The Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Minister, Nyesome Wike, during interaction with journalists while inspecting the Karshi Apo Road construction project awarded 13 years ago, qualifies Nigeria "rotten country" and the upcoming planned protest as being politically motivated. Mr Wike revealed that Nigerians are impatient and hasty to see Mr president perform miracle of fixing a nation the past administration has crumbled.
“Let’s tell ourselves the simple truth. If we are playing politics, let’s say we are playing politics; if we want to be sincere to ourselves, let’s be sincere to ourselves and help our country.
“The country is rotten. You know that the country is rotten, and a government has just come to see what it can do to at least move it from where we are to a certain level, and you say that miracle must be performed within one year.
“You are here now; we are talking about a project that was awarded 13 good years ago; what has happened? Nothing.
“Now a government has come to see how it can fix all these things, and we are in too much of a hurry demanding that it must be done now.“It is not possible. The protest is a political protest,” he said.
The minister acknowledged that people were not happy due to hunger and unemployment, adding, however, that the current administration was not responsible for the current level of unemployment in the country.
According to him, the Tinubu administration is working hard to put things together, which of course, will take some time.
“So, let’s not listen to political protesters and political jobbers who just want to be popular. You know there are some people who believe that if they don’t criticize, they will not be popular.
“We are going to elections very soon; these are political gimmicks.
“Just know that the government is a serious government and working to solve the problem.“We believe that things will turn around, but we should be patient with the government,” he said.
The youth-led protest against economic hardship and soaring inflation has been billed to kick off 1st to 10th August 2024.