Issues
Wike And His ‘Bribes’
Nyesom Ezenwo Wike met an economy that was on halt by the time he took over as governor on May 29, 2015. All he has done since that day has been to unlock the economic potentials of Rivers State and attract investors back to their once-beloved Garden City. He has deliberately created ‘sugar-policies’ to sweeten the city to the taste of businesses and investors.
There may be need to remind us how it was by the time Governor Wike came into office three years ago. Rivers State was in economic comatose. No investor was happy because there was total insecurity, the courts had been shut, meaning that all cases that needed judicial intervention had to grind to a halt. The thousands of lawyers that make a living in the Rivers State jurisdiction had to shut down their offices. Some joined their wives in other businesses while others simply relocated. The number of executive kabu-kabu taxis increased. The crowd that mills around the Rivers State High Court area for numerous services such as restaurants, typing, affidavits and other notary services disappeared. That sector of the economy crashed and stopped.
It was sad that the state government was no longer able to pay salaries. This is a key economic booster because when the state releases between N7 billion and N9 billion in any month to the economy, this automatically boosts the economy of the region as buying peaks. Parents pay their landlords who use the revenue to solve their personal problems and leave the government alone. The failure to pay salaries and pensions simply stifled a major sector of the economy of this state. There was gloom and apprehension all through that period, making the populace to wait in high anxiety for rescue which came on May 29, 2015.
It was so sad that the state government was no longer in a position to discharge its obligations to the industrial sector. Business owners were faced with impassable roads, near total absence of power supply, water, social services, security, etc. Industries were fleeing and unemployment reached its peak. The economy had simply stopped functioning. This needed pragmatic approach, determination and focus; which Wike came to represent and to reproduce.
Governor Wike started by launching several wars to liberate the economy of the state and to attract fleeing enterprises and this needed sweetners. He began to clear the blocked roads everywhere. He created the Operation Zero Pothole which began to fill all potholes and repair short patches of roads in all parts of Port Harcourt. This was meant to free businesses to be on the move. It is clear that stagnant businesses result to a stagnant economy. Between then and now, the governor has been repairing roads, completing abandoned ones, initiating new ones and creating easy passages for businesses, goods and services. All roads leading into or out of state capital have been rescued. The most recent is the commissioning by the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, of the International Airport Link Road, popularly called Obiri Ikwerre road. Many visitors including leaders of the organised private sector (OPS) especially the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) have often hailed the action.
Roads leading to Etche, the food basket of the state, have been built, freeing massive food produce into the city. It has also provided alternative routes to Imo State and other eastern states. Saakpenwa – Bori road is ongoing, internal roads in Isiokpo, Okochiri, Elele Alimini, Omoku have all been constructed and commissioned.
The governor has equally boosted business and created leisure for business people by building the world class Pleasure Park on Aba Road between the Bori Camp (Army) and Airforce Base. The Rex Lawson Cultural Centre in the town area has also been commissioned with a theatre described as one of the best in Sub-Sahara Africa. He has thus continued to fill the infrastructure gap in the state so that businesses and investors can face their own task. It has been said time without number that government does not create jobs but creates the enabling environment that creates jobs. In that regard, the most important aspect is provision of infrastructure. This, the governor is pursuing with every energy in his sinews.
Governor Wike wasted no time in stepping into the rotten Trans-Amadi Industrial Area. This was the pride of Rivers State, the garland in the Garden City. He targeted Trans –Amadi and brought it back to life, being a major hub of economic activities. What did he do there? Knowing it is the centre of attention for investors, he began building all the roads that inter into Trans-Amadi. The most important ones include the Garrison-Slaughter Road that transverses the industrial estate into two. It is from this nerve road that all other roads take off into other sections of Trans-Amadi. It is also from this road that other services are delivered to companies in the estate. If you knock out this road as it was for years, you knock out the entire State economy. This could account for why many businesses ground to a halt there, the others fled to the Onne Oil and Gas Free Zone and other places.
The Nkpogu road and bridge has been completed and it links LNG and Trans Amadi. Governor Wike also linked Trans-Amadi to Trans-Woji area that takes it to Akpajo and Eleme Road by completing and opening the Woji Bridge. He also completed the road that extends from Peter Odili Road through the housing estate that hopes to link RSTV Road in Elelenwo and down to Akpajo and East West Road. The exit through Elekahia road was also constructed and traffic from Trans-Amadi now flows freely to other parts of the city and out to other parts of the state. This is very important and very strategic to investors because of the need to move heavy items in and out of your business base.
