Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, affirms his commitment to administering Abuja, the nation’s seat of power, without fear of intimidation and emphasizes his deep respect for institutions like the Nigerian Armed Forces, as he prides himself on being a dedicated and effective leader in this interview. NewsQuest presents the excerpts;
Nature of life
Nobody does the right thing without stepping on toes. And nobody knows the day he will die or how he will die. If we know that this is the way we are going to die, we will probably go and stop it. But because we don’t know, death can come anytime. It can be through one sickness, it can be any how. It can be through assassination. It can be through you running into armed robbers. What is important is that, you will one day, die.
The sad story
I cry for this country because, it is unfortunate. Either we analyze everything that happens, we bring religion to what we are doing or the class we belong to. No country can ever succeed if we continue to allow impunity and lawlessness. No country, no matter how hard you work, if you allow impunity, you allow lawlessness to prevail, that country will never go anywhere. Even among us government officials, not to talk about private individuals.
Crux of the matter
I have read comments. Yes, I wounded people politically. I have no regret about it and I will continue to wound them where necessary. Yes, people are not happy with me. So, when things happen like this, you see all manner of things that people would say. I was watching Channels TV late last night and I saw a lady and a man. You see, sometimes, you just shake your head. Laziness causes a lot of things.
People don’t read, people don’t investigate. I saw the lady saying that Wike has met his match. And you don’t want to find out what really happened. What was the problem?
Officials beaten up
How can I sit as a Minister and government officials are being attacked? Government officials are being beaten up. Government officials at the level of directorship. Then, I am sitting in my office doing what? How will such officials carry out their functions again when they know that their principal or their boss cannot protect them, not as private individuals, but as government officials?
So, many people have had problems. Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, a General, former head of state, and former president. He called me on the phone. Minister, there is a problem with land here, please, help. I will solve the problem. That is a former head of state, former elected president. He will have the courtesy of calling the Minister and say, look, I have this problem, see how you can look into it.
General TY Danjuma will call you. These are all retired generals. These are people who understand the importance of discipline. They didn’t bother because they were the Chief of Army Staff, and they were former presidents. They never sent soldiers. They never sent anybody to attack anybody. They just call you. Respect begets respect. I will usually tell the officers don’t worry, I will sort out the problem, and I will do.
I won’t even talk about other people who are highly placed. They will come to you and say, Mr. Minister, maybe we didn’t know of this. If we knew, we would have done it this way.
When a former Major General attacked the Development Control, I wrote a letter. The present Chief of Defence Staff was then the Chief of Army Staff. I wrote a letter and took this channel because, that is a serving military officer. That if anything goes wrong, he is still under your authority, under the control of the military.
When I came on board, before then, President Goodluck Jonathan awarded a contract to develop a site which was close to the military. Awarded a contract not today, at the Federal Executive Council (FEC) presided over by the C-In-C. The contractor went there and was chased away. I wrote a letter. We met. The late Chief of Army Staff Lagbaja was there. The former Chief of Defence Staff was there. These same Ministers of Defence were there. I said look, let us see how we can resolve this matter.
Respect for institutions
I respect institutions and I know what it takes. Even as a sitting Governor, no Governor will say that he supported the military more than I. But, how do you see a private individual, knowing fully well that you are against the law?
It is not military versus government. No. If it were the military, I would write to them and ask, Military, why are you doing this? First, the land was not allocated to him. The land was allocated to a company called Santos for Parks and Recreation. They applied to the former Minister for a change of use. The Minister refused. They went and started selling land. Maybe, the former Naval Chief fell into their scam. This is government property, this is not your property.
If government officials came, to say, look oh, what are you doing here? Because, government has sat under the ministerial committee and taken back all land under Parks and Recreation even under the Secretariat because, we felt that there are a lot of suits, litigations, so, we won’t continue with that.
You started beating government officials, not private, government officials, You beat them. Senior government officials. You couldn’t even say, let me get to the Minister and see how he can help us. Simply because, you had a relationship with the military. Our government cannot enforce laws because you are attached, or you had a relationship with a particular institution or you come from a particular place. Who does that? Who does such a thing? How will this country progress? Okay, assuming the land is yours, assuming- will you build without building approval?
Overseas experience
And these are people who travel overseas. Some of you who have the opportunity to stay overseas. We don’t have the opportunity. Even when you have a space in your backyard, you can’t go and extend. You must seek approval from the city. These are people who are complaining that the Abuja masterplan has been distorted. Now, a government has come to put a stop, say look, we have to comply with the rules. There are rules. Nobody wants to do that. You will be allowing people to write all sorts of junk in the newspapers. Wike did this, Wike did that. Wike shouldn’t have done that.
