By 247ureports.com
A commentary titled “Wike’s Politics of Selective Accountability” is circulating, in which writer Titus Chonkula argues that FCT Minister Nyesom Wike’s demand that Benue State Governor Hyacinth Alia account for his state’s federal allocations is sound in principle but undermined by his own record. The piece is an opinion by Chonkula, who describes himself as a concerned citizen writing from Kaduna, and it breaks off mid-argument.
The piece begins with Wike’s keynote address at the inaugural Idoma Hall of Fame induction in Abuja on Thursday, October 15, where he spoke on “People, Politics and Power Play in Nigeria: The Agitation for Equity and Fairness.” Reports of the speech quote Wike urging leaders to judge themselves by what power produces for the people, warning against exploiting ethnic grievances, and urging Nigerians to reject “political gamblers,” a line aimed at a presidential hopeful who has taken to visiting displaced persons’ camps. Chonkula says Wike also challenged Alia to account for Benue’s reported monthly allocation of between ₦25 billion and ₦30 billion. 247ureports.com could not confirm that remark in published coverage of the event, and the figures are the writer’s.
Chonkula argues that accountability gains credibility only when applied consistently. He says Wike criticised former Benue governor Samuel Ortom over unpaid salaries, pension arrears and insecurity, but became his ally in the G5 group of five Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governors, with Seyi Makinde, Okezie Ikpeazu and Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, which opposed the party’s presidential arrangement before the 2023 election. He accepts that politicians can reconcile but asks whether Wike revised his view of Ortom’s record or whether shared interest simply replaced earlier concerns, and says the public record shows the shift without revealing motives.
He then turns to Rivers State. President Bola Tinubu declared a state of emergency there on March 18, 2025, suspending Governor Siminalayi Fubara, his deputy and the State House of Assembly for six months and appointing Vice Admiral Ibok-Ete Ibas (retd.) as Sole Administrator. Chonkula notes that Wike publicly backed the intervention in April 2025 and said he had wanted Fubara removed outright, and argues that a serving minister endorsing the removal of a governor he was in dispute with cannot claim to be a detached observer, while saying this neither places all the blame on Wike nor excuses Fubara or the legislature. He also says the President’s address centred its criticism on Fubara with little said about Wike.
The writer ends by citing a petition by Rivers civil society groups to the House of Representatives accusing Ibas of financial misconduct and of acting under Wike’s direction, and asks who authorised spending, what procurement rules applied, what contracts were awarded and what oversight existed while elected officials were suspended. Those allegations are unproven, and 247ureports.com had not located a response from Ibas or Wike to them. The emergency has since ended and the suspended officials have resumed office.
Wike’s allies would say his criticism of governors is consistent with his own record of delivering projects in Rivers and the FCT, and he has often challenged opponents to point to what they built. Neither Wike nor Alia had responded to Chonkula’s commentary at the time of this report.
