Senior Special Assistant on Public Communications and Social Media to the FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike, Lere Olayinka has told the Governor of Bauchi State, Bala Mohammed to stop using Wike’s appointment as minister as an excuse for his lack of capacity to provide leadership as chairman of People’s Democratic Party (PDP) Governors Forum.
Olayinka stated this in his reaction to a statement by the Bauchi State Governor against the minister, saying “It is funny that a known fairweather politician like Bala Mohammed was the one calling someone else transactional politician.”
He said Bala “dumped his political godfather and former Governor of Bauchi State, Isa Yuguda in 2007 and as a member of the defunct All Nigeria People’s Party (ANPP), also dumped former President Muhammadu Buhari in 2010 for a ministerial appointment under the PDP government of President Goodluck Jonathan.”
He asked how Wike being a minister under the government of President Bola Tinubu, was the reason Bala Mohammed failed as chairman of the PDP Governors Forum while running after the PDP ticket to contest for President in 2027, a position that he should know will remain in the South till 2031.
The statement read; “Our attention has been drawn to the ‘say nothing’ press statement that took six days to write, issued by the Governor of Bauchi State, Bala Mohammed, and we can’t but sympathise with a man who, out of political greed, has chosen to plunge himself into the deepest part of the river despite not knowing how to swim.
“First, Governor Bala Mohammed is holding the position of Chairman of the PDP Governors Forum out of political greed, because by convention and practice, the position should be held by one of the PDP Governors in the South. The reason was that the immediate past Chairman of the Forum was from the North, the same as the PDP National Chairman.
“Secondly, despite usurping the position of the PDP Governors Forum because of his rapacious nature, Bala Mohammed has demonstrated a lack of capacity to lead the PDP, the reason the party is how it is today.
“Sadly, rather than taking responsibility for leadership and acting the same, Bala Mohammad opted to divide the PDP’s National Working Committee (NWC), relating with a faction while neglecting the other.
“For his ineptitude and lack of capacity to lead, Bala Mohammed has been blaming Chief Ezenwo Nyesom Wike’s appointment as FCT Minister.
“Do we still need to feed Bala Mohammed with the fact that Wike, a committed member of the PDP is serving in the APC government of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, is not new in the history of politics and governance in Nigeria?
“Between 1999 and 2003, there were three political parties – (PDP), All People’s Party (APP) and Alliance for Democracy (AD). PDP won the presidency, but President Olusegun Obasanjo appointed members of APP and AD to serve in the government.
“Funny enough, this same Bala Mohammed, became Minister in 2010, while still being a member of the defunct ANPP. His defection to the PDP, months after being appointed as Minister, was to demonstrate his fairweather and anywhere-belle-face politics.
“Even at that, is it because Wike is a Minister that Bala Mohammed has faltered in carrying out the responsibilities of the position of Chairman of the PDP Governors’ Forum that he usurped? Could Bala Mohammad have displayed the capacity that he obviously lacked if Wike is not serving in Tinubu’s government?
“Bala Mohammed’s lack of capacity was the reason the PDP was not allowed to campaign in Bauchi in 2015, even with him as a serving FCT Minister, a shameless history that no politician worth his salt will want to be associated with.
“For a man like Bala Mohammed to call Wike a ‘transactional politician’, is not only ridiculous, but preposterous.
“Records of his political treachery are open for everyone to see, except perhaps ostrich Bala Mohammed himself. Despite serving as Personal Assistant (PA) to former Governor of Bauchi State, Isa Yuguda, when he was minister of Aviation, he fell out with his political godfather, after he (Yuguda) married President Umaru Yar’Adua’s daughter and decamped to the PDP. But when Yar’Adua died, Bala Mohammed quickly took ministerial appointment under the same PDP government.
“For us, it is our sincere counsel to handlers of Senator Bala Mohammad to tell him to address his failure to provide leadership for the PDP the way Wike did after the party lost power in 2015. Then, when Wike was taking bullets for the PDP.
“As for Chief Ezenwo Nyesom Wike, he will continue to excel wherever he finds himself and it is obviously obvious now that what Bala Mohammed struggled to achieve during his five years as FCT minister cannot come anywhere near what has been done within the last 12 months that President Tinubu appointed Wike as FCT minister. Eyes saw between 2010 and 2015, and eyes can see now.”
ALSO READ FROM NIGERIAN TRIBUNE
Tinubu commits over N100bn to Bwari road projects, education, security — Wike