Missing the point
I represent Mr. President as a Minister. You cannot have the decorum to say, Mr. Minister, can I call my Oga, let me see how the matter will be resolved.
Nobody talks about that. Security men, he said, bloody policemen. Who are these bloody policemen that will talk to him? He is really a commissioned officer. To God be the glory. Thank God. But the same government officials you are beating up, are the ones who made you to be commissioned.
It is the same government officials that you are beating. You are not beating private people. These are government officials carrying out a legitimate assignment. They are not private people. You are not dragging land with any private person. But assuming they are not considering that they are private people, is that why you should deploy the military? Assuming that they are. A whole Director, Deputy Director, and senior government officials. It does not occur to you to say, look, let me run back and see how we can resolve this matter. What about those people who are not connected? So, how do we implement? How do we carry out enforcement? So it will suit anybody that government officials will go to civilians, ordinary Nigerians to enforce rules. But when you are related to a particular institution, or you have had a relationship with a particular institution, a government official cannot implement rules. Is that the kind of country we want?
I have told everybody who cares that, even when you are working with me, you will not be here forever. Perfect their document. You don’t know who is coming tomorrow. The mere fact that nobody did that yesterday does not mean that somebody will not do it tomorrow.
Even if I want to help you, I should be able to say, listen, I will not be here forever. Therefore, I have to perfect the document, so that when I leave, you will not have yourself to blame. That is what reasonable people do.
I read what one former Chief of Army Staff wrote. He cannot teach me. This was the same man who came to rig my election in 2019. He couldn’t rig me. He lost.
He told his GOC that he should kill me. I couldn’t be killed. He became an agent in APC for one of the presidential aspirants. Look at the rank- a government polling agent. He lost. He is the one commenting that the Minister did this, did that. I have never seen people like that.
No regrets
I have no regret about my particular opponents, I will continue to make them have sleepless nights whether you are PDP, APC, ADC. I will not regret supporting President Tinubu and I have never hidden my intention, and I will continue to do it. So, if you like, write anything you want to write. As much as I know, I am
standing by the side of the law. If you like, bring every ethnic coloration. It is your business.
How Lieutenant Yerima erred
Anybody should know, yes, you are a young man, a commissioned officer, I am a Minister representing Mr. President. That alone, should have given you that caution for decorum. You choose to challenge the Minister presenting the President, then you think that I am not a human being. I have no emotions. And you are carrying out an illegal job.
When people say order, do you need to carry an illegal order? When you are in it (uniform), you are an officer, but you are doing something illegal. Even if it is a legal order given to you, that function is illegal.
The Police were building here under high tension. Police, even as an institution, not private. They arrested our officers. I went there by myself. Look at high tension. Even if it’s your worst enemy. You will not encourage that. And I said no, you cannot continue to build. The Inspector General of Police came, and I said look at these documents. He said ah, he didn’t know. They should obey it. An institution. not as an individual.
Nobody will respect the law. Nobody will do anything when you take action. I am aware that my coming here as a Minister, many people were opposed to it. But I am here. I am here. I never knew that one day I would be Minister of FCT. I was a Minister before.
No fear for intimidation
I will do my job without looking at anybody’s face. You were here when ASUU went to the Senate. ASUU said part of their conditions of going on strike- that they should tell the Minister to leave the University of Abuja land. Have I not been seeing the Navy carrying land? What have I done? You see, this is the kind of country we are in. Now, what was the problem? How can a University have 11,000 hectares of land? The whole of Lagos State is how many thousands? When the Minister of Education called me, I said look, my brother. The whole of Lagos is how many hectares? He found out the size of Lagos. The former Minister said no, you can’t do this. Not me. And I carried out what was there. Oh! Wike this, Wike that. Wike wants to take our land. The land, they will take it where?
I will not allow intimidation. I will not allow blackmail. If you like shout out the way you want to shout. The right thing must be done.
Remember, I was the Governor, under former President Muhammadu Buhari, they had what is referred to as the Police Trust Fund. They were deducting money from the States. Every Governor ran away. I went to Court. I said that I won’t agree, it is illegal. It must be by my support, not this way. I challenged it and the Court said, yes, you are right.