Those who would want to visit Trans-Amadi today would know that Govenor Wike has cured 90 per cent of problems of the business community in that area. What it implies is that the traffic problems in the area, the inconveniences suffered by trucks and lorries, the security problems that made banks unsafe, the reluctance of security agencies to patrol Trans-Amadi, and all of those factors that drove away a lot of businesses from their places have been removed. Today, businesses are returning. Now, go and see the gigantic new Next Supermarket recently opened in Trans Amadi area. It is one of the best in Nigeria. That is an endorsement of confidence in the economy of Rivers State. The banks in Trans-Amadi are now booming. Nothing can be a bigger bribe to any investor than this alone.
Wike now gives land certificates between 30 and 90 days. So far, he has given 2093 certificates (C/Os) and about 1070 consents when his predecessor gave less than 600. This gives a lot of leverage to businesses.
Wike is also boosting businesses in a bottom-up approach. His policy is to strengthen the purchasing power of the lower segment of the society by creating several loan packages to different groups. There is the N200m per month revolving loan to civil servants, N200m monthly interest free loan to businessmen and young entrepreneurs, N500m to boost private healthcare participation, N500m grant to market women groups, and other packages to other groups. The state government began in this direction by working hard to draw down the CBN N2Bn SME loan which Rivers State obtained through RIMA and disbursed to about 35,000 micro, small, and medium scale businesses. The objective is to boost economic activities at the bottom level so as to make them economically active and boost purchasing power to engage the medium level entrepreneurs that produce fast moving goods and services.
Tax reforms are another area where the governor is working hard. Tax holidays have been created to boost virgin investors. Rivtamis is now online, multiple taxation is over, tax papers are processed with minimum delay. There is constant intervention in problems of businesses. Now, business groups are happier. There is the tax appeal tribunal which addresses grievances on issues of revenues and levies.
There is a one-stop-shop for questions related to investments and businesses to ensure that start-up is fast and encouraging. There are incentives for partnerships that allow them to take their controlling shares while our equity contributions may just be land. In some situations, we waive all statutory levies and charges relating to land acquisition, urban and regional development levies, etc, within the legislative purview of the state.
This is how Governor Wike is bribing investors back to the state, back to the Garden City and the bribe is working magic.
Emma Okah
This is an open letter to the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Chief Nyesom Wike.
Your Excellency,
Sir, ordinarily, I would not be writing an open letter to you, but like a wise man once said, “Silence would be Treason.” So I prefer to stay alive than face the consequences of silence in the face of crime. With each passing day, and as the socio-political tides continue to turn, it has become more pertinent that more people speak up in a concerted MANNER to prevent the death of our party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), as we appear to be, in the words of W. B. Yeats, “turning and turning in the widening gyre” heading for an end where the falcon will no longer hear the falconer
It is unfortunate that since losing control of the Federal Government, with the loss of President Goodluck Jonathan at the poll in 2015, our party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has continued on a downward spiral. It is much more painful, that where it is expected that leaders within the party should rise to the challenge and put an end to this decline of our great party, some have instead taken up roles as its undertaker.
It will be hypocritical to claim aloofness to what I believe is your grouse with the PDP and I am not a hypocrite. It will be uncharitable on my part to discountenance the role you have played in strengthening the PDP from 2015 up until the last Presidential primaries of the party. It is my belief that your grouse against certain members of the party who you perceived worked against the party and abandoned it in 2015 and then came around much later to take control of the party, is justified. Also know that your decision to remain in the Party and stifle its progress on the other hand, as a sort of payback, stands condemned. For a man of your pedigree and stature, it is a dishonorable act, highly dishonorable and stands as testimony against all you claim to stand for.
At least, it can be argued that those who you hold this grudge against, abandoned the party completely and did not sit back while actively working to destroy it from within. But what then can be the argument on your own part, seeing that those you are currently working with against your party are the same people who set in motion, and executed surgically, the plans that not only ended our Party’s leadership at the centre, but ended up dislodging the first Niger Deltan to occupy Aso Rock as Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces. Is this not akin to “cutting off one’s nose to spite one’s face?” That will be worse than folly. Let us not throw away the baby with the bath water because we do not like the soap used in bathing the baby. It will be a grave mistake.
