I went home to Rivers State last weekend to participate in a celebration and Anglican thanksgiving service. They were hosted in Koroma, Tai Local Government Area, by Senator Barinada Mpigi, a fellow Ogoni and friend. And the special guests of honour were Chief Godswill Akpabio, the Senate President, and Chief Nyesom Wike, our former governor who is now the Minister in charge of FCT.

Akpabio and Wike are both flamboyant personalities who don’t mince words and attract tons of attention wherever they go. But when I later told various people in Port Harcourt and Abuja that I had attended this event, it was Wike I was quizzed about. People wanted to know what he said in the church, who he came with and so on.

He is the object of such fascination because he has, since October, been embroiled in a heated public conflict with Sim Fubara, the less-timid-than-everyone-thought ex-loyalist he installed as Governor.

Most folks in our state have taken sides and most of the Riverians I’ve spoken to are pro-Sim because they regard Wike as an unbearably overbearing godfather. And I feel sad for Wike because he has been kind to me and I’d prefer him to avoid this toxic controversy and concentrate on becoming a great FCT Minister.

I’d like him to leave nasty local shenanigans behind and make fools of ethnic bigots who think that FCT should be run only by Northerners (Wike is the first Southerner to hold this post). I want him to shine on the national stage; and he certainly has what it takes to shine.

I interviewed him in his office before Christmas. Wike is famed for being combative. But I saw another side of him that day. 

Excerpts from the full interview, which first appeared in The Africa Report:  

HE politely deflects 

awkward questions about burning political issues. Today, he is a modest, uncomplicated, low-key technocrat who is solely focused on showing sceptics that he has a lot to offer Abuja and that Tinubu was right to swear him in on August 2lst.

While aides hover discreetly, he talks about the challenges he faces as a city manager and about how he intends to tackle them. 

Abuja, despite inevitable imperfections, is a great Nigerian success story. Established from scratch, it has gone from strength to strength and is full of decent roads and impressive edifices. But it still has a long way to go before it can be described as world-class.

“It was,” says Wike (whose nickname in his previous life was “Mr Projects”) “built for only 500,000 people. I don’t know why the founders did not think ahead and make allowances for growth. But we now have a population of about five million. And that’s a problem.”

How is he going to solve it?

“By decongesting the centre of town and improving infrastructure – roads and water are my priorities – in the suburbs. Abuja has six area councils. If people who live in them have better facilities, they will not crowd into the centre as much as they do now.”

Another problem, according to him, is that corrupt civil servants in the FCT Ministry’s Development Control Department have been degrading the original masterplan by entering into “shady deals” with land purchasers and allowing residential and green areas to become commercialised.

Wike is on a mission to restore the integrity of the masterplan and amend it to reflect current realities where necessary.

With this objective in mind, he has set up a team that has been instructed to “research best practices in modern cities in other parts of the world, adapt their findings to our local situation and prepare a document containing recommendations that can be presented to the President on or before Tinubu’s first anniversary next May.”

Wike is very well-travelled. But when asked which foreign urban sprawl he likes most and would like Abuja to resemble, he insists that he isn’t enough of an expert to recommend anywhere himself.

“So far, I have only ever been abroad as a tourist or on short business trips. I didn’t go to study how those foreign cities work, so I would rather leave my technical team to do the recommending.”

He appears to have figured out creative ways of extracting support and productivity from bureaucrats who are famed for sabotaging political appointees, without antagonising them.

“I have offered them 2% of any internally generated revenue they raise, so they don’t have to hang around waiting for me to approve working funds. They now feel empowered and are happy. And they don’t mind me insisting on efficiency. They know that if they do what they are supposed to do, they will get benefits they are entitled to.”

Surprisingly for one who has a reputation for throwing big bucks around, he claims to be very budget conscious and to be operating parsimoniously.

“I incentivise staff but I don’t tolerate money-wasting frivolities, especially when foreign exchange is involved,” he says.

“Ministry staff were recently invited to a British Government workshop in London. I declined the invitation because I couldn’t see the value in it. It may be a good workshop for people in other ministries but there was no capacity-building component for FCT. I will not enable anyone to travel only for enjoyment and shopping!”

Investigations reveal that many contractors and FCT inhabitants think that Wike is doing very well indeed and performing magnificently compared to his near-comatose Buhari era predecessor.

One of the things his Abuja fans appreciate is the fact that he is big on crime prevention, pushing for taxis to be properly registered to minimise attacks by criminals masquerading as taxi drivers and revoking certificates of occupancy belonging to people who bought land and didn’t develop it within the mandatory two-year window.

He points out that vacant plots and uncompleted buildings are often turned into shanties and hijacked by miscreants.

But the real jewel in Abuja’s crown – a top-notch cultural centre, library and museum – will, with any luck, delight almost everyone and attract thousands of visitors to Abuja every year.

This project has been stuck on the drawing board since 2002 and will cost a whopping N77 billion to conclude.

Wike’s eyes light up as he describes the 2000 parking spaces and quality of the architectural drawings.

He is equally enthusiastic when talking about the pleasure he derives from preparing food for his family and friends. Who knew that a man who comes across as irredeemably macho could have such a soft hobby? He laughs when it is suggested that he writes a cookery book.

As one bids farewell to this complex and controversial headline-grabber, one is grateful to have seen him at his human best.