When the court gave judgment, other Governors wanted to join. They said no, why did you not go to court? I was the Governor who went to court against VAT. Yes, I said it is illegal. I challenged it. It became a religious matter. Everything you do, what does the law say about this? Let’s follow the law.
Oh, you closed the PDP Secretariat because you are fighting the party. But, you won’t ask questions. Come, have you paid the money? Are you owing or are you not owing? Up till now, have they paid? So, because you are fighting PDP. It’s not the issue. The issue is that yes, yes, maybe I am fighting you. You, were right? Why did you give your enemy an opportunity? For example, if he is your enemy, why did you allow him to do that? You know that you are not right. Nobody wants the right thing to be done.
You want to have a good road here. You want to have good sanitation, and it’s okay, we’ll do that. Look at all the big men. Go to Asokoro. See where they put the refuse, in front of their houses. They now want you to go and carry it. Pay for it, you won’t pay. Pay for it. You won’t pay all you want. All you want is for, government should come and carry it. The refuge you are generating yourself, cooking in your house. You come and dump it. The government says, for me to carry this, you will pay N10,000. Tomorrow, you go and bring the military to say that the government refused to carry the refuse in front of your house simply because you have a contact or whatever.
So, Nigerians should know that we are not talking about private individuals. That you are saying that it is right – government officials carrying out official functions, you are beating them. I mean, who does that? If the government official has gone to an institution like the military to say, look, you can’t do this, it’s a different thing.
The real land owner
The land is not owned by the military or any of the arms. Navy, Army, Air Force. No, no, no. So, people were thinking, Oh, it’s a military land. Why did you not write to the military? How would I write to the military when it is a private individual? How will I write? The one that involved the military, I wrote and we sat down and discussed.
I know how many times communities have come, oh, that the military has taken their land. The Director of land is here. How many times? I invited the military, we discussed and we said okay, the community don’t worry, we will pay you some compensation just to resolve the matter. So, I am one man who understands the military. I am sure, if you go to that former Chief of Army Staff where he is training snakes, they also have security personnel protecting the snakes as part of their legal function – taxpayers’ monies, protecting snakes. It has come to that level now.
If you are a former military officer and they attach security to you, it is to protect your life, to follow you, not to go and do illegal jobs.
If you have a problem with the government, write to the government and say okay, look. The government will say, oh, this man has served the nation. What do we do? How do we solve the matter? You give that respect, but not to intimidate government officials or intimidate me as a Minister. I will not do that kind of thing. I will not do it. If it is this position, oh, take. But I will continue to thank Mr. President for even considering me feat for this job. And I know that if I am leaving here today, I am going with my shoulders high that I have done what I am supposed to do. I am not a peri peri Minister- no, I am not. I am not a Minister who doesn’t know his onions. I do.
Well grounded
I am well-grounded to know what is good and what is not good. I am well-grounded to know my left and right. I am not here to make everybody happy. And nobody can make everybody happy. Even in your houses, you cannot make everybody happy, even with your children, you cannot satisfy everybody. You take any decision, it will not be palatable to the other person, but you have to take leadership. If you like, pay journalists money let them appear on Channels TV. Let them write in the newspapers. These are not people I listen to.
Those are wounded politically. I will continue to wound you. That injury will continue to be with you. Anytime you wake up, you see the injury. The political injury I gave to you. I have no regrets that I supported President Tinubu. Because I know that he possesses the leadership to turn around the country.
I am not from a particular place, therefore, I cannot do my work. No, no, no. All of us, this country belongs to all of us. If you do the right oh, every day, Abuja is changing, they have distorted the masterplan. People are now thinking, we have to stop this distortion of the masterplan.
Challenge for media
So the press, even if you are paid, you also have a conscience. This story I am carrying, is it true, is it correct? No investigative journalism. Nobody does that again. Nobody reads. Go and find out what the situation is. What happened? Before you come and feed lies to members of the public. What are the facts? Stop this, because you have a platform, you talk anyhow. You talk anyhow. I am not this kind of person that- if you like, carry from 7am to 7am, waste your time discussing Wike, you are wasting your time. I won’t even bother myself. As far as my conscience is clear that I am doing the right thing, I will do it. If it will cost me my job, it’s okay, it’s okay, it’s okay.
I am happy that if I am leaving today, I did the right thing. It’s okay. Did I perform? Yes, I did. Will you still remember me? Yes, yes. I will continue to step on toes oh.
Well, you people have given them notice of two weeks. Is it not correct? The President appealed that we should extend. We extended. We extended. We extended. We extended it to almost going to a year. Tomorrow, when you want to enforce, they will go and bring the military. Is that the way we will continue to behave?
