Claim:  A Twitter User  @TheVoiceOfPHC claims that the former Rivers state governor is the first Southerner to occupy the position of the Minister of the Federal Territory

Verdict: Not True

Full Story:

On Monday, August 2023, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu swore in the new 45 ministers of the federal republic of Nigeria who will work with him in his cabinet for the next four years. The senate had earlier cleared the 45 ministers before their portfolios were announced last week, Wednesday, August 16th, 2023, by the senior special adviser to  the president on media and publicity, Ajuri  Ngelale.

Among the ministers announced at the swearing-in ceremony was the immediate past governor of Rivers State, Nyesome Wike, who was sworn in as the Honourable Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, a position that has been held mostly by northerners in the past.

With respect to that, a Twitter User with the username @TheVoiceOfPHC has claimed that the former Rivers state governor is the first Southerner to occupy the position of the Minister of the Federal Territory. In the tweet, the handler stated  that “Nyesom Wike Breaks Record. …Emerges as the first Southerner to become a Full FCT Minister.”

The tweet, which was meant to congratulate the minister, has generated over one thousand views and quotes while many have commented in agreement to the post to felicitate Mr Nysome Wike.

Similarly, PM newspaper, an online media platform, also published on August  16th, 2023, that Nyesome “Wike becomes  first  Southerner to be  appointed FCT  Minister in 47 years”.

As a result of this, speculations have risen on the social media following Wike’s appointment, and the correctness of the widely spread information. To ascertain the fact about this claim, NDR conducted some checks to check the veracity of the claim.

Verification

The Federal Capital Territory, Abuja  was created on February 1976 (47 years ago) from the states of old Kaduna Kwara, Niger and Plateu states  under the military regime of the former head  of state, Murtala Muhammed. The  FCT, unlike the states in Nigeria that are being headed by the state governors, is under the administration of the Federal Capital Territory Administratio.

Since its establishment in 1976, only the president or the military heads of state are saddled with the responsibility of appointing the ministers to coordinate the affairs of the territory.

Checks by the NDR revealed that the first minister of  the FCT to be appointed was Mobolaji Ajose-Adeogun a Southwesterner from Isale Eko, Lagos State, who recently died at age 96. Further checks revealed that the late Ajose-Adeogun was appointed in 1976 at the creation of the FCT to head the territory as the full of Minister.

A  recent report by Premium Times also further established that although no southerner has been appointed as the minister of the FCT since the country returned to civilian government in 1999, Nyesome Wike has broken the jinx by becoming the first southerner to head the FCT as a minister in 24 years.

Conclusion:

Based on multiple checks from NDR, Nyesome Wike is not the first southerner to become the FCT minister. The first minister of FCT was Mobolaji Ajose-Adeogun, who occupied the position from 1976 to 1979, before Wike was eventually sworn in on August 21st, 2023.

Therefore, the claim is false.