By: Ifeanyi Izeze
The widely reported donation of N500 million to victims of the Sokoto
market fire by the Rivers state governor, Nyesom Wike was nothing out of
the norm as we know it with those who have ruled the state since 1999.
In the chronicle of sacrificial givings by those you ruled the state;
Peter Odili came first and did very well at it. Rotimi Amaechi followed
and even introduced some new dimensions to it. Now Wike is at it dancing
real naked in the market places even as far as Sokoto main market.
Rivers people seems to be terrible students of recent history if not,
how do you explain that all the governors who ruled the state since 1999
ended up doing the same things the same way even when they want the
people of the state to believe otherwise?
Is there actually a spell cast on people who rule the state? It sounds
very extreme to actually say but the behavioural pattern always
displayed by makes it difficult to think otherwise.
Remarkably, they all start very well and manage to carry serious
governance through their early years in office. And that may be because
funny enough, they usually come into office the same manner and
circumstances. And just because of the circumstances of their emergence,
they usually are always compelled to work for the people to see at least
in the early years of their administrations.
However, the worrisome pattern has always been that immediately they get
the chance to do a second tenure, Rivers state stop being priority in
most things they do, that’s when they suddenly start seeing themselves
more as national figures than local administrators.
In the beginning, it was Governor Peter Odili who as result of the
pressure from the “Anti-Christ” and his group that clearly defeated
him at the first run of the governorship election in election in rivers
state in 1999, was forced to do things to convince the people that he
was a better choice. Most of Odili’s projects and programmes in the
housing, transportation, education, power and several other sectors were
very remarkable.
He even took issues of stomach infrastructures to a level that even his
enemies till today find it difficult to accuse him as being corrupt
because he “carried everybody along” including women _Oyeeeee_. Then
all that changed the day a dreamt of being the next president after
Obasanjo. He became the nationally acclaimed “omeogor” (Mr Charity)
especially in northern and western Nigeria.
Then Chibuike Amaechi came with his “K- Leg” issues though the
Supreme Court was able to orthopedically straighten everything that had
to do with that deformity. He did very well also in terms of his
projects and programmes in his early years in office. Amaechi drove
himself either in a car or power-bike unannounced to project sites for
first hand assessment of what contractors were doing on almost every
site. As an Ikwerre man, he also went into Mile 1, Mile 3, Town and, Oil
mill markets to buy _moi moi_ and ‘manpower’ even cowries and native
chalks at times just to relate with the his people.
Whether anybody wants to hear this or not, whosoever that says Amaechi
did not work in his first tenure is an enemy not only of progress but
also of Rivers state.
His humility in service was exemplary until he became the Chairman of
the Nigerian Governors’ Forum (NGF) and then, _phewww_, he caught that
“anointing” that made him think he has become as powerful or even
more than the President of the Federal Republic who happened to be his
friend and brother. That was when he remembered that his middle name is
Rotimi. He no longer bothered about any friend in Rivers state. People
from the Southwest posing as all sorts of adviser, contractors and
consultants overran the state. The governor became airborne as he was
always in Abuja, Lagos, or London.
He literally took over the funding of the NGF with monies from the
coffers of Rivers state. To crown it all, he doled over N60billion of
Rivers money, as alleged, to fund Buhari’s presidential campaign of
2014-2015 as the _Maigaskya_ had no two coins to rub each other and the
Jagagban was not ready then to stake a dime on a man who sees and
publicly berated him as very ‘_kwaraupt_’.
Now with Wike who also came as “_Ogbuagu_” under the camouflage of a
riverine Boer constrictor also did well in his early years. He stood out
by making sure there was no abandoned project anywhere in the state. He
completed with the resilience of a “_yewali_” all projects initiated
but abandoned by his predecessor in office except the Monorail. Well
into this his second term, he says he is still working at least with his
‘bridge affair,’ but whether the Rivers people see it as such is
discuss for another day.
He was in Edo state to produce Governor Godwin Obaseki for his second
tenure, a job he executed with the fineness of an _Nyerishi_ all with
hundreds of millions or even billions from Rivers state coffers.
So it is very clear that Wike’s going to Sokoto to dash traders 500
million of Rivers money was nothing outside what Rivers governors were
known for except that it’s coming when economic distress is well
written everywhere and on everything in the state.
Tragically, as if the dole was not enough progress in error, the
explanation by the State Government justifying the N500 million dole to
Sokoto traders was even more of an insult to the sensibilities of the
Rivers people. It may have been ignore or rather swallowed by the people
if not that it was done in the governor’s usual ill manners and
outright arrogance.
Hear the government: “These unfortunate outbursts have largely been
uncharitable, ill-mannered and indeed a very poor and sad reflection of
who we are as Rivers people and our proud national image and recognition
as ‘our brothers keeper’.
“As Rivers People, we have our challenges but that doesn’t mean we
have lost our sense of humanity and this is what Governor Wike
epitomises with great equanimity and humility.
“After seeing the level of destruction, he was moved with compassion
to announce the misconstrued donation. It is therefore with an even
greater sense of deep sadness and disappointment that we read how some
people described the gesture as evidence of financial recklessness.”
Do we need to educate the governor that what he did was senseless and at
the same time reckless? You don’t use our common wealth to service
your friendships. It is not right by any reasoning of it especially as
this Sokoto largess is just one too many. _Haba_ bros, think am naa!
This money is not Wike’s own o but the collective wealth of the people
of the state just that he is sitting at the helm at this point in time.
Just as earlier said that all the governors follow the same pathway,
Wike should reminded that just as Amaechi did Kayode Eso’s Panel
against Odili and Wike himself instituted the Emereji Court Marshal
against Amaechi, whoever that’s coming after him may also drag him
even to ‘Ogwugwu Ozuzu’ Panel.
Governor Wike, no doubt, is a very good guy by my honest assessment but
he needs to be guarded always to prevent him from self-destruct.
_Walahi_, bros talks anyhow (by his nature) and this attribute seem to
always erode his genuineness and sincerity in service delivery to his
people. _Abi_ _Oga_ _de _‘high’on something before coming out to the
public? God bless Rivers state!