…dismisses Bwala’s comment on compensation
Chairman, House of Representatives’ Committee on Capital Market and other Institutions, Hon. Solomon Bob, on Sunday, averred that President Bola Tinubu’s decision to accept the proposal for exiting FCT Administration from the Treasury Single Account (TSA) showed the level of confidence he has in the FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike, to deliver.
Hon Bob stated this while reacting to comments made by the Special Adviser to President Bola Tinubu on Policy Communication, Mr. Bwala, on a television programme on Friday, in which he claimed that Wike had been “adequately compensated” while also implying that he was not allowing the Governor Siminalayi Fubara of Rivers State to govern.
Worried by Bwala’s comment, Hon. Bob described him as “an insignificant and attention-seeking operator punching above his weight,” while also accusing him of what he called “malicious narrative distortion.”
In a statement on Sunday in Port Harcourt, Hon. Bob stated that Bwala’s comments were “cheeky, unwarranted, and stemmed from premeditated bile.
“You could see that he deliberately pivoted from the question to talk about the Minister having been adequately compensated, whatever that means. He doesn’t understand the Minister’s contribution to this administration.
“Clearly, he operates on the fringes. And sadly, he leaves the impression that he sees public office as a gravy train ride. Because public office is about service delivery, not adequate compensation.
“Next, he cheekily downplayed the Minister’s generally acknowledged superlative performance in the FCT by putting it down merely to exiting the TSA. Firstly, exiting the TSA itself was the Minister’s ingenious idea.
“Secondly, the President’s acceptance underlines his confidence in the Minister’s ability to deliver. That confidence is rooted in his strong record as Rivers governor, for which even President Buhari honoured him – and Buhari was never enamoured of Wike.
“Worse still, Mr. Bwala betrayed his absolute lack of judgment by implying that the Minister is impeding Governor Fubara from governing. The manner of his comment is classic implication framing from a confused individual who dabbles into everything and all things, including those beyond his competence and job description,” he noted.
According to the Rivers State lawmaker, Bwala “denigrates his office by infusing his public comments with his own sentiments and biases and passing them off as the president’s.
“But he wasn’t speaking for the President because the President knows who bears responsibility for the situation in Rivers. Mr. Bwala doesn’t really speak for the President, by the way. That’s not his remit and he is way down the pecking order of presidential spokesmen.”
Hon. Bob, who represents Abua/Odual and Ahoada East Federal Constituency, claimed that perhaps Bwala is troubled by the bitterness he still nurses following Alhaji Atiku Abubakar’s defeat at the 2023 elections.
“Mr. Bwala enthusiastically ran his mouth and spoke out of turn because Minister Wike got Atiku Abubakar on toast. Atiku was his boss until he jumped ship. Obviously, he is still overcome with a sense of what might have been, despite grovelling back to get a job in a government made possible by people like the Minister while he was engaged in typical self-serving rants elsewhere.”
Hon. Bob therefore advised Bwala to know his level and be humble and grateful for the job he has because “despite his pretentions, he doesn’t convince many people that he has the ingredients to function in that capacity.”
Credit: Nigerian Tribune