THE proverbial suffering of the grass when two elephants fight on it is currently the fate of Nigeria’s capital, Abuja, over which the former River State governor, Nyesom Wike, is a minister.

President Bola Tinubu appointed Wike the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) minister on August 16, 2023, nearly three months after assuming office.

Wike, the immediate past governor of Rivers State, was expected to work with the minister of State for the FCT, Mahmoud Mariya, to ensure infrastructural lift for the FCT, guarantee security and improve residents’ well-being.

Traditionally, the two ministers should work with the senator representing the FCT, Ireti Kingibe, and relevant federal government officials, to promote the good of the nation’s capital.

However, rather than focus on governance, Wike has devoted much of his time fighting Kingibe, his successor in Rivers State, Siminalayi Fubara, and a faction of his party – the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP)

The ICIR reports that Wike is the only publicly known card-carrying PDP cabinet member in the All Progressives Congress (APC) government headed by President Bola Tinubu.

Some PDP members see him as a mole and have called for his suspension. But he has severally dared anyone in the PDP to sack him.

Many Nigerians have seen his rift with the PDP group led by Bauchi State Governor, Bala Mohammed, also a former FCT minister, as worrying.

Conflict with Abuja Senator, Ireti Kingibe

In July, The ICIR reported how Wike’s political career survived his collisions with other national leaders, including his predecessor in Rivers State, Rotimi Amaechi, and the 2023 Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar.

The report focused on Wike’s veiled threat to Kingibe after he vowed that the Labour Party (LP) senator would not return to the Senate in 2027.

Wike who issued the threat in Abuja on Monday, June 1, at the flag-off ceremony of the construction of the Mabushi bus terminal, said, “If we have done well, we have done well. If we haven’t done well, we haven’t done well. I am proud to say that in the short time that President Tinubu has appointed us, we have done well.

In a veiled reference to Ireti Kingibe, Wike said, “You said there are no schools and hospitals. You, as a legislator, what have you done? How many bills have you sponsored for us to improve our education and health sectors? I challenge that legislator. If you are very popular, in 2027, come and run under Abuja; we will fail you.

“You think that what happened last time will happen again? It will not happen again. If you are popular, come and run. Luckily for me, I am the FCT minister now. So, here is my territory, and I am not afraid.

Reacting to the minister’s boasting, Kingibe said she would only work with Wike if he publicly apologised to her, adding that she was older than the minister.

There hasn’t been any report indicating the minister tendered the apology, and the FCT continues to suffer from the hostility.

Rancour with Fubara

Fubara has vehemently resisted Wike’s insistence on controlling the PDP’s structure in Rivers State. In addition to declaring the seats of 27 House of Assembly members loyal to the minister vacant, Fubara sacked all 23 local government chairmen elected under Wike and declared that their tenure had expired.

He followed his action with the conduct of a local government election on October 5, affirming his authority on the state’s politics.

The ICIR reported how Fubara won the election for the African Peoples Party (APP) even though he has yet to dump the PDP.

Tinubu’s efforts to end the enmity between the two leaders have failed.

FCT pays for crises

Many street lights, including those on the Airport and Kubwa highways hardly work at night, unlike what the minister met before assuming office.

Cattle are all over the nation’s capital, often making the city an eyesore. On Saturday, October 12, the Daily Trust reported how the city was taken over by beggars under Wike’s watch.

There is no effective public transport system in Abuja, as commuters, mostly workers, are stranded along highways every morning and during the close of work.

In 2021, The ICIR reported how poor planning led to the failure of the Abuja urban mass transport scheme, with scores of high-capacity buses rotting away at the office of the Abuja Mass Transport Company Ltd along the Kubwa expressway.

Upon assumption of office, Wike pledged to revive the buses, but only a fraction of them are on the city’s roads one year after.

Commercial motorcyclists, whose activities were drastically checkmated by the previous administration, have returned to the city, plying roads where they had previously been banned, including Kubwa highway, Airport Road, AYA Roundabout, and Area One, among others.

Street trading is commonplace in the nation’s capital, and such an activity is seen as constituting a nuisance to the city.

Even though his leadership, backed by the FCT Police command has degraded kidnappers that had terrorised the city, especially in the Kuje and Bwari area councils, cases of burglary, armed robbery, and other criminal activities are still rife in Abuja.

Similarly, while residents in Kubwa, Gwarimpa and parts of the city linked with water from the FCT Water Board told The ICIR that they enjoyed improved water supply, the experience is different for residents in terms of power supply. Many residents on Band A of electricity never enjoy the expected 20 hours of power supply they should get.

Gaps in good governance are more visible in the health sector. The ICIR visited the Kuje, Maitama and Wuse General Hospitals. While there have been significant improvements in infrastructural developments at the facilities, the perennial challenge – staff’s lack-lustre attitudes to patients and their relations, shortage of workforce, and epileptic power supply – remained.

While the Wuse and Maitama General Hospitals have more wards for maternal and child health, Kuje, given its small landmass, has maintained its age-long tradition of discharging women shortly after they were delivered of their babies because of a lack of bed space.

A high population of patients to a few attendants has also been disturbing in the facilities.

The ICIR visited the District Hospital, Wuse Zone 3 in September and noticed the premises were rowdy. Many patients filed on the walkway that led to different wards for regular checkups and other services.

