- Urges FCT residents: Don’t go to market or fishing on election day
BY EVELYN DADU – Minister of the Federal Capital Territory FCT, Nyesom Wike, has launched a scathing attack on critics of the Rainbow Coalition, saying most of them lack the political capacity to even fix their own fractured homes and communities.
Stoutly defending his bipartisan pet project, ‘Rainbow Coalition’ as a necessary force for regional progress, Wike mockingly said before questioning our cross-party alliance built for unity, let those criticising us go home and unite their immediate families.
Speaking on Monday in Gwagwalada during the commissioning of the Gwagwalada Civic Centre, he maintained that the coalition, which bridges the gap between the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) stakeholders, was built strictly to foster unity, peace, cooperation, and rapid grassroots development across the FCT
He dismissed his opponents as selfish and out of touch with current realities, arguing that detractors questioning the validity of the ‘Rainbow coalition’ lack the basic political clout or leadership capacity to unite people across board.
According to him, “Some greedy and selfish politicians do not understand what we call unity. They have no capacity to hold their space, they have no capacity to even hold their families, and they have no capacity to hold their communities. So they can open their mouths and say there is no Rainbow Coalition.”
Wike challenged critics of the alliance to explain why political leaders who once disagreed could not come together to pursue common interests in future.
He described the development in Gwagwalada as a departure from the politics of confrontation, insisting that the FCT needed cooperation rather than needless political hostility.
Also commending political leaders in the area for setting aside their differences, the Minister said their decision showed that the collective interest of the people outweighed individual political ambition.
While urging residents not to repeat what he described as the mistake of the 2023 general elections, Wike called for credible representation at the National Assembly, just as he canvassed support for former senator, Philip Aduda, and other candidates endorsed by the Coalition, saying political representatives must be accessible and familiar with their constituents.
The Minister, who used the occasion to further support President Bola Tinubu’s re-election bid, urged residents to turn their endorsements into votes in 2027, saying: “On the day of the election, it will not be a day for market or fishing.
“It is the day all of us have decided to come together and demonstrate our strength through our votes. Go to the polling units, districts and communities and mobilise the people to vote for Bola Ahmed Tinubu.”
Earlier in his remarks, the APC Chairman, FCT Chapter, Ishaku Tanko Yamawo, described the gathering as historic, saying Wike’s intervention had brought together leaders who previously operated on opposing sides.
On his part, the FCT Chapter Chairman of PDP, Alhaji Ismaila Mohammed Dogara, praised Wike for his development interventions, particularly the revival of a project abandoned for 16 years in Gwagwalada.
For the Aguma of Gwagwalada, Alhaji Muhammadu Magaji, it was praises for the Minister’s contributions to the development of the FCT, noting that the revival of the abandoned project underscored the importance of continuity in governance.
Going down memory lane, former Chairman of Gwagwalada Area Council, Zakari Angulu Dobi, recalled that the Civic Centre was almost 80 per cent completed when he left office but suffered vandalism during the 16 years it was abandoned, reducing its completion level to about 40 per cent.
Welcoming the FCT Minister, Gwagwalada Area Council Chairman, Kassim Mohammed put his administration’s robust developmental track record on full display, citing widespread road projects from the metropolis to Tungan Wada, Abum-pe and other communities.
Mohammed, who lauded the Minister’s visionary approval of a new local facility in the Area Council, also used the occasion to plead for urgent federal intervention in rehabilitating the vital Army checkpoint-to-Specialist hospital link road.
