The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, has responded strongly to critics claiming that his administration was focusing development efforts only on high-profile government districts without stakeholders’ involvement.
Barr Wike insisted that the ongoing works were guided by stakeholders’ engagement and sound urban planning.
Speaking during a media parley with journalists in Abuja on Monday, the FCT minister said detractors were either misinformed or intentionally ignoring the facts about the scope and direction of the FCT’s development under President Bola Tinubu’s administration.
“Bothered by what? That the provider of the infrastructure is showcasing?” he asked. “Can you provide infrastructure without urban planning?”
The minister recounted his administration’s deliberate efforts to engage grassroots communities across the FCT’s six area councils, noting that those consultations directly informed policy and project priorities.
“When we came on board, we visited the six area councils. We sat with the youths, traditional rulers and the women. That was the first time that the stakeholders said, ‘This is our priority,’” he said.
According to Wike, this collaborative process led to establishing a Youth Secretariat and a Women’s Secretariat, initiatives he said had never existed before in Abuja. “It was a result of engagement with Mr President,” he added.
Addressing the accusation of poor stakeholder inclusion, Wike pushed back, “What are people talking about, non-engagement with stakeholders? Who are the stakeholders? There has been engagement, and stakeholders’ input drives the economy of any country.
“What brings investors? Will investors bring infrastructure and broadband? These are the primary things that investors will see and come and say, ‘I want to establish a private university, hospital, or an agricultural factory,’” he explained.
He also took swipe at those simply criticising for its sake. “People criticise when they don’t have anything to say. I will use one local thing we usually say in my place, my people say ‘when you don’t have anything to say against somebody, you say, ‘See as him be,’” he joked.
He bluntly noted that performance should be recognised, regardless of personal bias.
“You must appreciate when a government has done well; you don’t need to like the person in charge,” Wike said, adding that no one should expect every inherited problem to be solved within just two years.
“This is a government that inherited so many issues. Something that hasn’t happened in 10 years since 1999, you expect someone to do it in two years? It can’t be done.”
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