The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, has said the biggest mistakes made by his successor, Governor Siminalayi Fubara, were trying to do things alone and attempting to build his own political structure too early after assuming office.
Wike said it was shocking that Fubara started moving to build his political structure when he was *barely 100 days* into office, a development he said clearly showed the governor undermined those who supported him and the political structure that brought him to power.
Wike stated this during a special media chat in Port Harcourt on Saturday monitored by us.
The FCT minister said while leaving office as governor, he had laid a solid foundation which he wanted Fubara to build on so Rivers State could gradually catch up with Lagos in terms of infrastructure.
“My thinking is that we do need to compete with Lagos. We have laid the foundation, he should be able to continue from there, we will give you all the necessary support,” Wike said.
He cited the multi-billion-naira Port Harcourt Ring Road project linking several LGAs which had already commenced before he handed over, describing it as a legacy project he conceived.
He also said he built 12 flyovers which were commissioned while he was governor, adding that they improved infrastructure and aesthetics in Port Harcourt and environs.
Wike blamed part of Fubara’s problems on bad advice from people who wanted him to fail.
“But listen, in this game you have your stone base, you have your village relation, you have all kinds and manner of people. Some will mean well for you, some will not mean well for you,” he said.
“Now you just came to office, somebody now comes… 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.”
The minister said the moment a leader disagrees with his political base, the only narrative used against them is “they are asking me for money.”
“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.”
Asked if he had demanded money from Governor Fubara as rumoured, Wike debunked the allegation.
“If it was money that we were asking for we wouldn’t have prevailed… 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,” he said.
He added that IGR for FCT had risen from N8 billion monthly to N40 billion monthly since he assumed office.
“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.
So his mistake led to where it is too far in the day the difference between us and Lagos,” Wike added.
He recalled his 31 days of commissioning and flag-off of projects, saying: “We were focused but you see, he lost focus here.”