BY AHMED AKANBI
The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Nyesom Wike, has defended President Bola Tinubu’s removal of petrol subsidy, saying it was a difficult but necessary decision that has boosted allocations to states and local governments.
Wike spoke during a town hall meeting with stakeholders of the Rainbow Coalition in Bonny Local Government Area of Rivers State, where he urged residents to back Tinubu’s re-election in 2027.
He said successive presidents described subsidy as a scam but lacked the courage to remove it because of its political cost.
”Each time a president comes, fuel subsidy is a scam. What have you done with it? Another president will come, fuel subsidy is a scam. What have you done? Nobody has been able to take a courageous decision,” he said.
Wike admitted that the removal, effected shortly after Tinubu assumed office in May 2023, raised petrol prices and cost of living, but insisted it improved the country’s finances.
According to him, states now receive at least N15 billion monthly in federal allocation, excluding other inflows, a sharp rise from what obtained when he became Rivers governor in 2015.
He argued that the extra revenue should translate to better infrastructure, education and services, and urged sub-national governments to account for how they utilise it.
”Sometimes, it requires leadership that can take decisions that are so hard and necessary for the progress of the organisation, the kingdom or the country,” Wike said.
The minister cited improved industrial harmony in public universities, claiming no strikes in the last three years, and the completion of the long-promised Bonny-Bodo Road as dividends of Tinubu’s reforms.
”The advantage is that we can now go by road to Bonny. Administrations have come, and this road has become a political road. It is not today. So many governments have said, ‘We will try,’ but thank God, under the administration of the present president, this road has been completed,” he said.
Wike urged Nigerians to judge leaders by their records, not promises, and questioned opposition figures seeking office without tangible achievements.
He also revisited Rivers’ finances under a former administration, alleging $39 million was paid for the proposed 1,000-bed Justice Karibi-Whyte Hospital without foundation work, and that $308 million realised from sale of a power plant in December 2014 had dwindled to $308,000 by May 2015.
The claims were made by Wike and could not be independently verified at press time.
Earlier, at the palace of the Amanyanabo of Bonny Kingdom, King Edward Asimini William Dappa Pepple III, Wike said his engagements were to discuss national developments ahead of 2027, while the monarch hailed him as a longstanding ally who supported the Bonny Polytechnic and the Bonny-Bodo Road project.