An All Progressives Congress (APC) chieftain, Yakubu Sani, has urged the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, to desist from attacking leaders of the ruling party, especially its governors.
In a statement he issued at the weekend, he said the Minister’s frequent attacks on the APC governors do not augur well for President Bola Tinubu and the party’s leadership.
Sani, who is the founder of the Arewa Mandate Alliance (AMA), particularly deplored Wike’s relentless attacks on the chairman of the Progressive Governors Forum (PGF), Hope Uzodimma, saying the actions tend to denigrate the entire body of APC governors.
The AMA founder urged the FCT Minister to emulate the Imo State Governor, Uzodimma, by adopting mature, decent and respectable engagements instead of using public engagements to attack political opponents.
Sani observed that Uzodimma has concentrated on improving the welfare of Imo residents and organising the “largest and most effective Governors Forum of any political party in our history,” without making personal attacks on political opponents a feature of his public engagements.
He urged the FCT Minister to stop turning the commissioning of roads, bridges and other infrastructure into platforms for denigrating APC governors and fellow colleagues working for the same president.
“Wike should learn from Uzodimma. The Imo governor is working and organising quietly without abusing anybody. He is concentrating on governance, delivering projects and organising the largest support base for the President,” he said.
The APC chieftain reminded Wike that his primary responsibility as FCT Minister was to deliver on the mandate given to him by President Bola Tinubu and improve living conditions in the nation’s capital.
“Every road and bridge commissioned in Abuja should be an opportunity to talk about development, not an occasion to abuse or denigrate perceived obstacles to his unbridled and rabid political ambition,” he said.
Sani warned that Wike’s increasingly combative political rhetoric could overshadow the infrastructure projects executed under the Tinubu administration.
He advised the Minister to allow the projects being delivered under his watch to speak for his performance rather than engage in political exchanges at commissioning ceremonies.
More importantly, he urged Wike to broaden his definition of development beyond roads and bridges to include constant provision of water and guiding taxi drivers to establish order on Abuja roads.
“While Wike is building roads and bridges, he should also be asking what is happening to the welfare of teachers, healthcare workers and civil servants in the FCT,” he said.
The politician also raised concerns over inadequate water supply, indiscriminate parking and refuse disposal in many parts of the capital city.
“Many FCT residents don’t have water, while motorists compete with refuse dumps for space on major roads in the city. This leads to obstruction as vehicles are parked indiscriminately on motorways,” he observed.
He maintained that infrastructure could not substitute for functional public institutions and motivated personnel, stressing that the quality of education, healthcare and other public services was equally important to residents.
“You cannot build beautiful roads and bridges and ignore the people who teach our children, treat our sick and run the machinery of the government. Their welfare should also be a priority,” he said.
He advised Wike to devote greater attention to the administration of the FCT, improve workers’ welfare and reduce what he described as unnecessary political confrontations.
“President Tinubu gave Wike a job to do in Abuja. He should concentrate on that job. Let the quality of his work speak for him instead of using every commissioning ceremony to attack APC governors who are committed to Tinubu’s re-election,” he said.
The APC chieftain added that Wike could strengthen his political standing by demonstrating that governance, rather than political combat, remained the central focus of his tenure as FCT Minister.
