By Teddy Nwanunobi
A former governorship candidate in Bayelsa State, Udengs Eradiri, has said that the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, has bridged the developmental gap between Abuja city and its satellite towns.
The former President of the Ijaw Youth Council Worldwide (IYCW) pointed out that Wike’s passion for development has enabled him to break bureaucratic and procurement bottlenecks, while ensuring contractors delivered projects according to specifications and within agreed timelines.
Eradiri, who made this known in a statement on Sunday, said Wike had transformed the FCT within the resources available to him in less than four years.
“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 in a statement on Sunday.
According to him, Wike’s performance in Abuja has exposed what he described as the poor performance of many state governors.
“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,” the statement read.
Eradiri said Wike’s performance had become a benchmark for assessing the impact of President Bola Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda, noting that over the past 30 days, the minister and the President had continued to inaugurate completed projects and flag off new ones across the FCT and its satellite towns.
He maintained that the former Rivers State Governor’s performance in the FCT should remind Nigerians to hold their governors accountable and resist what he described as attempts by state governments to shift blame to the Federal Government.
“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.
“It is within the same economic climate and challenges that Minister Wike is delivering the common good to the people and transforming both the FCT and its satellite towns. It is high time governors translated their groundbreaking ceremonies into project inaugurations in the same way Wike has been doing,” Eradiri said.
He urged governors to channel increased revenues towards addressing infrastructure deficits in both urban and rural communities.
“They should justify the revenue surge to their states by delivering tangible projects the way the FCT minister has done in Abuja. The people will no longer tolerate excuses,” he added.