- Safiu Kehinde
The African Democratic Congress (ADC) has slammed the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Minister, Nyesom Wike, stressing that his attack on leaders of the coalition party was borne out of fear.
NPO Reported that Wike had at his monthly media parley held in Abuja yesterday trolled the opposition leaders.
The FCT Minister had profiled each of the opposition leaders, highlighting their respective failures during their time in office which he satirically claimed to have never upset Nigerians.
Starting with David Mark, Wike accused him of establishing no project at his constituency during his eight years in office.
He would also troll former Rivers State Governor, Rotimi Amaechi over the Chinese loan he took which left Nigeria indebted during his time as Transportation Minister.
Other leaders who came under the FCT Minister’s verbal truce included former Osun State Governor and interim ADC National Secretary, Rauf Aregbesola, and former Sokoto State Governor, Aminu Tambuwal.
Responding to Wike in a statement issued on Thursday, the ADC’s spokesperson, Bolaji Abdullahi, held that Wike’s attack signalled his mortal fear of the threat poised by the successful unveiling of the coalition of opposition political parties constitutes to the government that he serves.
Abdullahi maintained that the coalition movement would not have been necessary if the President Bola Tinubu-led administration had fulfilled its promises to Nigerians.
The President’s failure, according to the ADC spokesperson, birthed the grievances of the coalition group.
Abdullahi further accused Wike of non-payment of FCT Teachers’ salaries and poor welfare of workers under his administration while commissioning what he labelled as ‘white elephant project’.
The FCT Minister was also accused of being used by the All Progressives Congress (APC) to destroy the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
The statement read; “The African Democratic Congress (ADC) has taken note of the virulent attacks launched on the various leaders of the coalition movement by the Hon. Minister of Federal Capital Territory, Chief Nyesom Wike in his media chat today.
“Without justifying this behaviour that we find incompatible with the office of a Federal Minister, we believe Minister Wike could only descend to that level because of his mortal fear of the threat that the successful unveiling of the coalition of opposition political parties constitutes to the government that he serves.
“We observe that if minister Wike and the government that he serves had kept their promises to the Nigerian people, the coalition movement would not have been necessary and he would not have had a need to be so jittery.
“If minister Wike had paid the salaries of primary school teachers who have been on strike for several months and if he had not treated FCT workers with so much contempt, while he goes about commissioning white elephant projects running into billions of Naira, he would have had no need to be afraid of the coalition.
“Minister Wike claimed in his media chat that the coalition leaders are driven only by grievances.
“If we have any grievances, it is the way the government he is a part of has driven majority of Nigerians into poverty and misery. We are aggrieved to see children of the poor unable to get education because he would not pay their teachers’ salaries.
“We are aggrieved to watch the growing insecurity in the FCT that he superintends. We are aggrieved that minister Wike had allowed himself to be used by the government he serves to destroy one of the most powerful political parties in Africa, the PDP.
“But it is rather too late in the day to cry. The coalition movement belongs to the Nigerian people who had been promised renewed hope, but have been served renewed hopelessness.
“Therefore, no amount of tirade against the leaders of the coalition could stem the tide of this popular movement.”