₦airaland Forum

In November 2022, then-Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike invited Labour Party presidential candidate Peter Obi to Port Harcourt as special guest of honour at the inauguration of the Nkpolu-Oroworukwo Flyover Bridge.

During the event, Wike publicly addressed Obi, who was accompanied by his then-running mate, Ahmed Datti Baba-Ahmed, under the Labour Party.

Facing the crowd, Wike spoke highly of Obi and encouraged him to find a political vehicle through which he could present himself to Nigerians.

Wike said:

“In our Constitution, you must find yourself a vehicle that will allow you to sell yourself to Nigerians. If not, I know you as a person. You have all the criteria; you have all the characteristics that will lead this country. You have it. Nobody can deny that from you, you have it.

"All I pray is for God to give you the strength and give you the wisdom, and continue to move from state to state. This time, anytime you want to come to campaign in the state, let me know. All the logistic support, we will give to you.”

The remarks have now resurfaced following a post by commentator Oseni Rufai (@ruffydfire) on September 9, 2026. Rufai reposted a 45-second clip from the 2022 event with just three words: “What changed!”

The post quickly attracted significant attention online, with thousands of views and hundreds of reposts as Nigerians revisited the relationship between Wike and Obi.

The old footage shows Wike publicly praising Obi’s qualities and offering logistical support for his campaign, despite Obi being a Labour Party presidential candidate.

The resurfaced video has drawn particular interest because of the significant changes in Nigeria’s political landscape since 2022. Wike is now serving as Minister of the Federal Capital Territory under President Bola Tinubu, while Obi remains a prominent opposition figure.

For many supporters of Obi, the clip provides a striking contrast with the political realities of today. Rufai’s simple question, “What changed?”, has therefore triggered renewed debate about political alliances, changing relationships and the nature of political friendships in Nigeria.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ua-eaFQHWs?si=6i7VkeE-9KEiCWEL

It is called politics. No permanent friends and no permanent enemies. Only permanent interests.

Politics will turn a naive person into a shrewd and calculative person eventually.

Omo eh ...politics is a dangerous game abeg....Wike knows Obi is aGood man...yes he may not be a saint....but hes far better than Tinubu

It's politics that have kept Nigeria underdeveloped

Because WIke found out hard that Obi is a fraud.

Is there anyone who has worked with Obi in the past that has anything good to say about him?

Wike’s greed changed everything!!

Another emotional post to boost the obituarists ego .
Oga obi is a disaster..

Rufai should grow up.

It is just politics that happened.

Just the way in happens in every human facet of life.

If I were a Nollywood producer, all I need to do is just watch the news everyday for the past 10 years and chronicle Wike as a character in my movie. We have seen his type before, it is just interesting to watch it in 3D. Time is a beautiful place.

THE GANGS OF LAGOS RIVERS

SixSeven:
Imagine Wike as our President. Thank God for dodged bullets. Make we de manage this one small

You can't give what you don't have

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TrSEKaj6Iro?

All this one na super story.

How do these politicians sleep at night?

FSBoperator:
Because WIke found out hard that Obi is a fraud.

Is there anyone who has worked with Obi in the past that has nothing good to say about him?

you keep shouting obi is a fraud, yet provide a proof he has stolen even if it's kpomo from persin mama soup you cannot, but somebody that's a well known drug syndicate with FBI and CIA files is your role model and a saint fit to rule Naija?!!! No be juju be that

FSBoperator:
Because WIke found out hard that Obi is a fraud.

Is there anyone who has worked with Obi in the past that has nothing good to say about him?

Bros na! Which one do you want to say? First sentence, Obi is a fraud....second sentence, Is there anyone who has worked with Obi in the past that has nothing good to say about him? No let confusion wound you o

saintkel:
Omo eh ...politics is a dangerous game abeg....Wike knows Obi is aGood man...yes he may not be a saint....but hes far better than Tinubu

Obi to Tinubu is like 2 to 10

Tinubu is way ahead..

Wike found out that Peter obi lies so much and a pretender.

Wike cut off from obi. We all know wike to be a straightforward man .

Wike dies not associate with liars or pretenders.

