The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, has said the greatest errors committed by his successor, Siminalayi Fubara, were attempting to govern in isolation and trying to establish his own political structure too soon after taking office as governor.
Wike said he was surprised that Fubara began efforts to create a separate political base when he had spent less than 100 days in office.
According to him, the move showed that the governor failed to appreciate those who supported him and the political machinery that brought him to power.
Wike spoke during a special media chat held in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, on Saturday and monitored by our correspondent.
The FCT minister said that before leaving office as governor, he had laid a strong foundation which he expected Fubara to build upon so Rivers could gradually compete with Lagos in infrastructure, but he later realised that his successor had a different agenda.
Wike said he initiated the multi-billion-naira Port Harcourt Ring Road project connecting several local government areas, which had already started before he handed over to the current governor, describing it as a legacy initiative he conceived.
He said he constructed 12 flyovers, all of which were commissioned while he remained governor of the oil-rich state, adding that they improved the infrastructure and appearance of Port Harcourt and surrounding communities.
While stressing that politicians must be careful in their actions, Wike said the mistake made by Fubara had further widened the development gap he hoped to narrow between Lagos and Rivers states.
Wike stated, “In politics you have to be careful. There are those who want you to succeed and make a name. The opportunity that you have been given, not everybody that has that opportunity. There are those who are not happy who don’t want you to be there, and you have to be very careful.
“Remember before I handed over to governor Fubara we did a church service and I did say that you have been elected. Few days you will be sworn in, Now what do you want to achieve? See where I have stopped. My thinking is that we do need to compete with Lagos. We have laid the foundation, he (Fubara) should be able to continue from there, we will give you all the necessary support.”
He said part of Fubara’s challenge was that very early in his administration, he began listening to people who wanted him to fail, including individuals who had hoped to occupy the office he currently holds, adding that they were the ones who encouraged him to confront him politically.
“But listen, in this game you have your stone base (support), you have your village relation, you have all kinds and manner of people. There are those who will mean well for you, there are those who will not mean well for you.
“Now you just came to office, somebody now comes, yes he is trying to support you. Must it be his name? Why not try now to put yourself and people know that it is you.
“Yes you came through him but it is now you; all kinds of manner of things. Some will even go through your wife. Some people will go through your in-laws. So people will go through your father and all kinds of things. So it now behoves on you to sit and say, this kind of advice, where will it lead me to?
“You have to think well. If you make the mistake which he made by saying that yes I can do it alone, those who gave me support I don’t care, I don’t need them. Those who didn’t want you will come in. There is no way anybody who didn’t want you to be in a position will want you to succeed.
“Yes, he tried to do it by himself and he wanted to set up his own structure as against the structure that built him. In fact it did not take up to 100 days and we saw it. We said something must be fundamentally wrong. Forget about people who say you were asking him for money. You know one thing in politics is that the moment you disagree on an issue, the only thing you can use to get the support of the people is that they are asking me for money.”
He recalled that during his tenure as governor, he remained focused, which he said accounted for his achievements and his desire for his successor to continue the same path for the benefit of the state.
“You (referring to one of the journalists) have said here that Nigerians were astonished by me taking 31 days of commission and flag off which no governor in this country has ever done. We were focused but you see, he (Fubara) lost focus here.”
Responding to rumours that he demanded money from Governor Fubara, Wike dismissed the allegation, saying such claims often surface whenever political disagreements occur.
Wike questioned why he would seek money from Fubara when he currently serves as FCT minister with a budget comparable to that of a state government, insisting that his only interest was for the governor to stabilise Rivers and build on the foundation already laid.
“If it was money that we were asking for we wouldn’t have prevailed. But we said look this is a political group that worked hard it will be too wrong, too early for anybody to give you this advice. We said look what do I want, Minister of the Federal Capital Territory. It’s just like a governor.”
I present my own budget, The budget of the FCT this year is about N1.8 trillion, So I don’t know what I want. All I wanted was to look, stabilize the place, move on from where I stopped, and I laid a fantastic foundation so we will be able to compete with Lagos.
“Look as I went to the FCT the money FCT was collecting monthly as IGR (Internally Generated Revenue) was N8 billion. But as I speak to you today we have hit up to N40 billion monthly. That is people who want to work, who want to achieved result,
“So his mistake led to where it is too far in the day the difference between us (Rivers) and Lagos,” the former Rivers State governor added.
