The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, has criticised ex-Transport Minister Rotimi Amaechi over his alliance with the opposition coalition to unseat President Bola Tinubu in the 2027 election.
“Because you have left office, you are angry. You said Nigerians are angry. You want to come back to power; you won’t come back,” Wike pilloried Amaechi when Vice President Kashim Shettima commissioned the rehabilitated Aguma Palace Road and the New Market Road in the Gwagwalada Area Council of the nation’s capital, on Friday.
A day before, on Channels Television’s Politics Today programme on Thursday, July 3, 2025, Amaechi, a one-time All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential aspirant, expressed interest in running again for the Aso Rock top job on the African Democratic Congress (ADC) platform and registered his willingness to run for one term of four years.
Amaechi also stated that Tinubu has mismanaged the economy and that the administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari has surpassed the incumbent’s achievements so far.
Interestingly, Amaechi and Wike have a common history as former governors of Rivers State in Nigeria’s oil-rich Niger Delta area. Amaechi was governor from May 2007 to May 2015, and he handed over to Wike, who was in the saddle for eight years.
The two former political allies parted ways long ago, with Wike in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and a prominent minister in Tinubu’s APC administration, while Amaechi recently left the APC to join the newly formed ADC opposition coalition, which aims to unseat the APC and President Tinubu.
In a direct response to Amaechi’s aspiration, Wike challenged the ex-minister and his friends in the ADC coalition to “show their scorecards”.
“You never made angry Nigerians happy, but Tinubu stayed in office for six months and you started saying Nigerians are angry,” Wike said, whilst boasting that he defeated Amaechi’s party in the last two presidential elections in Rivers State.
“They said the coalition has started…When will you stop deceiving Nigerians? Somebody came into office six months then you started the coalition, but you had the opportunity to be Minister of Transportation for eight years. What did you do?” he asked.
