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…unveils plans to award popular Arab road in Kubwa contract soon
…says what is happening to PDP is just self-inflicted for nothing

This is a continuation from yesterday’s media briefing by FCT minister Nyesom Wike published in series.

By Emmanuel Agaji

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Are you telling me seriously that the rate of crime has not come down now in Abuja?

Let us not be too emotional. Take, for example, you said that Arise lady which everybody had heard about her death, I don’t believe because it is Arise. I don’t believe because it is Channel. It’s our responsibility, it doesn’t matter who to protect lives and properties, not who is involved.

All these things you are saying now is because a colleague of yours is involved and that means it is a spike.
But if another person dies, you won’t bother about it. You should give us that benefit to say that look, security agencies have done well.

The rate of crime in Abuja has drastically reduced. That does not mean that you cannot see any crime being committed.

All over the world, every day you wake up, crime is being committed here and there. But that does not mean that security agencies are not tackling it.

So when you talk about the spike, what is your statistics? Just because a colleague of yours, something happened yesterday, that means there is a spike. You have no statistics.

Let us talk about statistics. Is there any way in which the FCT really measures the progress in the areas where it is tackling? For instance security, health, education, looking at maybe, for instance, children who are not going to school, how children are performing; is the FCT considering also measuring the effort that it is making and the effect that it is really having? So that when issues like this come up, when there is talk of a spike, you can actually counter with fact and figures.

Look at how you talked about statistics. Take for example, at the end of every year, take for example, in terms of security now, we know incidents that have taken place. We know attacks that took place. So we will be able to say, look, from January to December, for example, we had incidents of kidnapping, 20 incidents, for example. We have armed robbery attacks, say, 10. We have assassinations, say, 5.

And then you compare, as at 2024, what we had about kidnapping was 3, for example. Now you can now say, oh, in terms of kidnapping, the number increased in 2025 as against 2024. That is when you talk about statistics.

So it is not a question of if something happened yesterday then because of that incident, you now say, oh, that is a spike. Meanwhile, in the past 4-5 months, you have not heard of anything. That is the point I am trying to make.

But just before we get to politics, just one more question on Abuja issue. I am asking this question because I understand that you have been there. I had the misfortune of being on that road on a rainy day. It is a road in Kubwa called Arab Road and I understand you have been there and you expressed displeasure about how those who were doing quarry work on that axis spoil that very massive road and all of that. What is the plan going forward to address the problem of that road because it is a very major road?

No, I don’t agree with you. Every road is major. It is not because it is a quarry there therefore, it becomes a major road. Every road that is being used by citizens should be attended to. I don’t like the situation where because you have an interest or maybe you have a friend who has an interest and then you make that road to be so special, no.

Anyway, we have discussed that with a company called Zeberced and we have told them that look, you are operating here and so you are forced also to make some contributions.

It is a road that in the next few weeks, we will award it. I hope you are happy now, so, you will tell your friend that that road will be awarded.

As a PDP man, you were quoted in one of your most recent outings saying there will be a political tsunami soon. It is Tinubu all the way. I believe Nigerians deserve to know what that statement meant really.

No, I didn’t say that it is Tinubu all the way, that there will be a tsunami.

A political tsunami, these were your words, Minister.

Well, tsunami has been happening. Don’t you see people leaving their panties and that’s tsunami.

But I believe Nigerians would really want to know if this tsunami is in favour of the APC and, of course, the Tinubu led administration like you have always asserted that you will support come 2027.

I don’t know about whether the political tsunami will be in favour of the APC. All I know is that there will be political tsunamis.

But you lamented that you are not happy about what is happening to your party. The gains of the APC is the loss of your party.

I have always said it from day one. So, the issue is not about that I lamented. From day one, I have said that with what is going on, if it continues to go on, that PDP will continue to lose. I have said it severally. And that if things are not done properly, we will regret it and that’s what is happening today.

The Governors of Enugu State and Bayelsa States, who had left the People’s Democratic Party to the All Progressives Congress alongside two other senators. How did this news come about to you, particularly as a PDP man?

How would it come about to me? Have I not said that so many governors would leave, is this the first time you have heard me say so? It’s very embarrassing. The governor was the chairman of the Convention Committee, it is very embarrassing. Diri was the chairman of the Zoning Committee even though I knew from the beginning that they were all playing games, I knew it from the beginning, I said it before. There is nothing I said that has not come to pass. Tell me one.

A lot of people say you are still bitter about losing out to the former vice president in that primary of the People’s Democratic Party. Since that time that you vowed to pull the house down.

