BAUCHI STATE GOVERNMENT HOUSE PRESS RELEASE
The media team of Sen. Bala Mohammed, CON, Governor of Bauchi State and Chairman of the PDP Governors Forum, is compelled to respond to the puerile and reckless statement issued by the Senior Special Assistant on Public Communications and Social Media to Chief Nyesom Wike, Minister of the Federal Capital Territory. The statement put out on behalf of Chief Wike marked even a new low for a man given to unbridled excesses, and is indicative of the descent of governance in today’s APC – led Nigeria into moral infamy and intolerable putrescence. As repugnant and loathsome as Wike’s empty press release is we will still endeavour to respond to his catalogue of falsehoods and glaring deceits for the sole reason that we want the facts deposited as public records . Our response is not for the benefit of the morally bankrupt actor whose tantrums have become an embarrassing spectacle, but to set the record straight for Nigerians who deserve facts, clarity, and the truth.
2- For starters, it is on record that Sen Bala Mohammed started his distinguished career as a journalist and a public servant who rose to become a Director in the Public Service of the Federal Republic of Nigeria before retiring and being elected a Senator of the Federal Republic in 2007. Nyeson Wike, on the other hand, “appeared from the blue, virtually from nowhere” except perhaps for the rumours that he operated out of the transport sector in Port Harcourt before Sen John Azuta Mbata- who he eventually betrayed and is currently bad mouthing – hauled him out of total obscurity and made him the Chairman of Obio Akpor LGA. Indeed, it must be noted that a world of difference exists between a Director – the highest earned position in the Public Service and a man of indeterminate background who benevolent spirits cracked his undeserving palm kernels.
3- Let Nyesom Wike be reminded that while he lives in a delusional self-created universe of seeing splits and factions in the PDP the party is resolute and united apart from a few turncoats and quislings led by him who are desperately committed to weakening it for the benefit of the APC whose willing tool and favoured foot soldier he has become. Sen Bala Mohammed is a highly regarded and efficient manager of people and resources both as the dynamic Chairman of the PDP Governors Forum, the Governor of Bauchi state and the face of organized political opposition in Nigeria today. Under Sen Bala Mohammed’s vibrant and visionary leadership the PDP Governors Forum and the party’s core organs including the BOT are working quietly and assiduously in cleaning the party of Wike’s treachery and perfidy. And for the avoidance of doubt, it is also on record that the party’s NWC is fully consolidated and integrated unless there is any member therein who is following Wike’s wayward and perverse political path. Such a path of perdition is not the portion of genuine PDP members who are working tirelessly to retire the APC in 2027- the very party, with its failed policies, that Wike has vowed to help win re-election in 2027.
4- Let Wike be educated that Sen Bala Mohammed moved the historic Doctrine of Necessity in 2010 to save the nation from a looming constitutional crisis and political disaster; and a move that got Wike’s benefactor former President Jonathan sworn in as an Acting President , the elder statesman Wike is now busy insulting with no shame . When also President Jonathan called Sen Bala Mohammed to serve the nation as an honourble minister he took the right moral step by changing his party status and affiliation from ANPP to PDP to show full, total and unconditional loyalty to the President. This is what real leaders who are guided by moral clarity do. This, of course, is not what transactional, bat-like politicians of Wike’s hue who are dwelling in the indeterminate domain of political disloyalty and ethical abyss do. Let Wike adopt Sen Bala Mohammed’s morally edifying position by resigning from the PDP and join his beloved APC- a party he once classified as being afflicted with Stage 4 cancer not too long ago! And let Wike not justify his aberrant and pernicious conduct by comparing a properly constituted government of national unity in 1999 to his self-serving and deleterious political behaviour in 2023.
5- Chief Nyesom Wike, without a shadow of doubt, has continued to exhibit the aberrant behaviour of someone who clearly lacks good upbringing and sublime family values of decency, reliability, consistency and moral proportion and balance . His conducts are littered by treachery, betrayal and lack of respect to those who have elevated him in life and helped in advancing his social and political career. Chronologically, the list of those Wike has betrayed is headlined by Sen John Azuta Mbata who turned his obscure life around by foisting him on Obio Akpor LGA as its elected council Chairman. Today, Sen Mbata, the newly elected President General of Ohaneze Ndigbo, is being daily harassed with sponsored protests and vitriol in the media and openly bad mouthed by Wike as an unworthy son of Ikwerre land.
Next is Dr Peter Odili and his wife, retired Justice Mary Odili, who Wike openly acknowledged to have salvaged his faltering and endangered political career early in the day by openly crying out to them but who today he collectively describes as “this man” and “this woman”, as well as labeling Dr Odili as a rent seeker and an ingrate he brought to life politically. And this is apart apart from other unprintable language that only a diseased mind can conjure. Next up is Rt Hon Chibuike Amaechi who made Wike his Chief of Staff when he was Rivers State Governor and under whose watch Wike was made a junior minister in former President Jonathan’s cabinet but who Wike has repeatedly castigated and insulted with loutish words and expressions. Is it thus surprising that the Odilis, former Governor Omehia, Sen Mbata, Sen Omehia, Sen Lea Meeba, Chief Uche Secondus and other distinguished Rivers sons and daughters have all rallied around Gov Fubara in his just struggle to free the state from the perfidious stranglehold of a megalomaniac individual.
6- From treachery and betrayal Wike eventually graduated to and perfected the illogic and morally reprehensible life as a use and dump artist. He virtually alone foisted Sen Ali Modu Sherrif as the National Chairman of the PDP and again marshaled all available resources in bringing him down into disrepute when fancy possessed him. He also was instrumental in bringing Chief Uche Secondus on board as a National Chairman of the party only to turn against him on selfish and pertinently self serving considerations. The same could be said with regard to Dr Iyorchia Ayu, and may be before long the current Acting National Chairman of the party. The biggest threat to the viability of the PDP which proud and committed party workers are striving to contain is Wike’s treacherous and quisling- like rebelliousness against its core principles and autonomous standing, his history and record as a serial betrayer, and his insufferable egomania and incipient narcissism.
7- There is no doubt that the emptiest of drums and tins make the loudest noise. One of such noise emanated from Wike through his ill-advised attacks against Sen Bala Mohammed, yet another in a series of unrelenting “take him down” poisonous arrows he repeatedly fires. But like the people’s Governor told him that Bauchi state has more than sufficient water to put out the fire that Wike has promised he will start there, let him know for the umpteenth time that Sen Bala Mohammed is a hard target, a courageous warrior who has faced down petty tyrants and bullies like Wike with towering moral force and ethical authority. As for who has performed better as a minister of the FCT Wike’s loud empty drum of demolitions and evil revocations will not detract from Sen Bala Mohammed’s universally acclaimed record of service. Enough said on this for now.
8- In conclusion , Wike’s antics cannot detract Bala Mohammed’s record . His outburst is the desperate cry a man whose political relevance is fading . His attempts to tarnish the reputation of Sen. Bala Mohammed will fail because Nigerians see through his facade. Wike’s betrayal of PDP , his erratic governance style , and his history of treachery make him unfit to criticize a leader of Sen. Bala Mohammed’s caliber. Nigerians deserve better than the theatre of absurdity that Wike represents . The time for noice making is over ; it is time for governance. Let Wike reflect on his conduct and do the honorable thing: RESIGN AND ALIGN FULLY WITH THE APC he so eagerly serves. Until then his words will remain as hallow as his loyalty.
Signed
Mukhtar Gidado
Special Adviser Media and Publicity to the Governor
25th January,2025.
