African Democratic Congress, ADC, has given supposed reasons behind the scathing remarks against the opposition coalition by the Minister of FCT, Nyesom Wike.
Reports that the coalition, comprising key opposition leaders like former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, Presidential Candidate of the LP in 2023, Peter Obi, and other opposition leaders, formally unveiled the ADC as its new platform on Wednesday.
But speaking at a media briefing in Abuja on Thursday, Mr Wike dismissed the formation, saying it lacked the capacity to unseat President Bola Tinubu in 2027.
“There is no coalition. The opposition has decimated themselves. The only party that can, if they put themselves well, challenge this government is the PDP,” he said.
Reacting, the spokesman of the ADC coalition, Bolaji Abdullahi, said, “Without justifying this behaviour that we find incompatible with the office of a Federal Minister, we believe Wike could only descend to that level because of his mortal fear of the threat that the successful unveiling of the coalition of opposition political parties constitutes to the government that he serves.”
He accused the Tinubu administration of not keeping their promises to the Nigerian people, adding, “if they did the coalition movement would not have been necessary and he would not have had a need to be so jittery.”
According to him, “If Minister Wike had paid the salaries of primary school teachers who have been on strike for several months and if he had not treated FCT workers with so much contempt while he goes about commissioning white elephant projects running into billions of Naira, he would have had no need to be afraid of the coalition.
“Minister Wike claimed in his media chat that the coalition leaders are driven only by grievances. If we have any grievances, it is the way the government he is a part of has driven the majority of Nigerians into poverty and misery.”
The coalition also accused Mr Wike of working to destroy the PDP.
“We are aggrieved to see children of the poor unable to get education because he would not pay their teachers’ salaries. We are aggrieved to watch the growing insecurity in the FCT that he superintends. We are aggrieved that Minister Wike had allowed himself to be used by the government he serves to destroy one of the most powerful political parties in Africa, the PDP.
“But it is rather too late in the day to cry. The coalition movement belongs to the Nigerian people, who had been promised renewed hope, but have been served renewed hopelessness. Therefore, no amount of tirade against the leaders of the coalition could stem the tide of this popular movement.”
