Rivers elders express confidence on Wike’s capacity to deliver

The Coalition of River Leaders of Thoughts has expressed confidence in the ability and capacity of the Minister of Federal Capital Territory, Mr. Nyesom Wike, to deliver on the mandate of the nation’s capital.

This is contained in a statement jointly signed by the Chairman, Chief Sunnie Chukumele, and Secretary, Mr. Josiah Onoriode, and made available to the News Agency of Nigeria on Wednesday in Abuja.

They described those recently calling for the sack of the FCT minister as ignoramous and agents of division.

According to them, any Nigerian has the right to be appointed in whatever capacity the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces deem fit. Wike has the capacity to administer the FCT.

“President Bola Tinubu has confidence in and believes in his capacity; hence, he appointed him as Minister of the Federal Republic.

“From all indications, Wike is ready to transform Abuja into a megacity. He has strategized to increase the revenue base of the FCT and is yielding results already. We believe in his capacity.

“The recent outburst from a Muslim cleric regarding who should and should not be appointed Minister of the FCT is regrettable and could be described as hate speech.

“In fact, the outburst came as an attack on our son, who was meritoriously appointed by Tinubu as Minister of the FCT,’’ the coalition said.

It emphasised that the security and intelligence community in Nigeria should have been seen to have taken decisive action against the cleric as a critical and needed step to assuage the fears of the conscious populace of Nigeria.

According to the organisation, the negative impacts of such an outburst from a cleric definitely affect investment decisions in Nigeria by the much-sought-after foreign investors that Tinubu is trying to woo.

“We want to advise that whenever the cleric makes such a comment again, he should be invited by the security services and other agencies to answer questions. Nigeria belongs to Nigerians,’’ the coalition stated.