The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, says he is hated by civil servants under him for insisting that government spending be redirected from official travels and conferences to infrastructure projects.
Speaking at his monthly media briefing in Abuja on Thursday, the minister declared that he would rather be forfeit FCT staffers’ goodwill than approve what he considers wasteful expenditure.
He maintained that public officials could no longer expect him to approve expensive foreign trips for programmes whose benefits, in his view, do not justify their cost.
Wike questioned the rationale behind sponsoring officials to attend overseas conferences on land administration when similar experiences could be studied within Nigeria.
“We waste our resources on frivolities. You expect me to approve funds for you to go for conference in America on land administration, what’s that? Go to Lagos and Port Harcourt, study how their own works or did not work and make a comparison here,” he said.
The minister disclosed rejecting requests running into millions of naira for week-long foreign conferences, and insisting that such resources should instead finance projects that directly improve the lives of residents.
“How do you encourage me to sign N20 million to travel to America for a conference of one week for land administration? I won’t do that,” he said.
According to him, his decision reflects a broader fiscal policy introduced after he assumed office, under which the FCT administration reversed “an unhealthy budget structure that favoured recurrent expenditure over capital development”.
Wike said the administration now allocates about 70 per cent of its budget to capital projects, leaving 30 per cent for recurrent expenditure.
He said that is unlike the previous ratio, which he said devoted about 65 per cent to running government.
The minister argued that governments cannot achieve meaningful development if most public funds were consumed by overheads rather than investments in critical infrastructure.
The former Rivers governor further alleged that official conferences had, over the years, become channels for diverting public funds.
He maintained that his administration had chosen to redirect such resources to projects with measurable public benefits.
“Some people say conferences for corruption and I say what is that? You are going for conferences to do what? These are ways government funds are being diverted. I say put this money in this road here and the people will get the impact,” he said.
Wike acknowledged that the policy has made him unpopular within sections of the civil service but maintained that public approval from government workers was not his priority.
His words, “That’s why I can’t be popular among civil servants. If you ask anybody today, one minister they won’t like is me. Why? Those money for conferences, I put the money together for roads.”
