By Kolawole Ojebisi
The Chairman of the All Progressives Congress(APC) Caretaker Committee in Rivers State, Tony Okocha, has debunked speculations in some quarters that the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, might be ill.
Wike’s looks and sudden weight loss prompted the speculations as many Nigerians are insinuating that Wike who is also the immediate past Rivers State governor might be battling an undisclosed ailment.
But reacting to the speculations, Okocha gave Wike a clean bill of health stressing that the weight loss could be a deliberate move to prevent chronic illnesses attributable to obesity.
Okocha said this in an interview with newsmen on Friday after a media parley on to announce the update on the state APC congresses, and the recent judgment barring Rivers from accessing federal allocation
Wike’s health has been a major subject of discussion among Nigerians for a stark difference in his physique and complexion as a minister compared to when he was governor of Rivers state.
These drastic physical changes were accentuated by the camera when he appeared on national TV last month to react to an allegation made by Governor Siminalayi Fubara.
The apparent fragility made netizens to express concerns over the minister’s health
Some critics via their X accounts and on the official YouTube handle of the broadcast station wondered why the 56-year-old Wike was looking older than his age, urging him to take a break from Rivers’s political crisis to look after his health.
Reacting, Okocha, who served as Chief of Staff to former governor Rotimi Amaechi from 2007 to 2015, described the netizens’ claim as unfounded.
He said the minister was neither sick nor battling an unknown ailment, noting that any politician who took his work as seriously as Wike did was bound to receive unflattering comments.
Okocha said: “The stories being peddled about his state of health are not true. How is he sick? Has anybody seen him falling or slump? The man is not sick. He is very agile and does what he was appointed to do. Do you even know if he is watching his weight?”
According to him, it is not easy to hit the ground running as Wike has been doing since he was appointed as a minister of the FCT by President Bola Tinubu.
