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Former Bayelsa State governorship candidate Udengs Eradiri said Sunday that FCT Minister Nyesom Wike’s development record in Abuja has exposed widespread underperformance among Nigeria’s state governors, arguing that the country’s infrastructure problems stem from state-level mismanagement rather than federal neglect.
Eradiri, a former President of the Ijaw Youth Council Worldwide, made the comments in a statement issued in Port Harcourt, crediting Wike with transforming the Federal Capital Territory within the resources available to him in under four years while narrowing the development gap between Abuja city and its satellite towns.
“Wike’s performance has taught us that the problems of underdevelopment in Nigeria have little or nothing to do with the Federal Government, but a lot to do with many state governors and local government chairmen, who deliberately misuse, misappropriate and misdirect the enormous resources accruing to their states,” Eradiri said.
He argued that most governors lack the commitment needed to execute infrastructure projects capable of transforming their states, characterizing many as driven by “selfish and family interests” who treat state resources as personal property.
Eradiri framed Wike’s tenure as a benchmark for evaluating the impact of President Bola Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda, noting that over the preceding 30 days, Wike and Tinubu had continued inaugurating completed projects and launching new ones across the FCT and its satellite towns. He credited Wike’s approach with breaking through bureaucratic and procurement bottlenecks while holding contractors to project specifications and agreed timelines.
According to Eradiri, Wike’s project selection has prioritized rural development and visible impact for ordinary residents, including the completion of projects left abandoned for years before Tinubu’s administration took office.
He then posed a series of pointed questions aimed at sitting governors. “If a minister could deliver such a number of high-impact, people-oriented and high-quality projects within a single term, why are many governors failing to transform their states despite the huge resources accruing to them, especially under President Tinubu’s administration?” Eradiri asked, adding that abandoned projects, communities without access roads, and areas lacking electricity, functional primary healthcare centers, and potable water reflect what he called governors’ basic incompetence.
Eradiri tied his critique directly to Nigeria’s recent fiscal reforms, arguing that the increased federal allocations flowing to states under Tinubu’s economic changes leave governors with no legitimate excuse for underperformance. He said no governor should be able to cite rising costs or exchange rate fluctuations as justification for stalled development, noting that Wike operates under the same economic conditions while still delivering completed projects in the FCT.
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He called on governors to convert groundbreaking ceremonies into actual project inaugurations at the same pace Wike has maintained in Abuja, and urged them to channel rising state revenues toward addressing infrastructure deficits in both urban and rural areas. “They should justify the revenue surge to their states by delivering tangible projects the way the FCT minister has done in Abuja. The people will no longer tolerate excuses,” Eradiri said.
Wike, a former two-term governor of Rivers State, was appointed FCT Minister following Tinubu’s inauguration in 2023, taking charge of an administrative territory that combines the functions of a state government with direct federal oversight, since the FCT has no elected governor of its own and is instead run through ministerial appointment. That structural difference means Wike’s position is not directly comparable to that of an elected state governor: FCT infrastructure spending draws on both federal budgetary allocations and land-related revenue streams specific to the territory’s status as the seat of government, a funding mix distinct from the statutory allocations and internally generated revenue that constitute most states’ budgets.
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Eradiri’s remarks arrive amid a broader increase in monthly Federation Account Allocation Committee disbursements to Nigeria’s 36 states since 2023, driven by the removal of the fuel subsidy and unification of the foreign exchange market under Tinubu’s economic reform program, changes that have significantly raised the naira value of federal transfers to subnational governments even as the reforms simultaneously drove up the cost of imported materials and equipment used in infrastructure projects nationwide.
Eradiri did not name specific governors or states in his statement, framing his criticism as directed at underperforming state leadership generally rather than at named individuals.
