Since assuming Office as Minister of the Federal Capital Territory Administration, FCTA, Mr. Nyesom Wike, has been talking tough, demonstrating that he means business.
The former governor of Rivers State is known for his infrastructural exploit as well as gruffy voice and excoriation of political opponents.
It is imperative to remind the minister that as urgent as the task of restoring Abuja to its pride of place as a model city, there are constitutional orders in place which should guide his decisions and actions.
This stems from the worrying signals he emitted at his inaugural briefing on assumption of office, last week. It is a fact that many things have gone wrong with the Federal Capital City owing to administrative initiative, corruption, ill-motivated bureaucracy and poor enforcement and implementation of policies and laws governing the administration of the territory.
At present, the much-hyped Abuja Master Plan has been implemented in breach rather than it was envisaged so much so that sticking to the original plan will cost billions and create unimaginable social and economic dislocation.
Insecurity seems to be the order of the day as there is hardly a week that kidnapping does not take place in one part or the other of the territory. Added to this is the indiscriminate mushrooming of illegal settlements, motor parks and their attendant consequences as well as abandoned infrastructures of the government.
Take the Utako General Hospital that has been abandoned for years? Today, it is a refuge for squatters and accompanying vices.
Land racketeering is now the new normal with administration officers leading the charge with scrupulous land speculators leading to over the roof cost of land and property in Abuja.
With all these, it is apparent that the minister’s job is cut for him. However, it is not as easy as that. For a discerning leader, it will have been wiser for him to take the next few weeks to understand the intricacies of the Abuja bureaucracy and the politics of the city with its diverse population and the place of the original inhabitants of the territory and the unending resettlement quagmire.
Central to his being successful other than having the backing of President Tinubu is to get the buy-in of the populace by situating his policy thrust. It is not enough to issue threats and ultimatums even before looking into the books of the FCTA.
It was only last Thursday that he received the handovers notes from Mr. Olusade Adesola, permanent secretary of the FCTA, after having riled and railed.
While we agree that Abuja requires the political will to achieve the objective of its founding fathers, Mr. Wike ought to know that with years of tinkering and sometimes administrative waivers on certain developments, the word REVIEW does not exist in a vacuum.
It will do well for the minister to look at where review is feasible with least cost in human and economic casualty rather than the insistence on implementing the Master Plan to the latter.
Further, it is good to hear him say he is on the seat as political-neutral. But how that is feasible when he is serving in an opposition government he helped to power is another kettle. It will be fascinating to see the minister balance out political patronage and his known persuasion against many of those in his Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.
He should resist the temptation to move against property and officials of the PDP so as to stay focused on addressing the social fracture and infrastructural decay that has assailed the FCT.
To do otherwise is to invite litigations and many other distractions. But we at The Abuja Inquirer are confident that if he sticks to the rules, motivate the workforce, convey his vision and mission eloquently to the residents and all those within the territory, he will cement his place in history in making Abuja a liveable model city that can be counted amongst other capital cities of the world.
