THE Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, has attributed the political crisis between him and his successor, Governor Siminalayi Fubara, to what he described as the governor’s biggest mistakes of attempting to do things alone and trying to establish his own political structure too early after assuming office.
News Point Nigeria reports that Wike said he was shocked that Fubara began moves to build an independent political structure when he had barely spent 100 days in office, arguing that the development showed the governor had undermined those who supported his emergence and the political structure that brought him to power.
The former Rivers State governor made the remarks during a special media chat held in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, on Saturday.
According to Wike, he left office after laying a solid developmental foundation which he expected Fubara to build upon so that Rivers State could gradually close the infrastructure gap with Lagos State.
He, however, said he later discovered that the governor had different plans.
Wike recalled that his administration initiated the multi-billion-naira Port Harcourt Ring Road project linking several local government areas before he left office, describing it as one of the legacy projects conceived under his leadership.
He also noted that his administration constructed 12 flyovers, all of which were commissioned before he handed over power, adding that the projects significantly improved infrastructure and enhanced the aesthetics of Port Harcourt and its surrounding areas.
The FCT minister stressed that politicians must exercise caution in their political decisions, insisting that the mistakes made by Fubara had widened the development gap he had hoped to narrow between Rivers and Lagos states.
“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,” Wike said.
He recalled that before handing over power, he held a thanksgiving church service during which he advised Fubara on the enormous opportunity before him.
“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 stated.
Wike further alleged that one of the major problems confronting Fubara was that he began listening to people who wanted him to fail shortly after assuming office, including individuals who had wanted to become governor themselves.
According to him, those individuals encouraged Fubara to begin a political confrontation with him.
“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. Some 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.”
Wike maintained that Fubara attempted to establish his own political structure against the very structure that produced him, insisting that signs of the development became obvious within the governor’s first 100 days in office.
“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 added.
Reflecting on his own tenure as governor, Wike said he remained focused throughout his administration, a quality he credited for his achievements and which he had expected his successor to emulate.
“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,” he stated.
Responding to allegations that he demanded money from Governor Fubara, Wike dismissed the claims, saying such accusations were common whenever political disagreements emerged.
He questioned why he would seek money from Fubara when, as Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, he oversees an administration with a budget comparable to that of many state governments.
According to him, his only interest was to ensure stability in Rivers State and for Fubara to consolidate on the developmental foundation he had 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.”
Highlighting what he described as his performance in the FCT, Wike said the administration had significantly increased the territory’s Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) since he assumed office.
“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 achieve 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.