MINISTER of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, has declared that he would be the first politician to suffer the consequences should former Vice President Atiku Abubakar of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) or Peter Obi of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) defeat President Bola Tinubu in the 2027 presidential election, citing the intensity of his open support for the President.
News Point Nigeria reports that Wike made the declaration while speaking during a media chat in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, monitored in Abuja on Wednesday, where he also opened up on his absence from the 2026 Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) Annual General Conference in Port Harcourt, describing the event as a “complete flop”.
The minister said his commitment to Tinubu’s re-election had made him a marked target of the opposition, insisting that he had no regrets over his political stance.
“I will be the first politician that I think they will come after. I will be the first politician. I know they will come for my head,” he said.
Wike said he was under no illusions about the risks associated with his position but maintained that he would not shy away from confronting the President’s opponents.
He said he remained focused solely on securing Tinubu’s victory, regardless of the personal political cost.
“Each day I sleep, I am thinking about the president’s reelection. When I am eating, I think about the president’s reelection. Everything I am doing now is about the president’s reelection,” he stated.
The FCT Minister said he was unbothered by the criticisms trailing his support for the President, noting that he had been vilified more than any other politician for his loyalty.
“I don’t see where anybody in this country today has been called names the way my name has been. I am not bothered about people who say their [own] thing. My business is, like I said, I am going to support Mr President,” he declared.
Turning to his absence from the 2026 NBA Annual General Conference in Port Harcourt, Wike said he does not attend a jamboree where “traders are in charge”.
“Anybody who knows me knows that I don’t attend something that’s a jamboree. I will not attend something that traders are in charge,” the former Rivers State governor said.
Wike criticised the last leadership of the NBA, alleging that there was trading surrounding the organisation of the conference.
“The last leadership of the NBA shows that there was a trading. You saw the outcry; the NBA has never had that kind of conference since the NBA started. It was a complete flop,” he said.
He also accused the organisers of playing politics by using the event as an avenue to give opposition parties a platform to sell themselves.
“Organisation was zero. Why? Instead of you to focus on the real thing the NBA conference was supposed to be, they started playing politics,” Wike said.
“They started having it as a ground for opposition parties to sell themselves.”
The minister’s comments came as he continued to defend his open alignment with President Tinubu ahead of the 2027 presidential election, while also explaining his decision to stay away from the NBA conference and criticising what he described as the politicisation and poor organisation of the event.