In a fiery interview that is already sending political shockwaves across Nigeria, former Rivers State Governor and ex-Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, has thrown down the gauntlet—daring his estranged political protégé and successor, Nyesom Wike, to a public street walk in Port Harcourt without security escorts, to prove who truly commands the people’s support.
Speaking Thursday night during an interview with Seun Okinbaloye, Amaechi challenged Wike, now Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), to meet him “man to man” on the streets—from the airport to the city center—with no police, no army, and no political theatrics.
“Let him come, let’s take a walk from the airport to Port Harcourt, no police, no army, just the two of us,” Amaechi declared, clearly riled. “There is so much noise. I don’t know why he (Wike) doesn’t respect people like us. I am older. I brought him into politics.”
The provocative challenge is the latest twist in the long-running and often bitter political rivalry between the two powerful figures who once stood united in Rivers politics but are now on opposite ends of a widening divide.
But Amaechi didn’t stop at Wike. He turned his criticism full blast on the administration of President Bola Tinubu, describing it as “the worst in the history of the country.”
He dismissed comparisons with the Buhari-led government he once served in, stating:
“I hope you know they are now asking Buhari to come back. Let us assume it is true, but this one is burying it.”
In a stinging rebuke of what he described as a creeping dictatorship, Amaechi questioned the independence of Nigeria’s political institutions. He accused President Tinubu of handpicking the chairman of the Nigerian Governors’ Forum (NGF), a move he called a dangerous precedent.
“When I heard that the chairman of the Nigerian Governors’ Forum was appointed by the president, I almost collapsed,” he said. “Now governors cannot even talk.”
As chairman of the NGF during the Goodluck Jonathan presidency, Amaechi had fought tooth and nail to preserve the forum’s independence—a legacy he says is now under threat.
Amaechi also weighed in on the Rivers political crisis, dismissing the recent truce between Wike and Governor Simi Fubara as nothing but political theatre.
“Why should I intervene? Didn’t you see the outcome? Don’t you get impressed by my reaction—that somebody has surrendered? And you can see the looting going on in government.”
His comments come as many observers question the sustainability of the peace pact brokered between Wike and Fubara, after months of political tensions that nearly split the state’s governance in two.
Amaechi’s daring challenge, blistering critique of the Tinubu administration, and open disdain for the Wike-Fubara arrangement signal a resurgence of opposition rhetoric from a once-sidelined political heavyweight.
Observers say the comments could reignite internal tensions within the APC and widen the fault lines between pro-Tinubu loyalists and those—like Amaechi—now positioning themselves as defenders of democratic norms and political decency.
Whether Wike will accept the street-walk challenge remains to be seen, but one thing is clear: Amaechi is back in the spotlight—unfiltered, unflinching, and unafraid to speak truth to power.
Rotimi Ameachi
