2015 All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship candidate in Rivers State, Dakuku Peterside, has taken on his state governor, Nyesom Wike, accusing him of lacking an economic blueprint and insensitivity to the yearning and aspirations of the peoples of the oil state.
Peterside is arguing that if Governor Wike has been resourceful enough, thousands of Rivers youth would have been taken off the streets via employment and grants for small and medium scale enterprises, noting that a serious governor, with airport and seaports, will carefully develop the state as the logistics hub of Southern Nigeria, with its attendant employment and economic benefits.
The opposition kingpin who spoke from Port Harcourt, the state capital averred that Rivers would have been in serious competition with some states, especially Lagos in terms of ideas, policies, and programs aimed at making lives and businesses better.
Still hitting hard on Wike, he accused the governor of shutting down genuine businesses in that state, in addition to frustrating small and medium scale enterprises that are struggling to survive by the day. “ Wike by his lack of understanding of how businesses work has literally shut down a vista of employment opportunities for Rivers Youth’’, Peterside said.
While claiming that the Wike administration has done nothing to create employment and business opportunities for the teeming youth, Peterside lamented that the governor was increasingly becoming a despot with decisions that could have been taken by government officials now being single-handedly determined by him in Government House, Port Harcourt.
The ex-Director-General of Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) continued that the actions of the governor would scare away potential investors and pursue those already struggling under numerous task forces set up by the state government who are daily pilloried for all manner of levies.
According to him, a recent decision of the governor to personally register motorcycles used for courier and other delivery services and shut down some was not just draconian but a “thoughtless, inconsiderate and wicked manifestation of a dictator.”
Peterside queried, “is the governor now saying that the ministry of transport is incapable of handling a simple assignment of registration or that the commissioner is not responsible enough to undertake such exercise?
“The way and manner Governor Wike treats his commissioners leave so much to be desired. Most of them have been rendered redundant and ineffective. They are afraid to even offer reasonable suggestions to the governor as that could amount to automatic sack, not to even talk of them handling assignments enjoined by their offices.
Continuing, Peterside said, “for a governor that has not employed or even promoted workers in seven years, his inconsiderate decision has now thrown more people into the labour market. If he were to be forward-thinking, the governor would have looked at ways of tackling whatever challenges better rather than creating more problems.’’