Which house?

The People’s Democratic Party.

The house that  died since.

That you are the main person dividing the party. 

Well, I don’t know about dividing the party, let me tell you. I have said before. When you do the right thing, you get the right result.

What do you want from the People’s Democratic Party?

What I want is that the right thing should be done.

How and what is the right thing?

Okay, take for example talking about the right thing. Remember, I told them that look, when the issue of secretary started here, I said, what you are doing is wrong, follow due process. They said they are  governors they will decide. I said no, it is not done that way.

You saw what happened at the end of the day, the matter got to the Supreme Court, even when the Supreme Court decided, it was still a problem. I said this will kill the party, allow it.

Till when the convention is almost there. No opposition party carries on impunity in this way. The opposition party is to put themselves together, to take over power from the ruling party.

But in this case, you appear not to be interested. All you are interested in is, look, we are governors, anything we decide to do, we will go ahead, whether it will help you or not, is immaterial.

And I was a governor and I told people and when you say, oh, when you were a governor, were you not doing the same thing? I said okay. If I did it yesterday and it favoured me. It does not mean that if you do it today, it will favour you. Circumstances change and therefore, you must be very careful. What is happening to PDP is just self-inflicted for nothing.

 Your former colleague, Kabiru Turaki, has been endorsed by some North-West leaders including former acting chairman, Ahmed Makarfi, who was also a former governor and all of that. But then, just last night, we heard the Umar Bature, National Organising Secretary and some other stakeholders, too, from the same North-West, coming to say that they are against that. And some feelers are saying that maybe you are linked to this Umar Bature factor who he claims that his signature was allegedly forged to send to INEC. What is your view on all of this?

Tell me. If it happens in the West, it is me. If it happens in the North, it is me. When you take the wrong step, you will achieve nothing. I have told you before. The problem we had because we are governors. I have said this. You go and take a decision, and then you sideline certain people. What do you expect to have? You have a faction.

Is that not embarrassing?

I don’t want to even talk about the national convention. What is the National Convention? What are you in the National Convention for? Why are you not following due process in the National Convention?

I have said it and I will continue to say it. The moment you think that you can sideline certain people, and nothing will happen, you cause a major crisis in the party.

What are you doing to rescue the party?

We were governors before. It has never happened. Let me just tell you this. When Buhari was in power, there was nothing the government then did not do for PDP to scatter. There was nothing. In fact, Modu Sheriff was being used to scatter PDP then. We stood firm and made sure the party was strong. You can see clearly. Now, there is not even any attempt by any government to try to put a party that you are the one on your own, destroying your party.
The party claims the APC has a hand in all of this.

Listen. I said we were governors. Who claimed? Who is pursuing who? I had a major threat as a governor. That alone would have made me to say, okay, let me better go and join to save my head. Is it not correct, I never. There was no governor that was fought the way the government fought me at that time.

Yeah, but you just mentioned a major threat, what was the threat?

No, no. I said then. The point I am making now is that every day you say APC. Every day you say, why do we have to allow a one-party state? Are you telling me that take for example, this is a ruling party and you are the opposition party. It is the duty of the ruling party to beg you to put your house in order so that we won’t have a one-party state. Who does that?

That said that is why they brought you into government, a one-man government of national unity, yourself and Asiwaju doing a one-man government of national unity. The PDP did not sanction officially your coming into this government of national unity with the APC.

It is not correct.

You said, yes, you acclaimed that you got permission to get into this government. But the PDP just seemed to be going down. And people say, with the role Rivers State has played, people like you over the years, are you not worried, sir? What more can you do? Just like you brought peace to Rivers State, how can you bring peace to PDP, sir?

I have told you several times. You have asked me this question severally. Let us do the right thing. We don’t need to act with impunity. Look, I am FCT minister, for Christ’s sake. Forget about whatever you think. Are you telling me, as it is today, because I am not a governor, you will go and hold PDP meetings, you call them stakeholders, and then you exclude me, and then you want to survive?

Okay, assuming I am not even the FCT Minister, by the role I have played in PDP till now, simply because I am not a governor, I cannot be consulted in taking decisions of the party? Certainly not!So, when you say, let me tell you, and I have told them, and just mark it, all this one you are calling APC, calling this and that, is rubbish. Is it the APC that is making you to take the wrong decision? What is there? You mean me, I will sit, and then two, three people say because they are governors, they are getting so much allocation, then you go and decide, and then you tell me, follow. Follow who?

Isn’t that the template that the PDP had always been using?

No, no.

It has always been the governors; it has always been like that.

