- Safiu Kehinde
Nigerian activist and 2023 Presidential candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC), Omoyele Sowore, has knocked the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Minister, Nyesom Wike, over alleged waste of public fund on projects commissioning thanksgiving.
NPO earlier Reported that the FCT Minister had on Sunday held thanksgiving ceremony at the St. James Anglican church in Asokoro area of Abuja to mark the end of his 16 days project commissioning marathon.
Reacting in a post on his official X handle on Sunday, Sowore faulted the commissioning of the completed project.
He described the commissioning as insane, archaic, and waste of taxpayers time and money.
The Sahara Reporters publisher called for a working system and not ribbon-cutting.
“Oh gosh! Nigeria is a joke. When will this madness end?
Imagine organizing a church Thanksgiving service just to commission a project.
“First of all, you don’t “commission” a project; once it’s completed, it should be put to use immediately, not staged like a movie premiere.
“This nonsense of blocking highways, gathering praise-singers, and wasting taxpayers’ time and money to unveil a project is insane, archaic, and unserious.
“We don’t need a ribbon-cutting. We need working systems.
“We need dignity, NOT madness, in governance.” Sowore wrote.
Also reacting in a post on his Instagram page was social media influencer and activist, Isaac Fayose, who decried the amount spent on inviting media houses for live coverage of the event.
He said the money could have been spent on purchase of MRI machines for hospitals and payment of students school fees other than organizing thanks giving for few commissioned projects which include roads that are allegedly less than 100 kilometres.
“You want to know how daft we are in Africa, you don’t need to go too far. They are doing thanks giving.
“They paid different television stations with millions of Naira to go and do thanksgiving in church for inaugurating project that are paid for by taxpayers’ money.
“Look at them doing thanksgiving for road projects that are up to 100 kilometres. Children are at home. Teachers have not been paid. Staff, they just called off their strike for underpayment.
“But they have paid this so many TV stations to come and do thanksgiving.
“There they will pay offering and 10 percent tithe of our hard-earned money, taxpayers money. Is this not mental when you check their brain?
“How do you explain things like this? You that you live abroad or you live even in Ghana or Togo. Do they do this? Is this even normal?
“You ask yourself for just commissioning few flyover bridge, roads that less than 100 kilometres, you are now doing thanksgiving.
“How are we going to get out of this mess? This is a total mess that we don’t even want our unborn children to meet this kind of mess.
“How do you explain this? How much they are spending on media alone.
“The money that can pay school fees, buy MRI machine for our hospitals, they are spending it on live TV programme, doing thanksgiving.”Fayose said.