By Onwuasoanya FCC Jones, PhD.
I was trying to write something more extensive about how the current crisis ravaging our country’s supposed main opposition Party started, but as I wrote, I realised that it was becoming too lengthy, hence, I decided to take out an important part of that long essay and publish it as a separate post, to avoid the message getting lost in the voluminous write-up, that I might still conclude and publish.
Politics, especially, democratic politicking cannot be played without factoring in public opinion. The public opinion might be informed by propaganda or outright fake news, but if it is the popular opinion, then, a responsible government must take it seriously and work to correct the wrong opinion or the actual reality.
Even in Communist States like North-Korea, Cuba and China and authoritarian democracies like Russia, Belarus and elsewhere, people’s opinions are not discarded as worthless, but they are closely monitored, and while these governments invest huge resources into State propaganda, they do not also fail to take important actions to defuse tension when public opinion is getting too negative concerning a particular action.
Nyesom Wike’s endorsement of Mr. President and his subsequent contributions towards the successful election of the President in 2023, cannot be denied, and the President has shown enough gratitude by appointing him as the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, an appointment that should have been originally reserved for top members of the ruling Party.
While it must be acknowledged that the FCT Minister is doing some fantastic jobs in the FCT, it is also obvious that he is being distracted by his involvement in the tussle for the control of his own Party. His actions have also brought immerse reputational damage on the APC administration at the federal level, as he regularly puts himself forward as an untouchable appointee of the President, even as some of his actions could not have been possible without his access to some presidential protections.
The FCT Minister wouldn’t have had the resources and security to challenge sitting governors of his own Party to the extent of attempting to evict them from the Party’s secretariat, if he didn’t have access to enormous federal government accessories. His insistence on remaining in the PDP, while working openly for the APC, is outright political treachery, which the President must not continue to condone. If the Minister loves our Party so much and detests his own Party that much, then, he should quit the PDP officially and join the APC.
Mr. Wike is ruining our Party’s reputation before Nigerians and the international community, and the sooner the President relieves him of his job as FCT Minister, to enable him focus more resources and attention to “rebuilding” his Party and pocketing its structure, the better for us as a Party and as a nation.
Onwuasoanya FCC Jones, PhD is a former State Publicity Secretary of the All Progressives Congress.
