In a blistering media parley on Monday in Abuja, the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, took aim at former Minister of Transportation and ex-Rivers State Governor, Rotimi Amaechi, insisting the man is “hungry for power, not food.”
The fiery rebuttal was prompted by Amaechi’s declaration at his 60th birthday celebration that “we’re all hungry, all of us are,” a lament on Nigeria’s dire economic state that Wike slammed as “nonsense and political theatre.”
Amaechi’s statement—“If you’re not hungry, I am. For us, the opposition, if you want us to remove the man in power, we can remove him from this power”—struck a chord, given that recent assessments indicate nearly 33.1 million Nigerians will face acute food insecurity in 2025, up from 25.1 million in late 2024.
With inflation at a staggering 40.9 percent for food items as of June 2024 and general inflation at 34.2 percent, hunger is no abstract concept for many.
Yet Wike dismissed Amaechi’s invocation of hunger as a cynical ploy:
“A man who was Speaker from 1999 to 2007, Governor from 2007 to 2015, Minister from 2015 to 2023 has never once lamented hunger. Now, he chooses his 60th birthday to lie.”
Wike’s critique dug deeper into Amaechi’s track record, accusing him of failing to deliver even 25 percent of the votes for Buhari in Rivers State despite acting as campaign Director General in 2015.
“He couldn’t even secure a quarter of the votes; now he feigns solidarity with poverty-stricken Nigerians,” Wike scoffed.
His words carried weight: according to the World Bank, 129 million Nigerians were trapped in poverty in 2024—equivalent to 56.0 percent of the population, up from 40.1 percent in 2018.
In such a context, wielding “I’m hungry” as political capital seems disingenuous to Wike:
“He is only regrouping; hungry for power, not seeking to alleviate poverty.”
Amaechi’s comment—“In Nigeria, there are no capitalist ideas among politicians; it’s about sharing”—draws attention to the patronage networks that define Nigerian politics.
Yet Wike countered that Amaechi’s hunger rhetoric is merely a smokescreen for a power hunger that has defined his career.
“From 1999 to 2023, he stood before Nigerians and never spoke of hunger,” Wike emphasised. “Now he joins Atiku and claims hunger. This coalition is about reclaiming influence, not alleviating suffering.”
Wike also questioned Amaechi’s mention of “removal” of the President, associating it with military coups.
“When he speaks of removal, is he calling for a coup? Nigerians recall 2015’s political upheaval. Must we flirt with dictatorship again?”
He added provocatively:
“I am not a liability; I am an asset to ensure President Tinubu wins a second term.”
Such a declaration underlines Wike’s continued leverage within the All Progressives Congress (APC) despite originating from the opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP).
On the streets, Wike’s remarks have sparked heated debate. Many citizens see the exchange as emblematic of a political class detached from reality.
With 5.4 million children at risk of severe acute malnutrition and 800,000 pregnant or breastfeeding women similarly affected in 2025, the question remains: who truly speaks for the hungry millions?
As Wike and Amaechi trade barbs, the average Nigerian grapples with skyrocketing food prices—prices of beans surged 282 percent year-on-year in October 2024, while local rice climbed 153 percent.
Yet the discourse centres on power jockeying rather than concrete solutions.
Ultimately, the spectacle of Wike vs Amaechi underscores the hypocrisy of a political elite that sanitises decades of governance failures by theatrically lamenting hunger.
While each rhetorically positions himself as champion of the downtrodden, it is clear their hunger is for influence.
Meanwhile, 33 million Nigerians face hunger in 2025, and the bloated inflation keeps pushing more onto the brink.
The real tragedy is not their quarrel over semantics, but the continuing disregard for millions who remain hungry.
Additional reporting from Taiwo Adebowale & Kalada Jumbo