Most of them complained of delays by the hospital staff and the nonchalant attitudes of the medics towards them.

A patient, Destiny Igbokwe, who spoke with our team, complained of how long he had been waiting to get his ailing mother checked.

“I came for lab and scan for my mother. I came yesterday and everything went well by the grace of God but the doctors are not serious.

“They don’t take patients seriously in aspects of attending to people when they’re supposed to. Like yesterday, people complained of being here since morning and were not attended to. Even today, the same thing, I have been waiting for the doctor. I came here around 9 am and this is 1:20 pm, the doctor has not attended to us.

“In terms of the medical equipment, it is okay, and the environment is fine but the medical staff and doctors are not concerned about the patients. They just toss people around. Like yesterday when I came, I saw a young girl who came with her mum. She had a swollen leg and was crying but nobody attended to her. The doctors and other staff do not care about the patients at all.”

Another patient, who gave her name as Faustina, said as a patient about to undergo surgery, the process had been rough and the hospital barely had good facilities to handle surgeries.

“I’m about to undergo surgery. So far, they are trying here but because it is a public hospital, you know how public servants behave, they are unserious about some things.

“Parts of the laboratories are not functional. Their radiography laboratory, if you go to do an x-ray, their machines are not working. Either the machines are not working or they don’t have paper, or they cannot print, they always have an excuse. In fact, the x-ray unit is not working. They will tell you to go out and do an x-ray. Then I ask myself, is it that the government is not providing enough for them? Why would the government not provide adequate machines for these people to operate?”

She added that most of the hospital’s staff were very lousy, and weren’t attending to patients. According to her, they could ask patients to wait for hours when they were not doing anything.

“Because it is a government hospital, they are nonchalant, most of them do not give it their best, but they have good doctors. All of them, both the medical and non-medical personnel should take the facility like it’s their own. If you see these doctors in their private hospitals, they attend to patients very well but the reverse is the case here.

“A case that should be up to two weeks, you will see them shifting it. They will always tell you to come tomorrow and it can linger for a month. I think the doctors and nurses can do better. They should take this place as their own and also make it less rowdy for a hospital,” she added.

A nursing mother who pleaded anonymity shared a similar experience with The ICIR.

“This has been the hospital I’ve been using since I had my first baby. The doctors are very impatient and they can delay. I have been here since 7 am and till now, this is almost 3 pm, they have not attended to me.”

Our team moved around the hospital and observed that the environment was clean, although rowdy. The toilet doors were bad. The toilets did not look good enough for a health facility. Some offices at the facility also looked dilapidated.

Speaking with The ICIR, a health worker who pleaded anonymity said there was often a lack of collaboration among the workers and that it took the hospital much time to restock drugs for patients.

The ICIR’s recent report on the Mpape community, one of the FCT suburbs, captures what scores of communities and other mushrooming settlements in the city face.

Some of the things working under Wike

The ICIR observed there have been improvements to intra-city roads in Abuja. Upon assuming office in August 2023, Wike approved and or followed up on exisiting contracts  for the rehabilitation of roads in the city centre, but some residents claimed many of the roads repaired were not poor enough and that funds expended on them would have been used to build roads in communities without access roads.

He has completed some of the roads started by his predecessor and those he approved their contracts such as the Wuye Interchange and Guzape Lot II District, Southern Parkway from the Christian Centre to Ring Road 1, the Outer Southern Expressway, from Villa Roundabout to Ring Road 1, and the site of the Vice President’s official residence.

Others are the B6 and B12 Independence and Constitution Avenue Road, the Arterial Road N20 from Northern Parkway, and the Shehu Musa Yar’Adua Expressway, to Outer Northern Expressway.

His administration expanded and or carried on with the dualisation of Kuje Road and also awarded the contract for the reconstruction of the internal road in the fast-growing town. However, many residents said the internal road is too narrow and would always witness traffic logjams when completed. 

Wike has twice intervened in the strike by the FCT primary school teachers under the aegis of the Nigerian Union of Teachers (NUT).

In September 2023, the teachers were on a 20-day strike before the minister intervened. Wike agreed to pay 60 per cent of the 25 months’ arrears owed to the teachers, leaving the remaining 40 per cent for the chairmen of the City’s six area councils. The teachers confirmed that he fulfilled his promise.

Other demands by the teachers include minimum wage arrears, peculiar allowance, and non-implementation of upward salary review.

Meanwhile, in September 2024, when the schools were resuming for a new session, the teachers again downed tools over the failure of the LGA chairmen to clear the 40 per cent backlog left for them by Wike.  

Wike again waded in and threatened to use the 10 per cent of internally generated revenue (IGR) meant for the Area Councils to pay the teachers.

The teacher eventually suspended the second strike, which started on September 18 after three weeks.

The ICIR also noted that cases of kidnapping have declined in Abuja under Wike’s leadership, though the city has yet to be free from insecurity given the rampant activities of robbers, burglars, and ‘one-chance‘, among others.

Marcus FATUNMOLE

Marcus bears the light, and he beams it everywhere. He's a good governance and decent society advocate. He's The ICIR Reporter of the Year 2022 and has been the organisation's News Editor since September 2023. Contact him via email @ mfatunmole@icirnigeria.org