A former Minister of Aviation, Osita Chidoka has called on the Minister of the federal capital territory, Nyesom Wike to immediately apologize to a military officer Lt. A. N. Yerima for using abusive language on the young Naval Officer who was carrying out his duties as instructed.
Chidoka, in a social media posting reminded Wike that any law enforcement officer, in uniform or plain clothes, represents the President and the sovereignty of the Nigerian state.
“The Minister should apologise to the officer for using abusive language. It is not acceptable behaviour.
“To abuse such an officer is to diminish the authority of the Republic itself.
“Minister Nyesom Wike’s decision to personally enforce a directive at a disputed site was a fundamental misstep. In constitutional democracies, power operates through institutions not impulse.
“Executive authority must be exercised or adjudicated through the courts, ministries, and lawful instruments of state, never through confrontation. No matter how justified a grievance, a minister cannot become an enforcer; that violates the very idea of ordered government.
“In a democracy, ministers act through process, not presence. A formal communication to the Minister of Defence, whose office oversees the Armed Forces, would have sufficed. If the officers were on illegal duty, the established disciplinary systems would have addressed it,” Chidoka noted.
The former Aviation Minister further pointed out that “when a minister trades words with a uniformed officer acting under orders — lawful or otherwise — it corrodes discipline and confuses hierarchy.
He reminded the former FCT Minister that the officer’s duty is to obey the chain of command, not verbal instructions on a roadside.
Chidoka who is also former Head FRSC, lambasted the DSS protective details equally exhibiting unprofessional conduct.
According to him, “their responsibility was to extract their principal from a rancorous and potentially dangerous situation, not to escalate it.
“Security officers must remember that their loyalty is to the state, not to personalities.
“This episode is a cautionary tale: This episode demeans the dignity of the office of the Minister and undermines the image of disciplined governance.”
The FCT Minister had earlier this Tuesday while trying to gain access into a contentious property in Abuja abused a Naval Officer, Lt. A. M. Yerima who resisted his entrance.
