The Ooni of Ife, Oba Enitan Ogunwusi, says political scientists in Nigeria’s ivory towers should understudy how Nyesom Wike, a power broker in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), made it to the cabinet of President Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
The royal father stated this at the 2025 OAU Distinguished Personality Lecture in Ile-Ife, the capital of Osun State, on Thursday, where Wike, the former governor of Rivers State and current minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), delivered the keynote lecture.
“For your career, I will particularly say that I give a very strong honour to the father of the nation, President Bola Tinubu. You belong to a different political party and yet are able to work together.
“You are part of this government. It’s 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’s very important,” Oba Ogunwusi said.
“Hate him, like him; what will be, will be; he (Wike) is a politician to be studied. I don’t know how he’s been actively relevant for 20 years.”
The traditional ruler said, Though not everybody would like Wike, a lawyer, “but some of us have a lot of respect for you because of your fearlessness”.
“Nigeria is for all of us and you are playing your part and making history,” he added.
The event was also attended by the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Wale Edun; former Enugu State governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi; his Benue State counterpart, Samuel Ortom; among others.
Wike was the governor of oil-rich Rivers State from May 2015 to May 2023, before he was appointed FCT Minister in August 2023 by the President. Wike has also pledged to work for Tinubu’s re-election in 2027, a move that has attracted scathing criticism from his party men in the PDP, who accuse the minister of being anti-party.
Some PDP founding fathers, such as Sule Lamido and Bode George, have also criticised Wike for being at the centre of the intra-party squabbles rocking the opposition party, while the minister has continued to dare the party leadership to expel him.
