It started like an ordinary funeral speech, but became an official verbal assault between two prominent sons of Rivers state over stewardship account. GODWIN EGBA reports on the war of words between Nyesom Wike and Rotimi Amaechi.
Amaechi fired first shot
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. However, Paulinus Nsirim, the state commissioner for information and communications who represented Gov Nyesom Wike took a defensive stand insisting that Amaechi was all wrong.
Wike responded
Wike also responded describing his predecessor’s tenure as a legacy of white elephant projects.He gave his response recently a live television interview programme. Wike, who listed the Justice Karibi Whyte Hospital and Monorail Project as Amaechi’s legacies said his predecessor was more interested in awarding political projects to boost his personal ego rather than delivering services to Rivers people.
Investigation shows that Wike has exhibited great restraint in refraining from joining issues with his predecessor, but has opted to concentrate on delivering the promises to deliver good governance and legacy infrastructural projects to the people.It was little wonder therefore that two years into his administration, vice president Prof Yemi Osinbajo, during one of his working visits to the state christined Wike as ‘Mr Projects’ in recognition of the amazing transformation that the state witnessed in a short period under his watch.Governor Wike mindful of the distractive energy that would be dissipated in joining issues with the opposition had refrained from calling out certain persons who defrauded the state.When therefore Amaechi bad-mouthed the Wike-led administration with his usual lamentation on its security and infrastructural scorecards, little did he realise that finally he had crossed the red line. Governor Wike, addressing a global audience declared that a project like the Justice Karibi Whyte Hospital was a scam because it gulped $39.9 million on paper but said there is nothing to show on ground.”It was one of the biggest frauds in the history of governance both in Nigeria and internationally as the so called Canadian foreign partners eventually claimed that they did not have the funds to meet up their own partnership counterpart funding after Rivers state had fully and hurriedly paid up the non refundable whooping $39.9 million.”Suffice it to say that a Judicial Commission of Inquiry after comprehensive and exhaustive investigation, indicted the Amaechi administration of fraud, but like the saying goes, those who go to equity must come with clean hands, they quickly ran to the court they had shut down for two years with the intention of getting a perpetual injunction to nullify the probe and declare the judicial panel illegal to investigate the matter.” Governor Wike stated that the sum of N65 billion was spent on the 1.2 kilometre Monorail Project which was conceived as another white elephant project and conduit pipe to milk Rivers resources, adding that he was stunned when an evaluation to complete the project provided a figure that would have conveniently built more infrastructure across the state.
In a no hold-barred, Governor Wike said most of such political projects existed either on the pages of newspapers or were used to settle political allies as he said Amaechi and his political allies siphoned huge sums of money from the state and left behind uncompleted projects. “Amaechi does not have the moral ground to talk about development in the state when he wasted so much financial resources on non existing projects. Go round the state; you will never see anything that looks like Justice Karibi -Whyte Hospital. It is a scam that never existed.”Again, tell me what is the traffic along Azikwe Road that a 1.2 kilometre Monorail Project would be awarded for over 65 billion naira? When I came into office, I was told that it would cost about 30 billion naira to complete that project. If I have such money, I will build more infrastructure across the state.”His Economic Advisory Council led by Prof Nimi Briggs published a report that covered the activities of his administration from 2007 to 2014. On education, the council recorded that 485 primary schools were proposed for construction. Some existing old schools were demolished when they required rehabilitation.”Work actually started on 478 schools but only 116 schools were completed across the state. Amaechi also awarded contracts for 15 modern secondary schools for 15 LGAs at over four billion naira each. Only the Ambassador Nne Krukrubo School in Eleme was completed and functional before he left office. So calculate the remaining 14 at N4 billion each and you will know how much of Rivers money was wasted,” Wike stated. This prompted Governor Wike to commence the rehabilitation of renowned schools across the state.
Wike on correcting abandoned projects
Speaking during an inspection tour of rehabilitation work going on at Government Comprehensive Secondary School and Enitona High School both in Port Harcourt, Gov Wike reiterated his commitment to upgrading facilities in schools that have contributed in moulding prominent personalities and made the state famous, educationally.He also expressed sadness over wastage of funds by previous administration in building new schools far away from where large number of people reside while it abandoned structures of the old schools.“I feel so sad that these schools are in such bad state. They are schools that have made the state proud. I don’t know why government will build new schools instead of putting the old schools in a position where they can be very conducive for students.“You know those who have made names in the Port Harcourt; some of them attended these old schools. I have promised that we will do all we can to bring back the schools to what they used to be. I won’t allow the schools to die. We must continue to retain the name. We will also look at the schools that missionaries have taken over like the Okrika Grammar School. We will invite the missionaries to discuss the modalities,” he added.Those who have watched the Governor Wike administration with a keen sense of objective appraisal will also concur that with the commencement of his second tenure, he has set in motion a brilliant economic agenda to concession all the government-owned farms and assets which had totally become moribund even before the end of the tenure of the last administration.
He has been very firm about not exposing the suffocating conditions under which some of these investors were engaged, preferring instead to take time and explore the best ways to resuscitate these assets and deploy them maximally for the benefit of the state.When the announcement to concession them to willing and capable investors was released, most of these vociferous critics were suddenly quiet, which was surprising given that what they had been clamouring for had actually been adopted.The Rivers State Cassava Processing Plant was first on stream on the concession conveyor belt and a list of other state owned farms and assets had been made public before the outbreak of Covid-19 temporarily truncated the process which had really gathered impressive momentum.Recently too, Governor Wike inaugurated a seven-man committee chaired by the deputy governor, Dr Ipalibo Harry Banigo to revitalise some dormant health institutions in the state.The Professor Kelsey Harrison Hospital which had been one of the institutions critics were harassing Governor Wike to rehabilitate was number one on the list. Curiously, the opposition fail to tell Rivers people that the hospital has not been operational because of a litigation over the agreement between International Trauma and Critical Care Centre Limited (ITCC) and the state government which Governor Wike inherited.Blueprint gathered that Governor Wike has been very diplomatic in protecting the reputation of the state by holding back on exposing the gross atrocities and monumental fraud that hallmarked the past administration.His driving motivation has been to rebuild the state and reposition her for the challenges of the future. He has already pledged that he will not leave any uncompleted project whenever his tenure is over.
