose his 60th birthday to tell lies. It\u2019s unfortunate. Of all times, on your 60th birthday when people are celebrating you?” Wike questioned. The FCT Minister recounted Amaechi’s lengthy political career: “He was (Rivers State) Speaker from 1999 to 2007. He was the most pampered speaker. He became a governor from 2007 to 2015. Eight years as Rivers State House of Assembly Speaker, and eight years as governor, he never talked about hunger.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Wike highlighted Amaechi’s tenure as Transportation Minister (2015-2023), noting: “When he was borrowing money (for projects), he didn\u2019t talk about hunger. Two years after office, he says: ‘I\u2019m in coalition because I\u2019m hungry’. He is only hungry for power and that shows failure on his part.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Minister accused Amaechi of trivializing genuine hardship: “How do you insult Nigerians? How do you trivialise the issue of hunger or poverty? He joined Atiku, and (ex-Kaduna governor Nasir) el-Rufai, all because he is hungry, has he not insulted Nigerians? Just that he can\u2019t stay out of power.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Wike’s remarks escalate the ongoing political tensions between the former allies, framing Amaechi’s opposition move as desperate power-seeking rather than principled politics.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, has launched a scathing attack on former Transportation Minister Rotimi Amaechi, describing his recent comments about joining opposition forces due to “hunger” as an insult to Nigerians. Amaechi, during his 60th birthday celebration last Friday, had stated he was “hungry” and wouldn’t mind aligning with Atiku Abubakar’s coalition to challenge President Bola Tinubu in 2027. Wike, responding during a media interaction in Abuja on Monday, dismissed Amaechi’s claims as dishonest and power-driven. “I don\u2019t know why a man would choose his 60th birthday to tell lies. It\u2019s unfortunate. Of all times, on your 60th birthday when people are celebrating you?” Wike questioned. The FCT Minister recounted Amaechi’s lengthy political career: “He was (Rivers State) Speaker from 1999 to 2007. He was the most pampered speaker. He became a governor from 2007 to 2015. Eight years as Rivers State House of Assembly Speaker, and eight years as governor, he never talked about hunger.” Wike highlighted Amaechi’s tenure as Transportation Minister (2015-2023), noting: “When he was borrowing money (for projects), he didn\u2019t talk about hunger. Two years after office, he says: ‘I\u2019m in coalition because I\u2019m hungry’. He is only hungry for power and that shows failure on his part.” The Minister accused Amaechi of trivializing genuine hardship: “How do you insult Nigerians? How do you trivialise the issue of hunger or poverty? He joined Atiku, and (ex-Kaduna governor Nasir) el-Rufai, all because he is hungry, has he not insulted Nigerians? Just that he can\u2019t stay out of power.” Wike’s remarks escalate the ongoing political tensions between the former allies, framing Amaechi’s opposition move as desperate power-seeking rather than principled politics.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":23821,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[50],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25526","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fctnewsgazette.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25526","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fctnewsgazette.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fctnewsgazette.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fctnewsgazette.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fctnewsgazette.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=25526"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/fctnewsgazette.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25526\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25527,"href":"https:\/\/fctnewsgazette.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25526\/revisions\/25527"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fctnewsgazette.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/23821"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fctnewsgazette.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=25526"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fctnewsgazette.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=25526"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fctnewsgazette.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=25526"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}