Rivers state Governor Nyesom Wike has asked President Muhammadu Buhari not to shift his constitutional power of securing the life and property of Nigerians to the state governors.
Wike insisted that as the Commander-in-Chief, the President could not declare that governors were in charge of security in their respective states.
The governor spoke on Tuesday during the inauguration of the 21km Odufor-Akpoku-Umuoye Road in Etche local government area of the state.
Wike said: “Mr. President, you’re the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. You appoint Inspector-General of Police (IG), you appoint the Chief of Army Staff, Chief of Naval Staff, the Commissioner of Police (CP), Director of Department of State Service (DSS) and other heads of security. Which one do we appoint? How can people appointed by Mr. President be under me?
“It is not only to borrow money for Nigeria that you’re in charge. You must also be in charge in other things including security. Who signed order 10? Is it the governors? It is not when things are going bad concerning security and you say you’re not in charge, and it becomes governors’ responsibility.”
Wike admonished the APC federal government to own up that it could no longer fulfill promises it made to Nigerians lead the country out of its present predicament.
“When there is a failure, what makes leadership respectable is that such leader is able to accept its weakness publicly,” he said.
The governor pointed out that it was time Nigerians began to compare the performances of PDP and APC governors in office.
He said the President was short of calling names of those governors in the habit of running to Aso Rock instead of staying in their states to actualize the needs of their states.
He said: “Mr. President should have come out openly and said, my APC governors, stop worrying me. Go back to your states and do your work. On that, I support him.
“Thank God, Mr. President knows that I am not one of those that go to visit him over one problem or the other. I, as the governor of Rivers under PDP, you’ll never find me there.”
