Renowned publisher and former presidential aspirant, Dele Momodu has raised concerns over what he described as the outsized influence of Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike within President Bola Tinubu’s administration—suggesting that Nigeria is operating under an unofficial dual leadership.
Speaking on Channels Television’s The Morning Brief on Wednesday, Momodu criticised President Tinubu’s apparent endorsement of Wike’s political style, following the commissioning of the newly refurbished International Conference Centre in Abuja, which has been renamed in Tinubu’s honour.
Momodu remarked, “Right now, it’s looking like we have two presidents in Nigeria. Wike can do anything. Even President Tinubu, who has controlled Lagos since 1999, was never this audacious.”;
The comment came in response to Tinubu’s public praise of Wike during the inauguration ceremony, where the president urged the minister to ignore “busybodies and naysayers.”;
Momodu strongly disagreed with Tinubu’s choice of words, stating, “I listened to the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria calling fellow Nigerians ‘busybodies.’ You interpreted it as ‘naysayers’—‘naysayers’ is still far better. Who is a bystander in his own country because of one man?”;
He also took a swipe at the scale of the conference centre project, questioning the rationale behind celebrating what he called “a ₦30 billion launch”; with such fanfare.
“If you were in Wike’s shoes, you would dance more than he danced yesterday. I saw the expressions on the faces of the audience—they looked befuddled, like, ‘what is our country turning into?’”; he added.
