On Sunday, March 24, 2024, the former governor of Rivers State and present Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Chief Nyesom Wike, in utter disregard for peace, once again exposed his flair for unnecessary bickering. Asserting in his dry statement to his cohorts that no one can pursue them out of the state.
Without a doubt, he is quite aware that unlike him, Governor Siminalayi Fubara is not a violent man and, as such, feels he is at liberty to make vain challenges.
In his vile speech, he implied non-performance on the part of the governor and chided those celebrating in thanksgiving across the state, whereas, it was the same thanksgiving for electoral victory co-joined with birthday celebration that brought him to Port Harcourt. What an irony!
From the gathering at Elelenwo, it was obvious that the glory had departed from him judging by the scanty attendance. He was only consoling himself with such vainglory by making such an empty threat of what will come.
It should be told to Chief Nyesom Wike that Rivers people have moved on and are organically waiting for him in that future that he is pointing at. Even those he procures for violence will certainly disappoint him on that last day. He will see in that future that no one man is greater than the majority. He will be shocked to learn that the human buffers he had were founded on Rivers interest and not on personal egocentrism.
Apparently, he was quick to list projects he executed during his 8 years as governor of Rivers State and those he flagged-off before leaving office. What he failed to tell the people was the status or state of some of those projects on his exit. Can he say for sure that after spending humongous amounts of the state’s resources to build the Cancer center, that the facility is truly opened and of service to the people? What about the Mother and Child Hospital? In the same vain, some of the roads he claimed to have awarded with N4.5billion mandate to Julius Berger: what percentage did he pay before his exit and what percentage was left? Can he tell his audience and Nigerians how much he paid for the Egbeda Internal roads and the Ahoada-Omoku second phase? It is unfortunate that Wike now resorts to telling half-truths to his audiences. Can he possibly tell Nigerians who stopped the Commissioning of completed schools during Governor Siminalayi Fubara’s 100 days celebration? It is this egocentric attitude of “Me, myself and I” that he often exudes that is the problem. He should realize that whatever he accomplished as governor of Rivers State was with the resources of the state and not from his personal pocket.
His nudge to the embattled members of the State Assembly is a clear indication of his encouraging their rascality and invitation to anarchy. His choice of innuendos on who is judicial consultant shows that Wike is not for peace but out for war. He seems to forget that those who beat the drum of war may not live to tell the story of the war.
Before long, those illegal club members he refers to as members of Assembly will be put in their rightful place and Rivers people will reclaim their mandate. As he has declared a war of attrition against the people, he should be ready to face the consequences of his declaration against the people who, as it is, have in unison declared him persona-non-grata. He should remember that he who fetches ant-infested firewood should expect the visit of lizards.
Indeed, Rivers State belongs to Rivers people not to one man whose insatiable quest for wealth, land and power is almost destroying the legacies of the founding fathers.
Ebare Tonwei A Port Harcourt based Public Affairs analyst
