By Paulinus Nsirim<\/p>\n
Recently at the funeral of an eminent Jurist, Justice Adolphus
\nKaribi-Whyte, Transportation Minister, Rotimi Amaechi described himself
\nas the “Best Governor” Rivers State has produced.<\/p>\n
Amaechi, known for playing to the gallery also used the occasion to make
\nuncomplimentary remarks about politics and development in the State.<\/p>\n
Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Ezenwo responded to Amaechi by describing
\nhis predecessor’s tenure as a legacy of white elephant projects.<\/p>\n
Governor Wike, who gave his response during a live television interview
\nprogramme, on Monday, September 28th, was reacting to comments made by
\nthe Minister who cast aspersions on the security and development of
\nRivers State under the Wike administration.<\/p>\n
Governor Wike, who listed the Justice Karibi Whyte Hospital and Monorail
\nProject as Amaechi’s “Legacies” said that his predecessor, Rotimi
\nAmaechi was more interested in awarding political projects to boost his
\npersonal ego than delivering services to Rivers people.<\/p>\n
Rivers watchers are aware of the fact that for the past five years since
\nhe assumed office as the number one citizen of Rivers State, Governor
\nWike has exhibited great restraint and admirable political maturity in
\nrefraining from joining issues with his predecessor. He has opted to
\nconcentrate on delivering on the promises he made to the Rivers people,
\nwhich fundamentally is to deliver good governance and legacy
\ninfrastructural projects to the people.<\/p>\n
With this mandate in mind, he simply hit the ground running from May 29,
\n2015 and since then, his administration has been a beehive of nonstop
\nadministrative realignments, project implementation, and the completion
\nof some critical yet abandoned people-oriented initiatives, from
\noperation zero potholes to the reopening of the Courts shut down for
\nover two years and the reinstatement of lecturers, payment of backlog of
\npensions, assembling a committed and functional cabinet and addressing
\nthe critical needs of the people.<\/p>\n
It was little wonder therefore that two years into his administration,
\nVice President Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, during one of his working visits to
\nRivers State christened him “Mr\u00a0 Projects” in recognition of the amazing
\ntransformation that the State witnessed in so short a period.<\/p>\n
Those who closely followed and monitored the political trajectory of the
\nState will vividly recall the turbulent electoral processes that
\ndefined the elections of 2015 and the casualties that emerged when the
\ndust had settled. They will also remember that the opposition was
\nrelentless in its obsession to bring down the Wike administration from
\nthe first day up till the very last day before the 2019 elections when a
\nSupreme Court judgment finally cleared Governor Wike and declared him
\neligible to contest for his re-election.<\/p>\n
In the midst of all these, the opposition had embarked on a deceitfully
\nsalubrious image laundering merry go round in the media, celebrating all
\nthe failed or abandoned projects of the past administration and urging
\nwith a sinister motive for the rehabilitation of these white elephant
\nprojects while vilifying the Wike administration, even without coming
\nclean to Rivers people as to why these paper monuments cannot be
\nrehabilitated in a hurry.<\/p>\n
Governor\u00a0 Wike mindful of the distractive energy that would be
\ndissipated in joining issues with the opposition and careful not to be
\nsnared in the murky agenda of washing the dirty linen of Rivers State in
\nthe public space, refrained with a stoic, unshakable resolve not to call
\nout certain persons who defrauded Rivers State or expose the rotten
\nunderbelly of the past administration’s glossy outer veneer.<\/p>\n
But there is always a limit to the elasticity of a patient man’s
\nresolve. When the Minister for Transportation loquaciously bad-mouthed
\nthe Wike administration, with his usual lamentations on its security and
\ninfrastructural scorecard, little did he realize that finally, he had
\ncrossed that red line limit.<\/p>\n
Without mincing words, Governor Wike laid in on his predecessor, with
\nthe direct, honest, fearless forthrightness for which he has become
\nsynonymous and greatly admired not only in the State but across the
\ncountry.<\/p>\n
Governor Wike, addressing a global audience which had fervently
\nanticipated his well-advertised interview on the continental Television
\nnetwork, declared that a project like the Justice Karibi Whyte Hospital
\nwas a scam because it gulped $39.9 Million on paper as there is nothing
\nto show on the ground at the proposed site.<\/p>\n
It was one of the biggest frauds in the history of governance both in
