The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, on Wednesday dismissed the political interpretations trailing his recent visit to the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, Nentawe Yilwatda, insisting that private interactions should not be blown into partisan controversy.
The visit, had widely circulated online after photographs emerged late Tuesday, prompting speculation on the timing and intent of Wike’s stop at the APC chairman’s Abuja residence.
But speaking with journalists after inspecting some ongoing road projects in Karu, Apo-Karshi and Gbazango, Wike said the reactions were needless and a misunderstanding of personal association.
According to the minister, “That is their business. Whatever they think is their business, it’s their headache. When the former chairman of the Labour Party visited me in my house, what were they thinking? I don’t play politics of enmity. I don’t do that.”
He rejected suggestions that the engagement had political undertones, instead explaining that the visit was a courtesy to the APC chairman who had made several unsuccessful attempts to see him at the FCTA. He added that the stop over was simply an opportunity to listen to what the chairman had been trying to discuss.
“So, if the National Party chairman of APC, who was trying to see me severally and couldn’t see, and then I said okay let me go and see him in his house. What’s wrong with that?
“Whatever anybody wants to think. I don’t care about what people say. What’s important to me is what I’m doing for my people, my job that is assigned to me to do. It is not about what somebody on the road is thinking or their perception. That’s not my business. My business is, are you doing what is right? Are you carrying out your duties dutifully? And once I’m satisfied and my appointor is satisfied, I don’t give a damn.”
Pressed on why he did not issue a formal briefing after the visit, the minister said he owed no public explanation for what he described as a private moment.
“Did I go there for any meeting? I mean, why would I tell you about my private life? If I come to visit you to have a drink with you, so I will tell the whole world that I’m going there to have a drink with you? Who has ever told me when they go for their own drink? Come on.”
He questioned the logic of treating routine social encounters as political manoeuvres. “So if I see any APC person on the road, I shouldn’t talk to the person. Or if any PDP person is seen by an APC person, the APC should not relate to the person simply because we are playing politics.”
Wike reminded Nigerians that Yilwatda and himself served together at the federal cabinet before the APC chairman’s elevation to party leadership.
“We were all colleagues before he left for the chairmanship of APC. So what I should do, if I see him, I will hide? Anytime he sees me, he should run away so people will not say something?”
The minister also used the inspection tour to evaluate ongoing works across Karu, Apo-Karshi and Gbazango, expressing satisfaction with the pace and quality of delivery ahead of the administration’s third anniversary.
From the newly constructed Karu roads handled by local contractor Abdul Val, to the long-awaited Apo-Karshi corridor being executed by SCC, and the Gbazango road project currently managed by Zeberced, he said the teams had kept to both standards and timelines.
“So we’re happy, and I’ll commend the contractors, particularly Zeberced where we are now, for keeping to time,” he said. “One thing is doing a quality job, and another thing is keeping to the timeline.”
He added that several of the inspected roads were being lined up for inauguration as part of the third anniversary activities, which he described as shaping up to be “full of activities”.
