The African Democratic Congress (ADC) has accused the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, of panicking over the growing momentum of the newly unveiled opposition coalition. In a strongly worded statement issued on Thursday by Spokesman of the Coalition Movement Mal. Bolaji Abdullahi, the party described Wike’s recent media outburst as a sign of “mortal fear” triggered by the threat the coalition poses to the current administration. The ADC said Wike’s attacks on coalition leaders betray deep anxiety over the government’s failure to meet public expectations and growing discontent across the country.
The statement reads, “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.”
