The Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Minister, Nyesom Wike and renowned human rights lawyer and former chairman of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), Chidi Odinkalu, have entered into a heated exchange following remarks made by Wike during an event on Friday.
At the launch of the ₦10 billion FCT Renewed Hope program, which introduced 80 new vehicles to the capital’s transport system, Wike, a former Rivers State Governor, openly criticized Odinkalu.
He questioned Odinkalu’s tenure as the former chairman of the NHRC and cast doubt on his academic credentials.
“Someone showed me a write-up they said was written by a professor. I asked him, professor of which university? Nobody knows,” Wike reportedly said. “They were given an opportunity in the Human Rights Commission. Ask them what their performance was. What was the record when the government allowed him to be there? Zero!”
Chidi Odinkalu, who is a Professor of Practice in International Human Rights Law at The Fletcher School at Tufts University, responded swiftly on social media.
Taking to X (formerly Twitter), he labeled Wike a “greedy glutton” and suggested that the minister was not qualified to speak on ethical matters.
“In Abuja, Nyesom Wike is flexing… He can buy whomever he wants with public money to do whatever he desires. But even that has a shelf life. This idiocy will end one day too,” Odinkalu posted.
He added, “Unlike Nyesom Wike, I have a life outside messing about with the public purse… A greedy glutton has no business giving lectures on the virtues of being teetotal!”
On Sunday, Odinkalu extended his criticism to LinkedIn, further questioning Wike’s professionalism: “Nyesom Wike became a member of the Nigerian Bar Association in 1991 and promptly mistook the Bar for an invitation to get hopelessly drunk.”