That is why I say you make mistake. And when you make this mistake, okay, take for example, assuming it is correct, it favoured me yesterday. Does it necessarily follow that if you do the same thing, it will favour you? You don’t do that. Also say this. When we were governors, why was it that no governor left? Is it that we didn’t have problems? We fought to be chairman of the party. It has gone to the Supreme Court. You know that. Why is it that people didn’t leave?

You were the party in power.

No, no, it is not correct. We were not in power then. APC was in power under Buhari. Yes, APC was in power, we were not in power. But the point remains, why is it that people didn’t leave? You have to show leadership. You have to take responsibility. You have to show commitment. There is no commitment by coming out on the pages of newspapers and television houses. It has never happened.

Now look at it. Look at the crop of leadership you have within the Governors Forum. It is not that abusing Wike is the matter, no. You have abused Wike severally, what is the result today? You have called Wike names, what is the result today?

They said all of these are being targeted at making sure that the elective convention doesn’t hold and eventually PDP doesn’t end up presenting a presidential candidate in the 2027 election.

Yes, that they don’t want the convention to hold. What are you doing that they don’t want the convention to hold? If you do the right thing, would anybody challenge the convention? Look, you see, people think they are too smart. You have not done your congresses of those who will participate in that convention, all you are interested is to say let’s go and do convention. You want to deny so many states of participating in the convention. What I’m saying is do the right thing so we can come out with a good convention.

And if the convention doesn’t hold would you be happy that a former governing party in Nigeria doesn’t have national officers and it doesn’t have a presidential candidate in the 2027 election?

Oh, you are telling me if I will be happy, if they don’t hold the national convention.

That’s what they are claiming that you will be happy.

Would I be happy if you go and do a wrong thing? Would I be happy? Would I be happy? You deny people the opportunity to participate in the convention. Would you be happy? I sit down, you will go to Lagos or somewhere and say you have zoned secretary or so-so thing to yourself.

The only way I would be happy is do all the wrong thing. Then go and have what you may call convention. And then the result you have in mind, you produce it. That’s the only way I would be happy.

Minister, these waves of defections do not seem to be ending anytime soon. And there is one question that has been lingering over and over again that might even seem like a taboo question, but I won’t ask it. Is Nyesom Wike going to leave the PDP anytime soon?

You’ve asked it, if you don’t have any other question to ask, you just…
Minister, are you still in the PDP? Are you still part and parcel? Because people have said that you are one leg in, one leg out.

Calm down. You are the one who said my party PDP. Why are you changing again? You stated here first, your party PDP. Then you are now telling me. Am I still in the PDP? You have answered the question.

When will you formally join the APC?

Have I ever had a meeting with you that I want to join APC?

But your colleagues, your people, your protégés, almost everybody are leaving to the APC.

Mention one in Senate. Mention in the National Assembly, mention in the House of Assembly who have left in Rivers?
Well, there are plans too. They are still there because you are still in the PDP.

You see, you cannot answer. But look at those who have left. I was thinking by now, you would have told Diri that the Assembly should vacate their seat.

But Diri is party-less now. He is not in the APC neither is he in the PDP.

It is still the same thing.

Okay, if we assume that you don’t want to answer this particular question but let’s ask another one, and that is, if that convention for next month holds, would you attend?

If it holds. And if a proper convention is to be held, why I won’t go? But I won’t go to a convention I know there are lots of illegalities. How do you expect me to attend a convention that I know by law, there could be no convention.

Why don’t you want to work with Governor Seyi Makinde in bringing peace and making sure that that convention comes into fruition?

Is Seyi Makinde the problem?

He has been the one galvanizing support for the People’s Democratic Party.

He has been the one galvanizing support.

Yes, at the forefront.

In which state has he galvanized the support that we are losing governors every day.

Honourable Minister, your former boss, former President Goodluck Jonathan is said to have an interest in contesting the 2027 election, and part of the plans is what has seen someone like Kabiru Teni Turaki, your former colleague in the Federal Executive Council, being brought in as PDP National Chairman ahead of these plans. What would a Jonathan ticket look like in the PDP?

You are the one telling me here. Jonathan has never told me. He has never called me one day that look I am being pressured to run. What is your thinking? If he calls me and asks me, I will be able to tell him my mind what I feel.

So I will not because you people put something on the pages of the newspaper, just like you said they flew me out of the country. Then I now assume it is correct. Two, I don’t know about Teni Muturaki becoming chairman. I don’t know about that. Maybe he is becoming chairman for another faction. He is not PDP I know.END OF PART THREE