A former governorship candidate in Bayelsa State, Udengs Eradiri, has said the performance of the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, in Abuja has exposed what he described as the poor performance of many state governors.
Eradiri, a former President of the Ijaw Youth Council Worldwide, said Wike had transformed the Federal Capital Territory within the resources available to him in less than four years.
In a statement issued in Port Harcourt on Sunday, the former IYC president also said the FCT minister had bridged the developmental gap between Abuja city and its satellite towns.
The statement read, “Wike’s performance has taught us that the problems of underdevelopment in Nigeria have little or nothing to do with the Federal Government, but a lot to do with many state governors and local government chairmen, who deliberately misuse, misappropriate and misdirect the enormous resources accruing to their states.
“Most of these governors have shown no commitment, dedication, desire or passion to execute people-oriented infrastructural projects capable of transforming their states and improving the lives of the people.
“They are only driven by their selfish and family interests, and they see the commonwealth of the state as their personal resources.”
Eradiri said Wike’s performance had become a benchmark for assessing the impact of President Bola Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda, noting that over the past 30 days, the minister and the President had continued to inaugurate completed projects and flag off new ones across the FCT and its satellite towns.
He added that Wike’s passion for development had enabled him to break bureaucratic and procurement bottlenecks while ensuring contractors delivered projects according to specifications and within agreed timelines.
“Wike’s projects are designed to touch the lives of the common people, develop rural areas and make everybody see and enjoy the true dividends of democracy. His developmental objectives involve completing projects abandoned for many years before the administration of President Tinubu and fulfilling the President’s promises to the people.
“If a minister could deliver such a number of high-impact, people-oriented and high-quality projects within a single term, why are many governors failing to transform their states despite the huge resources accruing to them, especially under President Tinubu’s administration?
“Why do we still have many abandoned projects in states, with many communities wallowing in abject poverty without access roads?
“Why do we still have communities without basic amenities such as electricity, functional primary healthcare centres and potable water? The truth is that most of these governors are grossly incompetent and have no business in governance,” Eradiri said.
He maintained that the former Rivers State governor’s performance in the FCT should remind Nigerians to hold their governors accountable and resist what he described as attempts by state governments to shift blame to the Federal Government.
