Ahead of the 2023 polls, the combative and boastful Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State is currently being marked for severe political attack. But, his media aide has been unnecessarily brash in responding to enquiries by newsmen.
Now, a youth group in Port Harcourt, the state capital that goes by the name, Rivers Renaissance, is fearlessly challenging Wike to address the critical issues raised by former Director-General of NIMASA, Dakuku Peterside, on the state economy in the last six years.
Petersude in an interview in the Independent Newspaper raised critical issues bedevilling Rivers and declared that there was absence of governance in the last six years of Wike’s administration.
President General of the emerging radical youth group, Dokubo Dan-Tamuno, is frowning that rather than address critical issues, ‘’Wike, as usual, dictated a script to his staff, aimed at diverting attention from the questions raised in the said interview, committing more gaffe and using a pseudonym ‘Amieyeofori Ibim’ in a bid to cast aspersion and vituperation on the person of Peterside.
They are advising Wike to ignore the messenger and address the message instead of demonstrating that he is bereft of modern idea economy and waking away in a peekaboo in the presence of Governor Aminu Tambuwal of Sokoto State.
The group wants Wike to make public his administration’s achievement in empowerment generation, following the revelation by the National Bureau of Statistics that Rivers is the headquarter of unemployment and underemployment with over 1.7 million, 714,800 populace representing 59.22 percent unemployed in the state.
‘’This is an indictment on Wike who pays scanty attention to real human capital development and parading himself as Mr. Project, a sobriquet he coined for himself during an event at Rumuoparaeli and not the Vice president, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, as erroneously believed’’, the group said.
It noted that Wike’s alleged lack of strategic economic policy to promote and drive investment and attract investors has become an albatross and difficulties experienced by investors in doing business in the state has caused organisational flight and relocation out of Port Harcourt.
‘’The report of a Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council of Nigeria Sub National Ease of Doing Business in partnership with KPMG professional service, showed that a state like Rivers is challenged in implementing the ease of doing business policy; this is worrisome.
‘’More worrisome is the controversy surrounding its fiscal performance ranking in 2021 and its financial healthiness as Rivers under Wike has never made public its annual budget for citizens’ connection and consumption. BudgiT in its report stated that Rivers does not make its annual budget transparent.
‘’However, the inaccessibility of the state budget was attributed to the inability of Wike to access bailout package, as publishing of budget was an enabler and a major part of condition set aside for states to access bailout package and other investors funding.
‘’Most government agencies are moribund, even the State Secretariat is dilapidated. What a shame! Yet Wike approves contracts arbitrarily based on the spot conviction and make full payments in public glare without recourse to the Rivers State Public Procurement Law of 2008.
‘’The Bureau of public procurement no longer bid for tender through publication for healthy competition and has been reduced to providing advisory services to small and medium scale enterprises. This is against open government partnerships as open budget index ranks Rivers State low on fiscal transparency without a functioning Treasury Single Account (TSA).
‘’One wonders why there is never difference in the cost of award of flyover contracts as Wike unilaterally has pegged the cost of every flyover at N7 billion. His avarice for primitive acquisition and glamour for buying different media awards for himself has no significant impact on the lives of the citizenry.
‘’Even the education sector is not an exception. In 2014, the educational exploit and achievements of Rivers received global reckoning under Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi. The state won the UNESCO World Book Capital, beating advanced countries like the UK, US, Canada among others as a Literacy Giant.
‘’Unfortunately, the group noted that this government pays lips service to education as Wike’s refusal to pay up NECO fees recently has led to withholding of NECO results of outgoing secondary students in Rivers State causing so much panic among critical stakeholders in the educational sector. Indeed, what a shame!
‘’The governor during the commissioning of the Rumuola bridge said, ‘I pray the state gets a governor like me.’ What an unpopular prayer from a low self-esteem! Affliction shall never rise again a second time. Instead, the prayers of Rivers people who have been denied promotion and with stagnated careers and pensioners who have been denied their gratuity while alive and death benefits while they are gone will be answered.
‘’It is incredible that Rivers finds it difficult to make full contribution to pension scheme status from the report of the National Pension Commission. Wike should engage his usual live telecast and address the economy as challenged by Peterside with same passion, vigour and energy with which he discusses politics.
‘’Rather than seek wise counsel from a man who has been widely acknowledged as a successful turnaround administrator, Wike should stop desecrating the exalted office of the governor’’, the group said.
