Ministerial appointment: PDP did not permit Wike- party chieftain
…Takes Tinubu government to the cleaners
… ‘Nigerians should be prepared for rogh ride, barring court judgment’
By Tunde Opalana
The claim by Minister of Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, on Monday that he received the consent of leaders of the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to join the cabinet of their political rival, President Bola Tinubu, appears to be causing unease within the PDP.
At his maiden press briefing as he assumed office, Wike, who is the only opposition member in the cabinet, said he received the blessings of his party before joining the government of President Tinubu, whose election is being hotly contested in court by the PDP presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar.
Responding to a question on the matter, Wike had said: ”Before this appointment came, I wrote to the National Party Chairman, Minority Leader of the House of Representatives and Senate, Zonal Chairman of the party, my State Chairman, and my Governor.
“All of them wrote me back: ‘Accept it’. I have it in evidence documented.”
However, repeated calls made to PDP National Publicity Secretary, Hon. Debo Olugunagba, were not responded to. A short message service (SMS) sent too, was not answered.
Olugungba handles all media/public enquiries on issues concerning the party.
But it appears the party may not have permitted Wike to take up the appointment.
Party chieftain, Otunba Segun Showunmi told The Daily Times that Wike acted on his own.
Puncturing the Minister’s assertion, Showunmi claimed that the former Rivers State Governor never consulted the PDP before taking up the appointment.
Disclosing these yesterday in Abuja, Showunmi, who worked for Abubakar during the presidential poll, said that the PDP could not have backed Wike’s decision to accept or reject the appointment because he never sought party’s opinion.
Showunmi said it is difficult to advise someone who allegedly does not give room for advice.
Answering the question on whether the PDP truly backed Wike, the party chieftain said: “An uncontrollable adult leaves little room for advice.
“A very difficult person leaves no room for correction. That is the way I will answer your question,”
However, dwelling on the theme of the press conference he addressed at the PDP secretariat, Showunmi carpeted the administration of President Tinubu for appointing 48 ministers in a cabinet he described as bogus and over-bloated.
“To call the ministerial lineup “Dismal”, “Elephantine” or “Imprudent” is putting it mildly,” he said, adding that an Atiku/ Okowa PDP cabinet would have been lean and more equitable.
Describing the large cabinet as economically insensitive, Showunmi said: “First, should the government be that large at a time when a lean cabinet seems more needful given the financial state of the country? Can a nation be in dire straits and those who created the financial and governance mess be shoving it in our face as though we have become a captured nation with no way out of the slavery of helplessness?”
He said if he has been sincere with the principle of restructuring, President Tinubu would have been well guided to adopt a trimmed cabinet and reduce cost of governance.
“There is no point saying the obvious in terms of the lopsidedness and favouritism that the cabinet has shown.
“Well, let us now get ready for the consequences of what is before us in this elephantine cabinet that has just been inaugurated,” he said.
Showunmi questioned the credibility of certain persons appointed as Ministers, particularly former governors, who he said were part of the eight “wasteful ” years of former President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration.
He stated: “The APC government of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is pretending it was not part of Buhari’s eight years of misery. He even brought former Governors that were part of Buhari’s mess on board as Ministers.
“Not much has changed in the recycled status quo, resembling the same of same and the most notorious bullies having the undeserved right to add to the misery of the people in some sad reality of gangsterism of the new order.”
According to Showunmi, the big issues, in no particular order, before the nation, were accountability and justice, stabilizing the Naira, security, national cohesion, the economy (jobs) and national reorientation, to mention but a few.
Showunmi further carpeted Tinubu as ill- prepared for the task of governance while he derided what he termed policy inconsistency of the new administration.
He said: “The flopper-in-chief has started changing the portfolios even before they start their original assignments, indicative of trial and error and lack of preparation.
“First, they scrapped the Niger Delta Ministry, then they hurriedly put it back. Someone should pinch me to wake up; not just me but a captured people who must, barring the ruling of the court, endure a long road to freedom.
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“In the last nearly 82 or so days, our new helmsman has demystified himself and whatever toga of competence that was mouthed. Unfortunately they neither allowed the media to ask questions during the campaign nor allowed for sober interrogation of the issues by the stakeholders who seemed to have been hoodwinked with irrelevances as against asking the critical how.
“They have now resulted to bragging and raking and policy summersault.
“The biggest joke is a palliative of rice and wholesale delivery of N5billion in the direction of State Governors which, to my mind, is like giving the fish to the cat with the expectation of delivery to the rat. Brilliant indeed.
“They have not accepted that it’s either you deregulate and take your hands off the pricing of petroleum products, or you interfere with it in a veiled return to the subsidy you claim are unable to sustain. Confused lot.
“I&E window and floating of the forex by the CBN is unfortunately not yielding anything but misery; typical of people who act before they think in a knee-jerk trial and error manner, voodoo economics; oh, I forgot, they have no capability or interest in figuring out and placing consequences on those who ran the forex aground. Now, at last, check the difference between the bank rate and the black-market rate– still gives a reasonable headroom for illegal profit, arbitrage they sought to avoid.”
