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By Newspot Nigeria News Desk
The African Democratic Congress (ADC) has issued a stinging response to the Honourable Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Chief Nyesom Wike, accusing him of launching “virulent attacks” on the coalition of opposition parties during his latest media chat.
In a press release signed by Mal. Bolaji Abdullahi, spokesman of the emerging coalition movement, the ADC dismissed Wike’s remarks as panicked outbursts from a man unsettled by the growing popularity of the coalition. The party said the minister’s “fear” reflects the political threat the newly formed opposition alliance poses to the government of President Bola Tinubu.
“We believe Minister Wike could only descend to that level because of his mortal fear of the threat that the successful unveiling of the coalition of opposition political parties constitutes to the government that he serves,” the statement reads.
The ADC also took aim at Wike’s stewardship of the FCT, highlighting the prolonged strike by primary school teachers and the alleged neglect of workers in the capital. They slammed the minister’s “commissioning of white elephant projects” while basic services suffer.
“If Minister Wike had paid the salaries of primary school teachers who have been on strike for several months… he would have had no need to be afraid of the coalition,” Abdullahi noted.
Wike had claimed in his media chat that the opposition coalition was founded on personal grievances. In rebuttal, the ADC said any grievances they had stemmed from “the way the government he is a part of has driven majority of Nigerians into poverty and misery.”
The statement accused Wike of playing a key role in the decline of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), once one of Africa’s strongest parties, and claimed the coalition’s strength lies in the hopes of ordinary Nigerians disillusioned by the ruling party.
“The coalition movement belongs to the Nigerian people who had been promised renewed hope, but have been served renewed hopelessness,” the statement concluded.
The full press release from the ADC, as obtained by Newspot Nigeria, is published below for public interest:
PRESS RELEASE
July 3, 2025
Minister Wike is Jittery – ADC
The African Democratic Congress (ADC) has taken note of the virulent attacks launched on the various leaders of the coalition movement by the Hon. Minister of Federal Capital Territory, Chief Nyesom Wike in his media chat today.
Without justifying this behaviour that we find incompatible with the office of a Federal Minister, we believe Minister Wike could only descend to that level because of his mortal fear of the threat that the successful unveiling of the coalition of opposition political parties constitutes to the government that he serves.
We observe that if Minister Wike and the government that he serves had kept their promises to the Nigerian people, the coalition movement would not have been necessary and he would not have had a need to be so jittery.
If Minister Wike had paid the salaries of primary school teachers who have been on strike for several months and if he had not treated FCT workers with so much contempt, while he goes about commissioning white elephant projects running into billions of Naira, he would have had no need to be afraid of the coalition.
Minister Wike claimed in his media chat that the coalition leaders are driven only by grievances. If we have any grievances, it is the way the government he is a part of has driven majority of Nigerians into poverty and misery. We are aggrieved to see children of the poor unable to get education because he would not pay their teachers’ salaries. We are aggrieved to watch the growing insecurity in the FCT that he superintends. We are aggrieved that Minister Wike had allowed himself to be used by the government he serves to destroy one of the most powerful political parties in Africa, the PDP.
But it is rather too late in the day to cry. The coalition movement belongs to the Nigerian people who had been promised renewed hope, but have been served renewed hopelessness. Therefore, no amount of tirade against the leaders of the coalition could stem the tide of this popular movement.
Mal. Bolaji Abdullahi
Spokesman of the Coalition Movement
— Newspot Nigeria
