By Jane Okafor, Abuja
ABUJA: The Minister of Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Abuja, Chief Ezenwo Nyesom Wike, has counseled Chairman of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) Governors Forum, Governor Bala Mohammed to stop using his appointment as Minister by President Bola Tinubu, as excuse for lack of capacity to provide the needed leadership for the PDP governors and related matters.
Speaking through his aide, Lere Olayinka, Wike wondered why his serving in Tinubu’s government should be a justification for the Bauchi State Governor, Senator Bala Mohammed’s failure as has Chairman of PDP Governors Forum, while running after PDP ticket to contest for President in 2027, a position that he should know will remain in the South till 2031.
In a statement, Wike’s Senior Special Assistant on Public Communications and Social Media, Lere Olayinka, in his reaction to a statement yesterday, by the Bauchi State Governor, casting aspersions on the person of the Minister, reckoned Bala as a fairweather politician.
“It is funny that a known fairweather politician like Bala Mohammed was the one calling someone else transactional politician,” he stated.
Olayinka reminded Bala Mohammed how he dumped his political godfather and former Governor of Bauchi State, Isa Yuguda in 2007 and as a member of the defunct All Nigeria People’s Party (ANPP), also dumped former President Muhammadu Buhari in 2010 for a ministerial appointment under the PDP government of President Goodluck Jonathan.
He asked how Wike being a Minister under the government of President Bola Tinubu, was the reason Bala Mohammed has failed as Chairman of PDP Governors Forum, while running after PDP ticket to contest for President in 2027, a position that he should know will remain in the South till 2031.
The statement read; “Our attention has been drawn to the ‘say nothing’ press statement that took six days to write, issued by the Governor of Bauchi State, Bala Mohammed, and we can’t but sympathize with a man who, out of political greed, has chosen to plunge himself into the deepest part of the river despite not knowing how to swim.
“First, Governor Bala Mohammed is holding the position of Chairman of the PDP Governors Forum out of political greed, because by convention and practice, the position should be held by one of the PDP Governors in the South. Reason being that the immediate past Chairman of the Forum was from the North, same as the PDP National Chairman.
“Secondly, despite usurping the position of the PDP Governors Forum because of his rapacious nature, Bala Mohammed, has demonstrated lack of capacity to lead the PDP, reason the party is how it is today.
“Sadly, rather than taking responsibilities of leadership and acting same, Bala Mohammad opted to divide the PDP’s National Working Committee (NWC), relating with a faction while neglecting the other.
“For his ineptitude and lack of capacity to lead, Bala Mohammed, has been blaming Chief Ezenwo Nyesom Wike’s appointment as FCT Minister.
“Do we still need to feed Bala Mohammed with the fact that Wike, a committed member of the PDP is serving in the APC government of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR, is not new in the history of politics and governance in Nigeria?
“Between 2009 and 2003, there were three political parties – PDP, All Nigerians People’s Party (APP) and Alliance for Democracy (AD). PDP won the presidency, but President Olusegun Obasanjo appointed members of APP and AD to serve in the government.
“Funny enough, this same Bala Mohammed, became Minister in 2010, while still being a member of the defunct ANPP. His defection to the PDP, months after being appointed as Minister, was to demonstrate his fairweather and anywhere-belle-face politics.
“Even at that, is it because Wike is a Minister that Bala Mohammed has faltered in carrying out the responsibilities of the position of Chairman of PDP Governors’ Forum that he usurped? Could Bala Mohammad have displayed the capacity that he obviously lacked if Wike is not serving in Tinubu’s government?
“Bala Mohammed’s lack of capacity was the reason the PDP was not allowed to campaign in Bauchi in 2015, even with him as a serving FCT Minister, a shameless history that no politician worth his salt will want to be associated with.
“For a man like Bala Mohammed to call Wike a ‘transactional politician’, is not only ridiculous, but preposterous.
“Records of his political treachery are open for everyone to see, except perhaps ostrich Bala Mohammed himself. Despite serving as Personal Assistant (PA) to former Governor of Bauchi State, Isa Yuguda, when he was Minister of Aviation, he fell out with his political godfather, after he (Yuguda) married President Umaru Yar’Adua’s daughter and decamped to the PDP. But when Yar’Adua died, Bala Mohammed quickly took ministerial appointment under the same PDP government.
“For us, it is our sincere counsel to handlers of Senator Bala Mohammad to tell him to address his failure to provide leadership for the PDP the way Wike did after the party lost power in 2015. Then, when Wike was taking bullets for the PDP, Bala Mohammed was probably hiding under the wrapper of his wives.
“Chairman of PDP Governors’ Forum no be by mouth abeg!
“As for Chief Ezenwo Nyesom Wike, he will continue to excel wherever he found himself and it is obviously obvious now that what Bala Mohammed struggled to achieve during his five years as FCT Minister cannot come anywhere near what has been done within the last 12 months that President Tinubu appointed Wike as FCT Minister. Eyes saw between 2010 and 2015, and eyes can see now.”