\nNigeria and internationally as the so-called Canadian foreign partners,
\neventually claimed that they did not have the funds to meet up their own
\npartnership counterpart funding after Rivers State had fully and
\nhurriedly paid up the non-refundable whopping $39.9 Million.<\/p>\n
Suffice it to say that a Judicial Commission of Inquiry after a
\ncomprehensive and exhaustive investigation, indicted the Rotimi\u00a0 Amaechi
\nadministration for fraud in its report, but the like the saying goes,
\nthose who go to equity must come with clean hands and so they quickly
\nran to the courts they had shut down for two years with the intention of
\ngetting a perpetual injunction to nullify the probe and declare the
\njudicial panel illegal to investigate the matter.<\/p>\n
Needless to say that they failed first at the lower court, then failed
\nagain at the Court of Appeal and now they are at the Supreme Court and
\nwhether they like it or not, justice will surely be done and Rivers’
\nmoney will be coughed out.<\/p>\n
Not done with the expose and reeling out figures with definitive
\nauthority, Governor Wike stated that the sum of N65 billion was spent on
\nthe 1.2 kilometers Monorail Project which were conceived as another
\nwhite elephant project and conduit pipe to milk Rivers resources, adding
\nthat he was stunned when an evaluation to complete the project, provided
\na figure that would have conveniently built more infrastructure across
\nthe State.<\/p>\n
In a no holds barred revelation, Governor Wike said most of such
\npolitical projects existed either on the pages of Newspapers or were
\nused to settle political allies.\u00a0 Amaechi and his political allies after
\nsiphoning huge sums of money from the State left behind uncompleted
\nprojects.<\/p>\n
This is what Governor Wike said: “Amaechi does not have the moral ground
\nto talk about development in the State when he wasted so many financial
\nresources on non-existing projects. Go round the State,\u00a0 you will never
\nsee anything that looks like Justice Karibi -Whyte Hospital. It is a
\nscam that never existed.<\/p>\n
“Again, tell me what is the traffic along Azikwe Road that a 1.2
\nkilometers Monorail Project will be awarded for over 65 Billion Naira.
\nWhen I came into office,\u00a0 I was told that it will cost about 30 Billion
\nNaira to complete that project. If I have such money,\u00a0 I will build more
\ninfrastructure across the State.<\/p>\n
“His Economic Advisory Council led by Prof. Nimi Briggs published a
\nReport. The records covered the activities of his administration from
\n2007 to 2014. On education, the council recorded that 485 primary
\nschools were proposed for construction. Some existing old schools were
\ndemolished when they required rehabilitation.<\/p>\n
“Work actually started on 478 schools but only 116 schools were
\ncompleted across the State. Amaechi\u00a0 also awarded 15 Modern Secondary
\nSchools for 15 Local Government Areas at over Four Billion Naira each.
\nOnly the Ambassador Nne Krukrubo School in Eleme Local Government was
\ncompleted and functional before he left office. So calculate the
\nremaining 14 at N4billion each and you will know how much of Rivers
\nmoney was wasted,”\u00a0 Governor Wike stated.<\/p>\n
The fact that there are foremost schools in Rivers State that had
\nproduced prominent Nigerians in the State that should have been
\nrehabilitated but Amaechi abandoned them to embark on the abandoned
\nwhite elephant projects, some of them even located in areas with little
\nor no population of school-age children or in other places like Opobo
\ntown, where the structure had already been swallowed by water, will make
\nevery discerning mind angry.<\/p>\n
This has prompted Governor Wike to commence the rehabilitation of
\nrenowned schools across the State and speaking during an inspection tour
\nof rehabilitation work going on at Government Comprehensive Secondary
\nSchool and Enitona High School both in Port Harcourt, Governor Wike
\nreiterated his commitment to upgrading facilities in schools that have
\ncontributed in molding prominent personalities and made the state
\nfamous, educationally.<\/p>\n
He also expressed sadness over the wastage of funds by the previous
\nadministration in building new schools far away from where a large
\nnumber of people reside while it abandoned structures of the old
\nschools.<\/p>\n
He said: “I feel so sad that these schools are in such a bad state. They
\nare schools that have made the state proud. I don’t know why the
\ngovernment will build new schools instead of putting the old schools in
\na position where they can be very conducive for students.<\/p>\n
“You know those who have made names in the Port Harcourt; some of them
\nattended these old schools. I have promised that we will do all we can
