The minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, has stated that he once felt the urge to shoot a Channels Television news anchor, Seun Okinbaloye, over his comment on the possibility of a one-party state in Nigeria.
During a Thursday edition of Channels Television’s Politics Today programme, Okinbaloye had claimed that the 2027 elections were looking like a contest of one political party owing to the crisis in the African Democratic Congress (ADC).
He added that Nigeria is doomed democratically if the only hope of opposition, ADC, cannot contest the 2027 election.
“I’m particularly very pained because what makes the race very interesting is when it’s competitive and not when only one party stands in the middle of the ballot, and we are looking for the rest of the political parties.
“But we get one of them talking tonight about the state of ADC, particularly, it looks like one of the only hopes of the opposition going into 2027. If this hope is dashed, we are doomed democratically speaking.” Okinbaloye said.
However, speaking on Friday during a media chat in Abuja, the nation’s capital, Wike said Okinbaloye’s comment showed he was taking sides in the crisis rocking the ADC.
The FCT Minister said, “I was surprised yesterday, thoroughly surprised. When I was watching Politics Today, Seun. If there was any way to break the screen, I would have shot him.
“In fact, it will get to him. How can you as an interviewer say we cannot have only one party? You are an interviewer; you are now telling them your own views.
“There is nothing wrong with asking your interviewee questions. But you are now the one on national television making that kind of statement, which means you have already taken a position.”
