Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, has asked officials who are unwilling to work to seek redeployment to other ministries to avoid his troubles.
Wike gave the order on Tuesday, August 22, while receiving handing-over notes from the Permanent Secretary of the FCTA, Olusade Adesola.
Specifically, Wike ordered the director in charge of the Abuja Environmental Protection Board (AEPB) to clean up the city, declaring that he would be on his case to the point of increasing his blood pressure.
The former Rivers governor said he would be mounting immense pressure on the director in charge to the point that he might even develop high blood pressure.
He declared: “You must be ready to work hard. I must make sure I give you BP, so you must work hard. You can’t be sleeping when the environment is dirty. You can’t be a director for anything.
”It is an opportunity for us to tell Nigerians and Mr President that we cannot disappoint. If you are in charge of sanitation, buy your drugs, carry them all the time because I will disturb you all the time to make sure Abuja is clean.”
On transportation, the new minister told top officials of the secretariat that they’re in for trouble.
”Wahala don come. There are too many illegal bus stops in the city. I have respect for women, but this one, I will not. If you don’t have the capacity, let us replace you now.“
He continued: “I will ensure that Abuja gets the best. You will see projects upon projects and projects that will be completed and not abandoned.
“I am not a party to abandoned projects. I start a project when there is money; as such, we will look into our finances before we begin any project.
“I believe in the renewed hope of President Bola Tinubu, and Nigerians will see the difference in no distant time.”
He said in the meantime, there had to be immediate deliverables to assure the people that the government was determined to turn the fortunes of the territory around.
“We are here to deliver the short-term deliverables for people to see that Abuja is coming back to what it was supposed to be. People are complaining of street lights not working, I am complaining too. We must fix it within the shortest possible time”, he promised.
Wike further charged the director in charge of street lights to do everything possible in the shortest possible time to restore them on the streets of Abuja.
He also declared that it is not compulsory that people should like him, but in the end, if he did well, he would be appreciated as he admitted that things are tough but lawlessness shouldn’t be tolerated.
On her part, Minister of State in the FCT, Dr Mariya Mahmoud, said with the support of staff, what Wike had done in Rivers would be replicated in Nigeria’s capital city.