Now, you won’t go and pay oh. By the time the authority to go and enforce, they will oh, this belongs to one man who was a former chief of this, therefore, he cannot enforce.
Oh, this one belongs to the former Judge therefore, you cannot enforce, but I can enforce the one that is nobody’s own. The one that nobody knows. You can enforce rules, but, because you are a former this, the law does not come to where you are, and so, you can wake up in the morning and send your boys to beat up government officials.
I will sit down in my office that they are beating my own government officials, officials. So, what am I doing in that office?
You have no respect for government officials. All you are talking about is the commissioned officer. These people did not rise to the directorship level? You are beating them, pushing them away. Instead of people asking questions, you say oh, Wike did this, Wike did that. The President sack Wike. Even if you sack Wike today, will you stop people from carrying out their functions? Are you beating government officials because it’s Wike? Are they Wike’s children? Are they private people?
If any Minister will come here and sit down and shut his eyes and allow illegality to continue to bring back a city that Nigerians or the world is thinking should be like other cities? Okay, let it be so. But me, it’s a no, no. Fa, fa, fao. The right thing must be done. They were praising me highly that it is good you stop the Police from building. This is good. Oh, it’s good to stop the Police from building but it’s not good to stop a private individual who is carrying government land, who has no building approval. That one is not good, but for the private individual, oh! Due process should have been followed. He shouldn’t have gone there. I will stay in my office and you are kicking my officials. I shouldn’t go there?
So, before you carry whatever you want to carry, go and investigate. Go to them. Can you give me the documents? Yes, there is no doubt that they have been trying to see how they can connive with the officials of the government in the land department and the Development Control. We know. We know. It has failed. If you are a former Chief of Naval Staff at that level, at that level, you have a problem, does common sense not detect to you, let me see that Minister.
No matter how difficult I am, at that level. The only thing I can tell you well, we won’t go it this way. I don’t want to set a precedent I cannot hold. See the way we will go about it. That is the way things are done in civilized societies. Not because you are this, and then, you begin to beat up everybody. This society cannot grow like that. It cannot grow like that. Let’s call a spade a spade.
When you go back home, reflect, ponder over it, am I right in what you are doing? You go and pay some people to write. Some of them say they are lawyers. If you like write what you like, it
will not change me. I will do what my consciousness tells me and what I know is with the law.
Read Professor Sabastine Hon SAN’s write-up. What he said. He said look. The Supreme Court has said repeatedly, that obeying an order does not mean you will obey an illegal order. You are told to obey legal orders. That is what it means. So, because you are a security aide to former president Olusegun Obasanjo, he now said, go and shoot this person. Then, you will carry a gun – I was told to go and shoot you, you killed him. Because it is an order. Who does that? And then, you think that you will not be charged for murder because the former head of state asked you to go and shoot. You would have to tell no, chief, this order is illegal. If I do this, it’s murder that I have committed.
People have had problems with land, and they have come to us. We are trying to resolve it one way or the other. Don’t use intimidation, don’t weaken government. You cannot weaken government because, when we allow this now, others will follow suit, and then they will say, when it happened to that person, what did you do? And your conscience will tell you that he is correct oh!
Respect for Military
So, gentlemen, I have respect for the military. I will continue to respect them. I know what the institution stands for. I am not a fool. I went to school. So, anybody trying to bring collision there to say, oh, he is having problems with the military – I don’t have a problem with the military and I will not have problems with them. Why would I have problems with the government institution? I don’t have and I will not have. If I were having problems with the military, I know where to run to. I can go to the Chief of Defence Staff, Chief of Army Staff or Chief of Naval Staff, or Air Staff, Chief of Defence Intelligence, or go to the President and say, we are having problems with the military. But, this is a private individual. How many people will I run to? If I have a problem with anybody, I run to the President. Who does that?
So, all I will be telling the President every day, this individual is having a problem with us, this individual. Then, the President will not have any job to do.
So, I don’t have a problem with the military. There is nothing like that. But, I should also be respected as a representative of the President.
If a Minister has come, I was the one who said where is the officer? I said this shouldn’t be. Bring your documents. Do you have any approval? You don’t have. We should allow lawlessness to continue? Okay. If this is what we want. But, not while I am sitting here. When I go, you can allow that. My conscience will not allow me.
