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Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, has addressed his absence from the 2026 Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) Annual General Conference held in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, describing the gathering as a “complete flop.”
Speaking during a media chat on Wednesday, the former Rivers State Governor stated that he deliberately avoided attending a political jamboree managed by individuals he characterized as “traders.”
“Anybody who knows me knows that I don’t attend something that’s a jamboree. I will not attend something that traders are in charge,” Wike said.
“The last leadership of the NBA shows that there was a trading. You saw the outcry; the NBA has never had that kind of conference since the NBA started. It was a complete flop.”
He accused the conference organizers of abandoning professional legal objectives and turning the venue into a platform for opposition parties to market their political ambitions.
“Organisation was zero. Why? Instead of you to focus on the real thing the NBA conference was supposed to be, they started playing politics,” he said.
“They started having it as a ground for opposition parties to sell themselves.”
The conference, themed “Beyond Limits,” featured several opposition figures as panelists, including Peter Obi of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), Adewole Adebayo of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Omoyele Sowore of the African Action Congress (AAC), Donald Duke of the Peoples Redemption Party (PRP), and Rotimi Amaechi, the vice-presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC).
The Chief of Staff to the President, Femi Gbajabiamila, was also in attendance and defended President Bola Tinubu’s legislative push for state police reforms.
Social media activist Martins Vincent Otse, widely known as VeryDarkMan (VDM), also participated as a panel speaker.
Panelists at the conference expressed conflicting perspectives on pressing national issues, including general insecurity and economic stability.
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