A former Bayelsa State governorship candidate, Udengs Eradiri, has said the performance of the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, has exposed what he described as the poor performance of many state governors across the country.
Eradiri, who is also a former President of the Ijaw Youth Council (IYC) Worldwide, said Wike had transformed the FCT within the resources available to him in less than four years. He added that the minister had significantly narrowed the development gap between Abuja city and the satellite towns.
In a statement issued in Port Harcourt on Sunday, Eradiri argued that Wike’s achievements had demonstrated that Nigeria’s development challenges were largely linked to the leadership style of many governors and local government chairmen rather than the Federal Government.
The statement read, “Wike’s performance has taught us that the problems of underdevelopment in Nigeria have little or nothing to do with the Federal Government, but a lot to do with many state governors and local government chairmen, who deliberately misuse, misappropriate and misdirect the enormous resources accruing to their states.
“Most of these governors have shown no commitment, dedication, desire or passion to execute people-oriented infrastructural projects capable of transforming their states and improving the lives of the people.
“They are only driven by their selfish and family interests, and they see the commonwealth of the state as their personal resources.”
Eradiri described Wike’s stewardship as a benchmark for evaluating the implementation of President Bola Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda. He noted that within the past 30 days, the President and the FCT minister had commissioned completed projects while also flagging off new ones across Abuja and the satellite communities.
He further stated that Wike’s commitment to infrastructure development had enabled him to overcome bureaucratic and procurement hurdles, while ensuring contractors executed projects according to specifications and within agreed timelines.
“Wike’s projects are designed to touch the lives of the common people, develop rural areas and make everybody see and enjoy the true dividends of democracy. His developmental objectives involve completing projects abandoned for many years before the administration of President Tinubu and fulfilling the President’s promises to the people.
“If a minister could deliver such a number of high-impact, people-oriented and high-quality projects within a single term, why are many governors failing to transform their states despite the huge resources accruing to them, especially under President Tinubu’s administration?
“Why do we still have many abandoned projects in states, with many communities wallowing in abject poverty without access roads?
“Why do we still have communities without basic amenities such as electricity, functional primary healthcare centres and potable water? The truth is that most of these governors are grossly incompetent and have no business in governance,” Eradiri said.
He maintained that Wike’s performance in the FCT should encourage Nigerians to demand greater accountability from their governors and reject what he described as attempts by state governments to blame the Federal Government for poor governance.
Eradiri said, “With the huge revenue allocations accruing to the states following the economic reforms of President Tinubu, the people should not tolerate any excuses for poor performance from their governors, and no governor should hide under rising costs or exchange rate fluctuations to deceive the people.”