Again, obi is a small boy in politics not in same shoes with Wike

If you earn less than N1m monthly to do this job you have chosen as a full time career on NL, then you are grossly underpaid.

You jump from topic to topic with an eye for just one name on this Platform.

I am sure you set your optimisation and Algorithm on Peter Obi so whenever his name pops-up, you will get a reminder to commence your brief.

Get productive dude !

FSBoperator:
Because WIke found out hard that Obi is a fraud.

Is there anyone who has worked with Obi in the past that has nothing good to say about him?

Wike did his maths is all.

Nothing to be gained in backing a dead horse.

If he had backed obi he would be in political oblivion today.

Rufai has actually turned himself to spokesperson of the opposition and that is very glaring.

So what this means is the Wike has eye for what is good and now he say Tinubu is good and Peter Obi is not good after what happened concerning both Peter Obi and President Tinubu.

Note also that Peter Obi seem to not have a party at that time and had not betrayed the party that gave him a platform which showed that perception under which Wike spoke then was not matched by Peter Obi action.

Also saying Peter Obi had those qualities doesn't mean that President Tinubu does not have them much more so let Rufia post what wike said about Tinubu when he invited him too at that time.

I said it that after yesterday's disgrace and sad Tuesday in Benue for Peter Obi and his supporters they will try everything in their sweet my belle logic book to feel happy ....mind you feeling happy is different from being happy

otipoju:
It is called politics. No permanent friends and no permanent interests. Only permanent interests.

Is that how it works in Britain, America, Canada and other places where we japa to?
Politics of zero governance principles

Wike knew Obi didn't have a strong vice from the north.

Lanruze:
If you earn less than N1m monthly to do this job you have chosen as a full time career on NL, then you are grossly underpaid

I read this as a compliment.

Are you saying I am doing a terrific job at demystifying Giringori?

Well, no one pays me to warn Nigerians about this fraud and disaster Giringori

Obi's offence is that he dared to aspire to be a president.

His righteous life style is a constant stumbling block to theiving political elite.

Same way the Jews chose Barabas the thief over Jesus Christ in an election conducted by Herod is how the thieves wants him taken out of Nigeria politics

Cherrybae:
Wike found out that Peter obi lies so much and a pretender.
Wike cut off from obi. We all know wike to be a straightforward man .
Wike dies not associate with liars or pretenders.
Again, obi is a small boy in politics not in same shoes with Wike

How is Obi a worse liar and a worse pretender than the balablu bulaba clueless clown in Aso Rock?


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7WzbBqAWPfI

Aug 29, 2023

Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister for the Economy, Mr. Wale Edun made this known at the end of the inaugural Federal Executive Council meeting in Abuja.
Mr. Edun said that the benefit of the subsidy removal will be plough back into various sectors to improve business environment for local and foreign investment.
He added that with the increased revenue from subsidy removal, various palliatives have been made available to cushion its effect on a short, medium and long-term basis.






https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bn29b0SkCWU?si=s_-vTlCqSlykI0BX

Ofunaofu:
Report: Current Govt Added More Debt in Two Years Than Nigeria Accumulated in 55 Years

• Decries Nigeria’s debt service-to-revenue ratio

•Urges FG to declare fiscal emergency

A new policy brief has warned that Nigeria’s worsening debt profile and weak revenue generation have pushed the country into a dangerous fiscal position, with the current administration accumulating more debt in two years than Nigeria recorded during its first 55 years after independence.

The report, released by the Alliance for Economic Research and Ethics LTD/GTE, a Nigerian policy think tank, argued that the country’s debt crisis has evolved into a governance and revenue emergency, as debt servicing obligations now exceed the federal government’s retained earnings.
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According to the think tank, Nigeria’s public debt rose sharply from N87.38 trillion in June 2023 to N159.28 trillion by the end of 2025, with President Bola Tinubu’s administration accounting for about N65.9 trillion of the increase within its first two years in office.

The organisation in the brief titled: “Nigeria Is Borrowing to Breathe—and the Clock Is Ticking”, noted that Nigeria accumulated only about N12.06 trillion in debt from independence in 1960 up to 2015, meaning the current administration added more than five times that amount in just 24 months.

