On Monday, Nyesom Wike, FCT Minister, lashed out at former Rivers Governor, Rotimi Amaechi, who said he is joining the coalition to kick out President Bola Tinubu because he is hungry.

 “Talking about Rotimi Amaechi, I don’t know how a man will choose his 60th birthday to tell lies. It is unfortunate. He is hungry…,” Mr Wike said in a media chat on Monday.

He added, Mr Amaechi was  “Speaker from 1999 to 2007, Governor from 2007 to 2015, and Minister from 2015 to 2023. He never mentioned hunger during those years. Now suddenly he claims to be hungry? He’s only hungry for power. He joined Atiku and El-Rufai because he is hungry for power. He can’t just stay out of power.”

In a lecture held on his 60th birthday on Saturday, Mr Amaechi, a former minister of transportation, excoriated Mr Tinubu’s government for impoverishing Nigerians with its policies.

“We are all hungry. All of us are. If you are not hungry, I am. So, for us, the opposition, if you want us to remove the man in power — Tinubu — we can remove him from this power,” Mr Amaechi said.

The lecture was attended by former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, former Kaduna Governor Nasir El-Rufai, and other opposition politicians planning a coalition to challenge Mr Tinubu in the 2027 election.