IN SHORT: According to several social media posts, Nigerian minister Nyesom Wike has said the only Igbo man he fears is Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra. But we found no evidence that Wike ever made such a statement.
“The only Igbo man I still fear up to this moment is Nnamdi Kanu. This is not a political statement – it’s a pure fact. The kind of money that has been offered to this man could pull his entire generation out of poverty forever — yet each time you go to him, he will tell you one thing: ‘It’s either Biafra or nothing’.”
That’s a quote circulating on social media and attributed to Nyesom Wike, the minister of Nigeria’s Federal Capital Territory.
Biafra is a region in southeastern Nigeria. In May 1967, the region declared independence from the rest of the country, sparking a civil war. The war ended in January 1970 with Biafra’s defeat and reintegration into Nigeria.
According to the posts, Wike also compared Nnamdi Kanu to Ralph Uwazuruike and said Kanu had proved to be “different”.
Uwazuruike is an Igbo activist and founder of the Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra, which advocates for the independence of Biafra.
Kanu is the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (Ipob), another pro-Biafran independence group.
He has been in the custody of Nigeria’s Department of State Services (DSS) since June 2021, following his arrest in Kenya. He is on trial, facing terrorism-related charges.
The DSS also informed a Nigerian court in May 2025 that Kanu had previously ordered attacks on president Bola Tinubu and Wike.
In October 2020, as the governor of Rivers state, Wike officially banned Ipob activities and ordered security forces to find their members, following reports of violence that led to the burning of police stations.
The same quote attributed to Wike was found here, here, here and here.
But did Wike make such a statement? We checked.
No evidence of statement
Wike and Kanu have previously exchanged verbal attacks, and the media covered this. But when we searched for the quote attributed to Wike, we found no news reports about it. This is a major red flag.
The posts didn’t mention when and where Wike made those remarks. Such a lack of detail also suggests that the claim is false.
We searched Wike’s official X account and found no such quote.
All signs point to a fabricated quote that should be ignored.
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