Wike blasts Odili: You’re a trader, sycophant, rent seeker 

Nyesom Wike, Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT,  has shredded Dr. Peter Odili, a former Governor of Rivers state, describing him in unpalatable terms.

Odili had provoked Wike by saying Fubara stopped the FCT minister from turning the state into a private estate.

Speaking at a Christmas ballad organized by him in honour of Governor Fubara and his family, Odili praised the governor for summoning an unusual courage to confront Wike’s quest to capture Rivers State as a private estate through ferocious, but unnecessary political war.

“Governor Fubara confronted the challenge, prevented the quest by one man to capture the State as a private estate, emancipated Rivers people, steadied governance and made civil servants and Rivers people happier as it used to be” Odili had said.

However, countering Odili, Wike described him as a sycophant who would praise any government in power for pecuniary gains, adding that it would not surprise him if Odili arranged a new wife for the incumbent Governor Fubara.

The FCT minister recalled how Odili praised him to high heavens when he (Wike) was governor, even going as far as hanging his (Wike’s) portraits in all the rooms in his house, including the kitchen and toilets.

He called Odili a rent seeker, saying “an elder statesman should not be a trader and a sycophant all the time.”

According to Lere Olayinka, Senior Special Assistant to the FCT Minister on Public Communications and New Media, the minister spoke on Sunday at a Special Thanksgiving Service organised by the factional Speaker of the Rivers State House of Assembly, Hon. Martin Chike Amaewhule, at the Church of the Holy Spirit, Anglican Communion, Eliozu Parish of the Diocese of Evo in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.

Wike further said: “Must you be a trader all the time? As governor for eight years, what else are you looking for?

“You know, I didn’t want to say anything, but somebody called me last night, and told me what someone said in the social media. I said until I read it myself. This morning, I read in the newspapers, what our former Governor, Sir Dr. Peter Odili said.

“What did he say? He said that the present governor has been able to stop one man who wanted to convert Rivers State to his personal estate.

“Between him and myself, who has turned Rivers State to his personal estate? His wife is a Chairman of Governing Council, his daughter is a commissioner, his other daughter is a judge and he is the general overseer. Who has now turned Rivers State to his private estate? I am sure if care is not taken, if there is a chance, he can even arrange a marriage for the governor.”

He queried Odili’s elder statesman credentials, lamenting how the former governor took the commissioner’s slot meant for his nephew and gave it to his daughter.

“It was his nephew, his late elder brother’s son, who was recommended for commissioner. He took the slot and gave it to his own daughter. Someone who didn’t remember to stand for the son of his late elder brother, is that an elder statesman?

“All of you here remember when I was governor, this same Odili praised me to high heavens. In fact, he said then that all past governors in Rivers State combined did not do better than me.

“In 2007 after he left office, he couldn’t come near power in the state because Amaechi was the governor then. He was gone!

“Like somebody said that God will use someone to lift up someone. When I came in as governor in 2015, I won’t use the word resurrected, but I brought him back to life.

Wike also recounted how he contributed to Odili’s university.

“All of us know about PAMO University. But for us, there wouldn’t have been anything called PAMO University. Rivers State was sponsoring 100 students per session and for every semester, each of the students was paying nothing less than N5 million. Then, Rivers people were attacking me up and down.

“I personally called Julius Berger to build a mansion for him to live. He was calling everyone to the house then, telling them, come and see what Wike has done for me. Wike has shown me love. He was taking them round the house.”

Speaking further, Wike said Odili had reduced himself to a laughing stock.

“Now, because you have organised a Christmas Carol for the governor, I didn’t say you should not do your Christmas Carol, but why reduce yourself to such a laughing stock? People will still see it on television how he was telling the whole world then how God used me to bring him back to life politically,” he said.

“Why not do your Christmas Carol, collect what you can collect and leave me alone?

“The governor who all of us made has not spent one year in office and the same Odili was already saying that the governor has beaten the records of all the past governors of Rivers State.

“When I was there, he said I had surpassed the records of all the past governors, including himself. What can he even show that he did in his eight years as governor? But a governor has not spent one year, you are saying he has done more than all the past governors.

“You spent eight years as governor and someone who hasn’t spent one year has surpassed your records? What manner of elder talks like that? Is that what an elder statesman should be known for?

“When I was governor, my pictures were everywhere in his house. Sitting room, bedroom, kitchen, even in the toilets. My pictures were everywhere. But today, all the pictures have been removed.

“What can I learn from this kind of elder? What kind of advice can one get from him? This moment you are saying something, the next moment you are saying something else.

“You see, if your children begin to ask you, is this not the same man you were praising before? What would you tell them?

“When I was plotting who will be governor after me, was he (Odili) there? Then, he was complaining about this governor, saying that he couldn’t stand before the public to talk. But today, he is organising Christmas Carol for the same governor he was against then.

“He has forgotten all that he said in the past. I named this after you, I named that after your wife. What have I not done?

“You said we should not be part of the government, we have left. We are managing; you have taken assembly money, they are not dying of hunger and they will not die of hunger. We are okay. I am focusing on my job in Abuja and all this sycophancy won’t take him to the level I have attained.”

On Odili’s desire to contest for president, Wike added: “This is a man who wanted to run for president then; he didn’t have the balls, he chickened out. Simply because Obasanjo said no, he will not contest, he ran away. Because of him, I never invited Obasanjo to Rivers State to commission projects. I felt it would humiliate him.”