The report stated that while previous governments also contributed significantly to the country’s rising debt burden, the speed of accumulation under the current administration had intensified concerns over fiscal sustainability.

“President Bola Tinubu’s administration has added a further N65.9 trillion in just two years. To put that in perspective: it took Nigeria’s first 55 years of independence to accumulate N12 trillion in debt. The current administration has added more than five times that amount in 24 months,” it argued.

It recalled that Nigeria briefly became almost debt-free externally after the administration of former President Olusegun Obasanjo secured an $18 billion Paris Club debt relief package in 2005 and paid $12 billion to extinguish about $30 billion in external obligations.


https://www.thisdaylive.com/2026/05/22/report-current-govt-added-more-debt-in-two-years-than-nigeria-accumulated-in-55-years/

Interest. Everyone is trying to protect his interest. If Peter Obi had won, Wike wouldn't have had opportunity of being the FCT Minister. Even if he did, Peter Obi may not tolerate his rascal behaviour.

Wike changed...

he's trying to play God

very soon shaa, he will know that power is TRANSIENT...

Rufai didn't ask what changed when Peter Obi vowed never to leave APGA and to retire from politics after his tenure as governor of Anambra state.

Interest changes nothing more. None of them truly cares.

GloriousGbola:
Wike did his maths is all.
Nothing to be gained in backing a dead horse.
If he had backed obi he would be in political oblivion today.

Was that how the master strategist of a-looter propaganda politics did his maths in 2011 when he threw Yorubas under the bus for his fellow northerner as HoR Speaker?

anonimi:
How we foiled Jonathan’s effort to make Mulika Adeola Speaker, Akande reveals

AS president in 2011, Goodluck Jonathan did all he could to ensure South West grabbed the country’s number four seat, including lobbying then opposition leaders from the zone, to no avail. The North West eventually grabbed the seat, supported by South West leaders in opposition to then ruling party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

Former Governor of Osun State and now statesman, Chief Bisi Akande, made this revelation in his autobiography, “My Participations” which is currently dominating political and national dis- course.

Aminu Tambuwal, now Sokoto State governor, won the seat, against the preferred pick of his party, Mrs Mulikat Adeola Akande, from the South-West. Defunct Action Congress of Nigeria, then a fledging opposition, which had Akande and his soulmate, former Lagos State governor, Senator Bola Tinubu, as front- line leaders, openly asked its elected members of the House of Representatives, mostly from the South-West, to work against their region and back Tambuwal from North-West.

The opposition party’s support carried Tambuwal through the contest against Akande, then ruling party’s favourite for the speakership seat.

In his book, Chief Akande revealed that former president then as incumbent, personally reached out to Tinubu, who is now believed to be nursing presidential aspiration in 2023 and himself, but couldn’t convince them.

He wrote, “President Jonathan, immediately after the meeting (with political parties), called Bola Tinubu aside into a lobby to broach the matter of ACN support for a choice of who would become the Speaker of the House of Representatives.

“That same day, President Jonathan talked to me on phone about the same matter. He disclosed that PDP had zoned the position to the South-West but that only one Muraina and another Mulika won elections on PDP ticket from the zone into the House of Representatives.

https://tribuneonlineng.com/how-we-foiled-jonathans-effort-to-make-mulika-adeola-speaker-akande-reveals/

saintkel:
Omo eh ...politics is a dangerous game abeg....Wike knows Obi is aGood man...yes he may not be a saint....but hes far better than Tinubu

How do you know he is far better than tinubu?

Gadaffi9ja:
Interest changes nothing more.

Was that how Jagaban of Borgu's interest changed in 2015 when he begged Buhari to make Jonathan a one term president, following APC's invitation of terrorists to destroy Nigeria

Lanruze:
If you earn less than N1m monthly to do this job you have chosen as a full time career on NL, then you are grossly underpaid.

You jump from topic to topic with an eye for just one name on this Platform.

I am sure you set your optimisation and Algorithm on Peter Obi so whenever his name pops-up, you will get a reminder to commence your brief.

Get productive dude !

You are asking a data boy who has taken an oath to promote compromise, hardship and poverty to get productive?

Lanruze, you make me laugh