The Director-General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Dr. Dakuku Peterside, has asked Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike to account for funds that that the state has received in the last four years of his administration. He made the request in a statement he issued about the general issues happening in the state.
Peterside, who is a leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Rivers State, accused Governor Nyesom Wike of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) of running an uninspiring and purposeless administration.
He said, “In a state that has received over N1 trillion in the last four years, what can Wike really tell Rivers people he has done. No employment, no promotion of civil servants, no engagement of Rivers youths, nothing.”
The NIMASA boss asked Wike, a former Minister of State for Education, to make the wealth and resources of Rivers available to all, as well as to urgently arrest the worsening refuse situation in Port Harcourt, the state capital and its environs.
Peterside, who is also the 2015 governorship candidate of APC in the state, yesterday in a statement expressed concern that over four years after Wike became governor, he had not created any employment opportunity, neither had he engineered any meaningful platform to engage the teeming Rivers youths.
“Wike is the first governor in Rivers State not to have any visible vision or intention on how to govern the state. He just wakes up and does whatever he likes. Everything must revolve around him. He is Mr. know all and does all.
“Please, this has nothing to do with politics, but about our dear state. Rivers people are complaining everyday. Civil servants are complaining, pensioners, the youths and women are complaining. What exactly is Wike doing with our money?
“Go to many public schools and you will weep and wonder if there is a government in Rivers State. Health centres are not any better. Roads are collapsing, the state secretariat is in shambles and the governor is simply unconcerned.
“I have made many suggestions to the Rivers governor. If he needs help, we are here as Rivers people to help him. This is beyond politics, but it is the overall interest of the state that matters.
“Despite the huge funds Wike’s administration has received, no scholarship, no bursary, no training and no direction. We must not continue like this. We must help the Rivers governor, since he has accepted failure on many occasions,” he said.
Peterside, a former member of the House of Representatives, also stated that the mounting refuse in different parts of Rivers state was an indication that Wike’s administration lacked the will to do the needful and save Rivers from an epidemic.
He said: “The Rivers governor has admitted failure in terms of sanitation. There are many Rivers youths who are ready to work and who have the capacity to salvage the situation. Wike should do the needful by employing them. We must rescue this state from impending collapse.”