If I am enforcing rules, orders to other people, then I will begin to say, this man, no, don’t go there because he was former this, former that. Nobody knows that. Who does that? So, those who are writing, who are talking junk, go and find out what really happened. Some people would say I said the boy is a fool. What I meant is this – you cannot be crying out an illegal order. That is what I meant, I didn’t say the military is a fool. I couldn’t have said that. I know the role of the military. The role they have been playing in this country. What they have passed through in fighting insurgency and terrorism. There is nobody, and I have always given my support to security agencies.
Support for Military
Since I came as FCT Minister, go and see their security list. Go and see what I provided for them to fight and do their work. So, if I knew that, why would I say this – it is not true. But, you don’t know what you are doing, you are not doing what you were taught as an officer. The mere fact that you are an officer does not mean that if you do what is wrong, people shouldn’t say anything. It’s like a professor in the University who is not allowing young girls to rest or will not allow students, every time, bring money for this or that. Then, when I see that Professor, I will tell the Professor you are not supposed to be a Professor at all. Even those who say you are a Professor, how did they give you? Because, you are carrying out something that is not expected of you.
So, I hope you will go and report us well. You will not go and cut off part of what I said and join it to another old one. Because, that is what you people do now. Tell your bosses to go and read, and do what they call investigative journalism not anything you see, you just carry.
Even when I was a Governor, remember when a woman was to be adopted by the security. I left my house as a Governor, and I went there. How do you adopt a woman at this hour? When Justice Liman was to be adopted by the security, at midnight, I went there. I said you can’t do this. The present DG was the director of DSS then. I said, no, you can’t do this here. As a Governor. That time, I did well. They didn’t talk about security, if they had shot me.
Because I went to defend the woman. I was right. Oh, he did well. He was defending a woman. It has nothing to do with woman. It has to do with what you are doing is not right.
I cannot be a Governor and see where you are adopting a Judge in the night. Why can’t you arrest this man in the daytime? I refused it and I cannot be sitting by as a Minister, you are beating up government officials, harassing them.
If it were the military, I would say let me call the Chief of Defence Staff, the Chief of Naval Staff. This is a private individual now. The military can afford you the respect. He is a private person.
Once you are retired, you are a private person, you are a civilian. That does not mean that the military will not accord you the respect of your entitlement. But you must subject yourself to civil rule. Even as a military person, you subject yourself to civil rule, not to mention when you have left the military. Nobody is above the law. The law is no respecter of anybody. The law does not know Mr. A or Mr. B.
Beyond emotions
So, people should learn that and not begin to bring emotions. I have told people that any day I wake up, if they don’t call my name, I know that something is wrong somewhere. It means that I have not done well.
If you are a leader, if you acquire a position and nobody is talking about you, then something is fundamentally wrong. Not to talk about this kind of position, where a lot of interest is there.
They must talk about you every day, they must. So, if I wake up, there are no stories against the Minister of the FCT, then, something is fundamentally wrong. Even people who are working with you as Mandate Secretaries or Coordinators, it’s not everybody wants you to succeed. Some will sabotage your efforts. But, it is like that in government. You take decisions and they go and say things at the back. I know. I don’t bother myself at all. I know what people do against me behind my back, even those who are working with you. But why would I bother myself? Because, that is the way it is.
Even those who work with the President, when you hear some people make comments at the back, you laugh. But, what is your business? You know that you cannot satisfy everybody.
You take decisions that some people don’t like. That is the way it is. I was not brought here to be a yes, yes, man. I will not do that to you. I am here to step on your toes. To step on people’s toes to do the right thing.
Every day, this one wants this land, every day, even the green areas. They want to take everything and convert it to build. If we do that, what is the beauty of Abuja again? Everywhere green, convert it. Everybody will write that we want to build this, but it’s not correct. They are not building anything. The moment you leave office, they apply for convention. Oh, give us 200 hectares of land, and we will pay compensation to the villagers. Build the something, you won’t build. Later, you convert and begin to sell the land. We have driven the villagers out. What kind of system is that? I want to do Agric. Where is the Agric? Then, later you apply to the Minister who has come, convert it from Agric to private residential, then you go and sell to people in an estate. You make money, the villagers, we have pursued them. The government has lost its land.
You say oh, you want a garden here, you want to do this, government says, okay, we will give it to you. After about two years, you apply. Change of use. It is no longer park oh. First of all, you apply – park, recreation center. Nothing recreation, nothing. You become land speculators and sell it. It is just terrible. So, Director of Development Control, give them the facts, give them the documents, and tell the world.
