Even before becoming Governor, I had never been a fan of Gov.Wike and the reasons are simple. The reason am writing this is to clarify that I do not hate the Governor as some people are won't to insinuate, its rather for the records.
First is that there's an Ikwerre proverb which says that signs of a good market starts in the morning. Whether true or not,the real intent of the proverb is that a good or bad situation have premonition if we observe closely.
I have never been an advocate of accidental rise to power,in fact, I am one of those who believe that a major reason Africa is most underdeveloped is the emergence of ill-prepared men&women in positions of power. This is a cardinal reason I also didn't support GEJ.
Merely looking at him, there is nothing inspirational in Gov. Wike, his personality, speech or composure cannot inspire any serious sane mind. His rise to power has become a template for those desirous of forcing their ways through. If he had risen to leadership in the early 70s or 80s when Nigeria was still finding her feet, he probably would have been excused but this is the 21st century when leadership has gone beyond doing the normal traditional things. It is a period of serious reasoning and creativity, a period to be different in achievements, a period to invent new ways of doing old things and truly, dude isn't blessed with that.
As Council Chair of Obio/Akpor from 1999, his greatest achievement was the building of Obio/Akpor Council Secretariat at Rumuodomaya but on the other hand, his days were the darkest in terms of multiple taxation, brigandage, interference in Communities, unaccounted IGR,etc.
A close observer would recall that Obio/Akpor became notorious and synonymous with brigandage during the reign of Chairman Nyesom Wike, many vehicles were seized while shops were looted by a team of heartless tax collectors known as 'Chairman's boys'
Wike later emerged as Chief of Staff to former Gov.Amaechi from 2007 when Amaechi won the bitter legal battle between himself and Omehia, becoming one of the most powerful politicians of that administration who instead of focusing on governance, embarked on a revenge mission against Omehia's supporters.
From what played out then,it was easy to see that Wike has a crude character filled with bitterness and vengeance.
It even became more convinced when I learned that although his father is a Priest,he (Wike) had never shared similar beliefs with his father,indeed, he is everything a Priest's child should not be.
Then as Minister of the Federal Republic, evidence of his incompetence was not in short supply. Under his watch as Minister of State, later substantive Minister,the Nigerian Educational system experienced the most frequent and longest strikes in the history of Educational development in Nigeria. Of the 365 days in a year, Nigerian tertiary institutions; Polytechnics, Colleges of Education and Universities remained shut for an average of 268 days.
It got to a point were then ASUU leadership refused to meet the Minister and even requested then President to sack him.
Now as Governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike has left nobody in doubt on how grossly incompetent he is. Not just that, he has proven truly that a ruler can sit on the resources of his own society and nothing would happen.
Otherwise, how do we explain that the budget of a State that use to be open even under the Military can no longer be accessed by over 6m Rivers residents,one man comfortably and selfishly decides who or where gets what from our collective Commonwealth?
How do we explain that our State has gone from winning UBEC award back-to-back as best in terms of Education to a state that has scrapped the same academic Scholarship instituted and benefited by founding fathers of our state, what future do we have as a people if we don't deliberately train the strategic manpower for the future?
How do we explain that instead of experiencing more peace and development, our communities are increasingly going up in flames in violence, nearly all the communities have become slaughter slabs were human heads are displayed freely while our Governor sits idly blaming everyone else except himself!
How do we explain that instead of improving our Agricultural potentials,the multi-billion naira Rivers Songhai farm that won several partnerships with the International Institute of Tropical Agruculture(IITA) is overgrown with weeds?
How do we convince ourselves that our Primary Health Centres have become better than few years back? Even the state-owned tertiary health institutions like BMH and Kelsey Harrison Hospital have become mere paracetamol dispensation centres.
Officially,the state received over 612 billion naira in the 365 days of 2017,how much of that went into our communities in terms of infrastructures, how much was spent on scholarship?
Which serious government promises 200m to fight the crime 10m would have prevented with strategic planning?
I ask,what is the Wike's administration policy on Education, in Security, in Health, in Infrastructures, in Tourism, what are our priorities, what comes top on our scale of preference,or we do not even have a scale in the first place?
Finally, all these years, Wike had never struck me like a serious character, at best, he's good as Commissioner for Chieftaincy so he can run Community Development Committees or permanent Council Chair, but not as Governor in the 21st century in a state competing with Ambode's Lagos or Ayade's Cross Rivers.
- Ikenda Clinton Elechi
