During the few times he was photographed with President Muhammadu Buhari
after meetings in Aso Villa, Ezenwo Nyesom Wike, the Governor of Rivers
State had stood far apart from Nigeria’s CEO.
I always told
myself that perhaps Wike was doing that to underscore the fact that he
wasn’t a favourite of the President, not just because he was a Peoples
Democratic Party (PDP) Governor but also because he was witch hunting
Buhari’s much loved Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi.
In the last five
months, Wike had done everything to nail Amaechi to corruption. First,
he said Amaechi had not only looted the treasury but that he and his
outgoing officials even carted away government property, including
vehicles. Wike had got some elders of the state and taken them to
Government House to show them that the place had been stripped of
everything, even curtains.
Wike had shouted to high heavens that
Amaechi left an empty treasury for him. He told everyone that cared to
listen to him that Rotimi Amaechi is corrupt. More embarrassing, Wike
had named a Judicial Commission of Inquiry chaired by Justice George
Omeregi to examine the sale of Rivers State Turbines and Olympia Hotel
and other property by his predecessor. Expectedly, the commission
returned a guilty verdict, recommending that Amaechi should be made to
refund the billions of Naira he had withdrawn from the Rivers State
Reserve Fund after changing the law.
It is not altogether
surprising that the Rivers State governorship election tribunal has
sacked Nyesom Wike. Most of the objective accounts of what transpired on
11th April, 2015 demonstrated that the gubernatorial election won by
Wike wasn’t free and fair. Wike and his sponsors - former Goodluck
Jonathan, Dame Patience Jonathan, Felix Obuah, etc, had treated the
election as a do or die affair with the aim of uprooting Amaechi.
Thugs
were unleashed on Rivers and they had no qualms spilling blood and
spreading fear among voters. On the eve of the election, Rivers State
transformed into a murderous ground and almost every day there were
bombings and shootings mostly targeted at the opposition. On about three
different occasions, the scheduled campaigns of the All Progressives
Congress (APC) could not hold due to violence.
Before then,
President Jonathan’s wife had allegedly done everything to get Amaechi
impeached but all her efforts had failed. At a point she was alleged to
have gone to Port Harcourt and stayed for 10 days to engineer the
impeachment of Amaechi. During the period, the road leading to the
government house occupied by Amaechi was barricaded for the comfort of
Patience Jonathan and to show the governor that “power pass power.”
Evans Bipi, her kinsman, claimed that he had been elected speaker of the
Rivers state House of Assembly. He was going to serve as the arrowhead
in the removal of Amaechi by conducting his own legislative sitting but
the majority of the members of the House of Assembly remained adamant
and refused to cooperate with Bipi and his sponsors. Following from the
bloodshed, the Rivers State House of Assembly was shut down.
In
this fresh election demanded by the Tribunal, all the odds are against
Nyesom Wike. There is no partisan Police Commissioner called Joseph Mbu
who will intimidate the opposition and give free reign to the thuggery
and rascality of the Wike supporters. Secondly, there are no slush funds
to pay for the PDP campaigns. Thirdly, it is doubtful if the good
people of Rivers will again vote for Wike and follow him on the path of
vendetta. The people of Rivers may want to retrace their steps and
embrace change by voting for APC to see whether their fortunes will
improve.
Wike acts more like a thug than a decent politician. He
has come as far as he can, five months as governor, that’s all. Wike
has no track records of personal or official achievements he can point
to. His ministerial sojourn at the Federal Ministry of Education was
nothing but a disaster. The ministry was much bigger than him and I am
sure that in no time, his tour of duty there will be scrutinised.
In
that case, he will have tough questions to answer. Sometimes ago, a
young lady wrote to me complaining that several months after Wike’s
Ministry of Education had employed them as teachers in the unity
schools, they had not been paid their salaries. Wike had staked his
little reputation on the wellbeing of the federal government colleges
but the current situation in these schools does not justify the huge
amount of money said to have been spent on them.
Wike’s promise
to complete on-going projects also turned out to be a hoax; the National
Library headquarters building, among others, which he had repeatedly
assured the country, would be put to use while he was minister of
education is yet to be finished.
Rivers State is too strategic
for this government; I can’t see APC leaving it in the hands of the PDP.
His visit to CJN has not paid off. It is the end of the road for Nyesom
Wike and his desperate sponsors.
e
well.... You were an ambitious presenter who had a lot of plans.. Now
who would continue your sport program you started at Savannah TV, you
gave us so much stress in thinking about a name for that program before
we all decided on one. Everyone always gets to like you at first
sight.... Trust me ,you can't meet her and not fall in love.
