The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, has described former vice President Atiku Abubakar as serial detector who use the suffering of vulnerable Nigerians as a pretext for his frequent defections between political parties.
Wike, the former Governor of Rivers State, stated this on Thursday during a widely watched interview on Channels Television’s Politics Today.
The minister, a key and controversial figure in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), did not hold back in his criticism, painting a picture of Atiku as a political nomad whose principles are secondary to his ambition.
He said, it is a pattern with Atiku. “Each time Atiku wants to defect from one party to another, he would say ‘Nigerians are hungry’. He was Vice President for eight years under the PDP and he decamped to the Action Congress (AC) saying Nigerians are hungry.”
Wike proceeded to catalogue Atiku’s long history of political movement, using the same refrain as the stated reason.
“He decamped back to PDP, ‘Nigerians are hungry’. He decamped to APC, ‘Nigerians are hungry’. He decamped back to PDP, ‘Nigerians are hungry’. Now, he has left the PDP again and decamped to the ADC because ‘Nigerians are hungry’,” Wike stated, shaking his head in apparent disbelief.
“Just imagine such a character,” he concluded, allowing the weight of the accusation to hang in the air.
Atiku, who was the PDP presidential candidate in 2019 and 2023, recently became a focal point of a major opposition coalition that has adopted the African Democratic Congress (ADC) as its platform for the 2027 elections. Wike’s remarks are seen by analysts as a blunt attempt to dismantle Atiku’s moral standing and challenge the credibility of his latest political move.
The Minister also declared that his loyalty lies with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, not his former principal, ex-President Goodluck Jonathan, regarding the 2027 presidential election.
He was asked if his support for Tinubu’s re-election in 2027 would create a conflict of loyalty should Jonathan decide to run under the PDP.
The Minister denied that this would be an issue. He explained that he has not made any commitment to support any candidate for the 2027 election other than President Tinubu.
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