The cost and funding of the monthly media engagements of the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, have come under scrutiny following a demand for transparency over the broadcasts aired across several television and radio stations.
The issue emerged on Tuesday after Paul Ibe, media adviser to former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar, called on Wike to publish invoices detailing the cost of the broadcasts, the stations involved and the sources of funding.
Ibe raised the questions following Wike’s media parley in Abuja, where the minister defended President Bola Tinubu’s performance, promoted his administration’s record in the FCT and reaffirmed his commitment to mobilising support for the President’s re-election in 2027.
According to Ibe, broadcasting the programme across eight stations for two hours could cost between ₦160 million and ₦320 million per session, based on his estimated rate of ₦10 million to ₦20 million per station per hour.
He further estimated that holding 12 such sessions monthly could amount to between ₦1.92 billion and ₦3.84 billion.
However, the figures were estimates provided by Ibe and have not been independently verified. No documentary evidence establishing the actual cost or funding source was presented in the report.
“There is nothing wrong with a minister explaining his stewardship. But public resources must serve public purposes, not personal political battles,” Ibe said.
He argued that residents of the FCT deserved to know how much was being spent on the broadcasts and how much airtime was devoted to issues affecting the territory.
Ibe also urged the minister to disclose the stations paid, the amounts involved, the sources of funding and the relevant budget lines, particularly if public funds were used to finance the engagements.
Responding to the criticism, Wike’s media aide, Lere Olayinka, challenged Ibe to establish whether FCT residents had complained about the minister’s frequent media appearances.
“Did the people of FCT complain to him? Did they tell him their money is missing?” Olayinka asked in a telephone interview with PUNCH Online.
The exchange has shifted attention from the political declarations at Wike’s media parley to questions about the financing of public officials’ media engagements and the extent to which such expenditure should be open to public scrutiny.
While Wike has defended his media engagements as part of his public communication, the funding questions raised by Ibe remain unresolved in the available reports.
The controversy comes as Wike continues to champion the Rainbow Coalition, a political arrangement bringing together members of the All Progressives Congress and supporters of Tinubu from other parties ahead of the 2027 general election.
At Tuesday’s parley, the minister insisted that the coalition was intended to strengthen Tinubu’s re-election bid rather than undermine the ruling party.
The demand for disclosure, however, places a separate issue before the minister: whether the costs and funding arrangements for his widely broadcast media engagements will be made public.
