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.


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.