Utilising the culinary skills of Nyesom Wike

Let me confess, right away, that I have always admired Nyesom Wike, the former Rivers State Governor and now FCT Minister. I guess many of us in this line of profession would do so because Wike guarantees good copy anytime, any day. He is a gutsy politician, has a mercurial temperament and is somehow always a winner. And he’s endowed with so many other skills that would make other governors and ministers green with envy. I have seen him singing and dancing during ceremonies in the Port Harcourt Government House, at the commissioning of projects and on the campaign trail. He may not win prizes as a singer, but you must acknowledge his dancing dexterity.

Going by what had trended in the media when he was governor, Wike could out-dance any of the governors of his time. But that is until that fresher, the dancing prodigy, Ademola Adeleke, waltzed his way into the Osun State Government House in November last year. Wike might be said to have lost his place in the dancing charts to Governor Adeleke, but going by other indices, Minister Wike had another ace up his sleeves. He recently unveiled his cooking talents in a series of well-publicised videos.

I watched the first video about three weeks ago where Wike was filmed in a kitchen standing by a cooker serving guests from a steaming pot chatting animatedly with the Chief of Staff to the President, Femi Gbajabiamila, who was looking at the spectacle intently with admiration. A few days later Minister Wike was to make the same display when he received the former Senate President Bukola Saraki and his entourage. The video that went viral showed Wike superintending over a steaming pot with Senator Saraki in the background anxiously awaiting the plate of food.

In a media chat last Thursday, Minister Wike explained that his cooking skills have always been a good source of diversion from strenuous state duties. He disclosed that cooking is what he most loves to do in his spare time. He categorically stated, “I feel proud I can cook, and I am happy when I eat it. I’m satisfied. What is the big deal in cooking? So, I should call the Chef to come and prepare the food that I will eat. It’s a waste of time when I can cook.” He further intimated that he was brought up in a home where everybody participated in food preparation. He said, “Some of us were brought up in a home where if your mother is cooking, you are meant to stay in the kitchen. You make sure they prepare the pepper; you help to pound the okra.”

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I envy the culinary skills of the FCT Minister. Where I come from in Maiduguri, cooking is the stuff of the womenfolk. Growing up as male children, we were not involved in the nitty-gritty of kitchen affairs. At best, we were made to undertake the more mundane tasks of fetching water and firewood while the more esoteric task of cooking was reserved entirely for the girls. When the mother was away the girls could even manage the kitchen and produce a meal. Not learning how to cook was a great disadvantage as I found out when I was in the NYSC and lived out of my comfort zone.

I served in Lagos and lived for the service year in Mende, Maryland. Mende was still a village in 1976/77 where prepared food for sale was hard to come by. To avoid starving I had to put my nose down to acquiring culinary skills which I did with alacrity. Throughout the service year, I happily cooked amala, eba, rice, okra, vegetable soup, stew and whatever I fancied. Sadly enough, over the last forty-something years, I have lost all those cooking skills I acquired in my service year. This has not been my wish but in Maiduguri where I lived and married, the wives would not allow husbands near the kitchen. I tried to get into the kitchen a few times but was rebuffed. It was regarded as an unnecessary intrusion.

Now, with this additional vital culinary skill, Nyesom Wike has unveiled himself to be one of the most multi-talented ministers of the federal republic. There are already opinions being expressed that this additional talent should not be left to waste. The FCT Minister’s culinary talents should not be left to self-catering and the exclusive use of the likes of the former Senate President, Bukola Saraki and Femi Gbajabiamila, the Chief of Staff to the President. Wike’s talents could be put to good use by President Ahmed Tinubu if he gets him to superintend in the Presidential Villa’s kitchen whenever we have visiting foreign dignitaries in town. Such one-off diplomatic occasions would be good opportunities to bring out the best in the country. Our national foods such as jollof rice are already worldwide sensations and Wike’s deft hands in the kitchen would work additional wonders for the servings.