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The year 2022 gave Nigerians a lot of political gist and discuss. At the centre of these conversations are politicians whose actions and inaction triggered debate and outcry on social media.

5 most controversial Nigerian politicians in 2022 | Pulse Nigeria

Ima Elijah

Pulse presents the five most controversial politicians that got us talking throughout the year.

<h3>Bola Ahmed Tinubu</h3>

Tinubu has been the subject of many controversies from the time he became the governor of Lagos in 1999. This year has seen a long string of stories about him. With controversies involving Tinubu, from questionable wealth, ill-health, allegations of false school certificate and corruption, bagman to heroin traffickers and money-laundering ring investigation.

APC Presidential candidate, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu.

In June of this year, the former governor of Lagos State won the All Progressive Congress (APC) presidential primary; therefore intensifying conversations around his various controversies.

In July 2022, United States-based legal website, PlainSite.org, uploaded dockets of Tinubu’s money laundry forfeiture case files in the United States (US). The files from 1993 recently became awash on social media. PlainSite.org is a website that posts court documents and thus makes criminal records and case dockets on individuals or entities easier to find. The website is run by California-based software developer Aaron Greenspan.

Tinubu has addressed some of these issues, with words and documents. But we have 2023 to tell us how far his responses go in terms of convincing and winning over voters.

On 24 March 2022, Peter Obi declared his intention to run for the position of President of Nigeria under the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party, but later pulled out and announced he would be running under the Labour Party platform instead.

According to reports, Obi wrote to the leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party on 24 May to resign his membership. He reportedly complained of massive bribing of delegates and vote buying at party's presidential primary, citing the existence of a party clique collaborating against him.

This move sparked the wave of controversies for him in 2022. The real controversies Obi faced this year were due to the aggressive support he has enjoyed from young Nigerians.

Commentators have argued that Obi's candidacy appeals to young voters dissatisfied with the two major parties, which has resulted in the "biggest political movement in recent Nigerian history." With his core message of prudence and accountability, Obi has managed to gain the backing of voters for his previously largely unknown Labour Party into a strong third force against two political heavyweights.

Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike. [TheCable]

Year in, year out, Nyesom Wike is hardly in the news for something controversial. However, this year, Wike single-handedly threw the PDP into a crisis.

Wike has been up in arms against the party since the presidential primary that produced Atiku Abubakar as the candidate of the party and Governor Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta State as his running mate.&nbsp;Wike, who emerged as the runner-up in the primary, was passed over in the search for the party’s vice presidential candidate.

The governor&nbsp;and his Benue, Enugu, Abia and Oyo State counterparts,&nbsp;Samuel Ortom, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, Okezie Ikpeazu and Seyi Makinde,&nbsp;respectively, started calling for the resignation of the party’s National Chairman,&nbsp;Iyorchia Ayu.

Governors Seyi Makinde (Oyo), Samuel Ortom (Benue), Nyesom Wike (Rivers), Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi (Enugu) and Okezie Ikpeazu (Abia).

Wike and the aggrieved governors had vowed that until Ayu quits his position as National Chairman of the party, they would withhold their support for the PDP's presidential candidate,&nbsp;Atiku Abubakar, in 2023.

Basically, the five southern governors hold the ground that both the party's presidential candidate and the national chairman should not be from the same region. Atiku and Iyorchia are from the North.

On Friday, October 14, 2022, the Academic Staff Union of Universities announced the&nbsp;suspension of its eight-month strike; historically, the longest ASUU strike in a stretch.

Labour and Employment Minister, Chris Ngige. [TheCable]

The strike, which commenced on Monday, February 14, 2022, led to a suspension of academic activities in Federal and State Universities across the nation.

The ASUU strike was necessary to press home the demand for improved funding for universities, review of salaries for lecturers, among other issues.

Although Chris Ngige, the Minister of Labour and Employment, is not the Minister of Education, but the minister was at the centre of the crisis as ASUU and the FG locked horns for months.

Ngige took the matter to the industrial court, where he registered and presented the certificates of registration to two unions, all in an attempt to de-rank ASUU; a recipe for disaster.

The Nigerian Government went ahead and registered two new academic unions in the bid to replace ASUU. However, Chris Ngige, said they will exist along aside ASUU.

Former Deputy senate president, Ike Ekweremadu, and his wife were arrested by the London Metropolitan Police, in June, for allegedly trafficking a young Nigerian, David Nwamini, to the UK, with intention of harvesting his kidney.

Senator Ike Ekweremadu mourns Abba Kyari. (Naijanews)

The Ekweremadus are&nbsp;facing charges of conspiring to traffick a person for organ harvesting in violation of the Modern Slavery Act 2015.

Ekweremadu argued in court that the young man was old enough to give consent, and did just that.

Ekweremadu's 25-year-old daughter has been laying sick, in need of an urgent Kidney transplant.

Many have given the politician support as he still sleeps in a cell, while others have called it a lesson to other politicians in positions to better the health sector of Nigeria.

5 most controversial Nigerian politicians in 2022

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