No Governance In Rivers State In The Last Six Years – Peterside

 Dr. Dakuku Peterside, immediate past Director General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, (NIMASA) and governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the 2015 elections, in this interview with select Journalists makes his opinion known on issues of governance by Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers state. DANIEL ABIA brings the excerpts:

Governor Wike has consistently said River Governor Wike has consistently said Rivers is, and will continue to remain a PDP state in the lightoftheparty’ssterlingperformance. Isthere anychanceforyourparty, theAPCtostopPDP in 2023?

Rivers State is not PDP. It is a false narrative championed by the Govern­ment of Governor Nyesom Wike. All discerning persons understand what happened. In 2015, there was practi­cally no election in the state. Wike and PDP backed by federal forces and a Resident Electoral Commissioner that was more PDP than PDP wrote results at the expense of people’s blood. Wike and his party benefited from Rivers of blood. Unfortunately, we were bedev­iled by internal crisis orchestrated by Wike and his party in 2019 so we were unable to present candidates. Techni­cally speaking, PDP has not won any free, fair and competitive election in eight years. Having not won any elec­tion and now they are faced with the reality of APC presenting candidates and running under the new electoral act that reasonably provides level play­ing field, they know that their days in Rivers State government house are numbered. Nobody has ever mis­managed the state as Wike has done and there are consequences for it. So, the attempt to use the media to create impression that Rivers State is a PDP state falls flat on its face. Recent elec­tions had shown that party affiliation is not the most important factor in determining who wins an election. APC is more than determined to take over the state and embark on the te­dious work of rebuilding what Wike has destroyed. Our people have been totally dehumanized. Nobody has ever treated Rivers people the way Wike has treated us in the past six years. I am confident APC will put its house in order and give Rivers people a new lease of life.






As far as opposition politics is concerned, mil­lions of Nigerians of different shades of party affiliation see Governor Wike as a courageous leaderwhospeakstruthtopower, whatisyour take on this?

Wike is the exact opposite of the robe you want to dress him with. He is self-centered, timid and not exposed. He sincerely believes primitive accumula­tion of wealth can make up for lack of exposure and timidity. He displays gravi­tas to cover up the problem of complex he lives with. The deceptive outward look of a strong man is purely public show. Wike lacks courage, has no dem­ocratic credential and lacks morals. If you have followed his politics you will notice he does not engage. He does not have moral courage to speak truth to power because he is guilty of everything that has to do with bad leadership. He is nepotistic, self-centered, does not believe in transparency and has not treated workers fairly. What moral spine does he have to speak truth to power?

The issue of the electoral Act still resonates and there is this fear that President Muham­madu Buhari may not likely sign the Electoral Act as amended. Governor Wike has severally expressed such fears, what is your opinion on this?

I know the President Buhari as a firm believer in free and fair elections. All those who have related with him will tell you he has no interest whatsoever in influencing the choice of Nigerians. To that extent, I believe he will sign the electoral act as amended. Peradventure he does not accent to it, he must have cogent reasons not to. Wike as I said earlier, has no moral right whatsoever to talk about free and fair elections as he does not believe in it. He has serially benefitted from manipulating the elec­toral process.

There appears to be a disagreement between the NASS and the Progressives Governors over the issue of direct primaries, what is your take on this?



There is no fundamental disagree­ment. The Progressive Governors are saying allow the parties decide how they want to conduct their internal affairs while the leadership of National Assem­bly is saying we can determine the mode of primaries and we have decided for di­rect primaries. Both arguments have its merit and demerit depending on what is important to you and your perspective. What is happening is that personal in­terest has descended into the arena of law-making. The legislators are fighting for their political life and the governors in turn are also fighting for their rele­vance. So, it is not about the interest of Nigerians nor is it for deepening of de­mocracy. My prayer is that this matter is sorted out earlier so we know how to prepare for the 2023 elections. I foresee that the 2023 election will be consequen­tial for this country.

The Governor just presented his 2022 bud­get to the House. How would you assess the N483bn budget?

It is true that Governor Wike present­ed a budget of approximately 484 billion Naira to the Rivers state House of As­sembly for passage. At about the same period, the Akwa-Ibom State House of Assembly passed a budget of 587Billion Naira while Lagos state is budgeting a whopping 1 .4 trillion naira all for 2022. You can see the retrogression in Rivers State. As of 2015, the last time the APC was governing Rivers state, our budget was about 385 billion naira while that of Lagos state was 490Billion naira. Lagos was an understandable 20% higher than Rivers in its fiscal plans. Fast-forward seven years later, the same Lagos state is planning to spend about 200% more than Rivers state. Compared to 2015, the difference between Lagos state and Rivers state fiscal plans have increased by no less than 1,000 percent. If this is not saddening enough, let us consider our neighbors Akwa-Ibom state which budgeted 462billion for 2015 and have moved upwards to 587billion naira for 2022, over 100% more than their 2015 budget and increasing their difference to Rivers state in 2015 by about 200%. Be­yond the fact that the economy of Rivers state is not growing is that nobody has seen details of the proposed budget. The state budget begins and ends in Wike’s pocket. We have never seen this level of opaqueness before. I understand from a state legislator that Wike and his govern­ment is planning to spend over 80billion on miscellaneous items which is anoth­er subhead for politics. Rivers people are watching him.

How would you score the Wike-led adminis­tration, performance- wiseinthelastsixyears in view of the infrastructural revolution in the state?

There has been probably no gover­nance in Rivers state for the past six years. All major indicators of good governance are absent under Gover­nor Wike’s administration. He has led the most opaque government with zero transparency in Rivers state history. No Rivers man or woman has seen a clean copy of the state approved budget in the past six years and I challenge Governor Wike to make public the proposed and approved 2022 state budget. No iota of public accountability and no govern­ment before his has been this nepotis­tic. All key positions in all tertiary in­stitutions across the state are occupied by people from his own ethnic group. Exclusiveness instead of inclusiveness is a permanent feature of his govern­ment. Wike’s government represents the worst era in the history of rivers state. He is our albatross and Rivers people are determined to wipe away the memories of this bad era and whatever he represents. He is not compassionate and has no interest in human develop­ment at all. Almost all institutions of government have collapsed, and he is not interested. Wike’s past six years is a dark era in our history. In one word Wike has disappointed in all facets and history will not be kind to him. In the area of performance, apart from a few overhead bridges and renovation of few schools, I don’t know of any legacy project he can be remembered for. Wike literally failed in employment creation, Youth Empowerment, management of diversity and was absolutely not inter­ested in education. He was a friend of the media and tried to use the media to hype himself. Wike is a serial failure in governance

( Dailyindependent)