\nto bring back the schools to what they used to be. I won’t allow the
\nschools to die.\u00a0 We must continue to retain the name.\u00a0 We will also look
\nat the schools that missionaries have taken over like the Okrika Grammar
\nSchool. We will invite the missionaries to discuss the modalities,” he
\nadded.<\/p>\n
Those who have watched the Governor Wike administration with a keen
\nsense of objective appraisal will also concur that with the commencement
\nof his second tenure, the Rivers State Governor has set in motion a
\nbrilliant economic agenda to concession all the government-owned farms
\nand assets which had totally become moribund even before the end of the
\ntenure of the last administration. Rivers watchers will recall that
\ndie-hard Amaechi attack dogs and apologists had cried and wailed to the
\nhigh heavens that Governor Wike had deliberately refused to revive these
\nprojects which their administrative ineptitude and ignorance of
\npartnership conditionalities compelled the last administration to
\nabandon, thus leaving investors to their fate.<\/p>\n
Governor Wike had been very firm about not exposing the suffocating
\nconditions under which some of these investors were engaged, preferring
\ninstead to take time and explore the best ways to resuscitate these
\nassets and deploy them maximally for the benefit of the State.<\/p>\n
When the announcement to concession them to willing and capable
\ninvestors was released, most of these vociferous critics were suddenly
\nand uncharacteristically very quiet, which was surprising given that
\nwhat they had been clamouring for had actually been adopted, or was
\nthere more to their hue and cry than meets the ordinary eye?<\/p>\n
The Rivers State Cassava Processing Plant was first on stream on the
\nconcession conveyor belt and a list of other state-owned farms and
\nassets had been made public before the outbreak of Covid-19 temporarily
\ntruncated the process which had really gathered impressive momentum.<\/p>\n
Recently too, Governor\u00a0 Wike inaugurated a Seven-man Committee, chaired
\nby the State Deputy Governor,\u00a0 Dr.\u00a0 Ipalibo Harry Banigo to revitalise
\nsome dormant Health Institutions in the State.<\/p>\n
The Prof. Kelsey Harrison Hospital, which had been one of the
\ninstitutions the naysayers were harassing Governor Wike to rehabilitate
\nwas number one on the list, but what the opposition critics did not tell
\nRivers people was that the hospital has not been operational because of
\nlitigation over the agreement between International Trauma and Critical
\nCare Centre Limited (ITCC) and the Rivers State Government, which
\nGovernor Wike inherited.<\/p>\n
The Committee set up by the State Executive Council made fundamental
\nrecommendations and decided to ensure they are implemented immediately
\nwithout bureaucracy and thus the Hospital will soon become operational
\nonce again. These are some of the bottlenecks the Wike administration
\nwas saddled with when it assumed office but the past administration has
\nbeen economical with the truth and instead is busy instigating Rivers
\npeople and fomenting all manner of distractions to mask the real truth
\nof the fraud and underhand practices that went down in the last
\nadministration.<\/p>\n
Governor\u00a0 Wike has been very diplomatic and circumspect in protecting
\nthe image and reputation of the State by holding back on exposing the
\ngross atrocities and monumental fraud that hallmarked the past
\nadministration.<\/p>\n
His driving motivation has been to rebuild the State and position her
\nfor the challenges of the future. He has already pledged that he will
\nnot leave any uncompleted project when his tenure is over but, it is
\nalso important to set the records straight once in a while as he did
\nduring the Television interview.<\/p>\n
Governor Wike is not a self-seeking leader who parades himself as one
\nthat knows it all like some leaders who will betray their State for
\npersonal gains. He is a team player with a benevolent spirit and a
\ngenerous heart, who will certainly not be distracted by anybody and this
\nis one fact which his critics know very well. No matter how much they
\ntry he remains resolute to make the State a Destination of Choice.<\/p>\n
Nsirim is the Commissioner for Information and Communications, Rivers
\nState<\/p>\n
By Paulinus Nsirim Recently at the funeral of an eminent Jurist, Justice Adolphus Karibi-Whyte, Transportation Minister, Rotimi Amaechi described himself as the “Best Governor” Rivers State has produced. Amaechi, known…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":41368,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-75987","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles-opinions"],"yoast_head":"\n