Honourable Minister, sir, it is rather unfortunate that of all people, you have also decided to play the role of an undertaker not only for our party, but for our dear Rivers State.
I will like to take you down memory lane a little. Let me remind you of your emergence as Guber candidate of the PDP in Rivers State, against all fairness and justice in 2014. You will remember that despite the reality being that you as an Ikwerre man was poised to replace a fellow Ikwerre man in Governor Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi in our multiethnic state, Rivers people overwhelmingly stood by you and pushed for your emergence as Executive Governor of Rivers State in 2015. I dare say that your popularity in the entire Niger Delta region was at an all-time high at this point.
I want you to understand why you were loved across board leading to your eventual emergence as Governor of Rivers State in 2015; it was because when it looked like all were against the second term ambitions of the first Niger Delta man to emerge as President of Nigeria, you became not just a pillar but a beacon of resistance by standing for Goodluck Jonathan. Rivers people, as grateful and rewarding as they can be, paid you back by ensuring your electoral victory against the incumbent All Progressives Congress (APC) led by your predecessor. On your emergence, where there were second term Governors in the region, you, a first term Governor, was seen by the people as not just the leader of the PDP, but the leader of the entire Niger Delta region. You earned it, and no one could dispute it.
In 2019, when your re-election bid was being challenged ferociously, Rivers people once again stood solidly behind you. Many were killed in the process of defending your votes. Do you remember Dr. Ferry Gberegbe that was shot and killed while trying to protect your votes in Khana Local Government Area? There are many more unnamed and unrecognised sons and daughters of Rivers State who sacrificed their lives so that you could emerge as a second term Governor of Rivers State.
In 2022/23, Honourable Minister, you oversaw a party primary across board that saw some candidates imprisoned and internal party democracy jettisoned for your wishes, leading to the emergence of flag bearers of our party all singlehandedly picked by you. You have on more than one occasion publicly stated that you paid for all their forms. Even those shortchanged in this process licked their wounds and continued to play their roles as party members to ensure the success of the party at all levels. In what will go down as one of the most keenly contested elections in recent Rivers history, with formidable candidates like Senator Magnus Abe of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Mr Tonye Cole of the All Progressives Congress (APC), and the vibrant youth driven Labour Party (LP), PDP emerged victorious across board except for Phalga Constituency 1 that was lost to the Labour Party. (Not that you did not loose in some other LGA’s but let’s stick to the official figures declared by INEC).
It begs the question, why then do you want to burn down Rivers State, when everyone who now holds political office emerged through a process designed and endorsed by you? Is it that you do not care about Rivers people and you are all about yourself? If so, I am forced to believe that those around you are not telling you the truth. The truth being that in a state where your words were law; where houses and businesses could be demolished or closed down without any recourse to legalities, where Executive Orders could be deployed to stifle the opposition, that your popularity is now at an all-time low. Probably because they are afraid of you, or of losing the benefits they gain from you, they fail to tell you that what you might perceive as a battle against your successor, has slowly but gradually degenerating into a battle against Rivers State and Rivers people. You know, there is a popular saying that, a man can cook for the community and the community will finish the food, but when a community decides to cook for one man, the reverse is the case.
LEAVE FUBARA ALONE
You have gone on and on about being betrayed by Governor Siminalayi Fubara. You point fingers forgetting that some of those same fingers quick to spot betrayals point straight back at you. It is not Governor Fubara that has betrayed the PDP by working against it in the just concluded General Election, and working with the opposition at the State and Federal level to destabilise the party. It is you, Honourable Minister. It is not Governor Fubara that betrayed Rivers people by instigating a political crisis with propensity to escalate ethnic tensions in Rivers State. It is you Honourable Minister. It is not Governor Fubara that has declared himself God over all in Rivers State and has no qualms with burning the state to the ground to prove a point. It is you Honourable Minister. It is you Honourable Minister who told the world that the APC was a cancer and you can never support a cancerous party. It is you Honourable Minister who ended up facilitating the emergence of the same “cancerous” APC that has accelerated the economic decline of this country and further impoverished our people with no remorse. All so you can be a Minister of the Federal Capital Territory? The lack of self awareness is gobsmacking.
Some days back I came across a video where you talked about death and how you do not cry when you hear about the death of some people because you have no idea what might have caused it considering many a politician swear “over dead bodies” and still go back on their words. Those words made me think, and I could see the reason behind them. You see, in chosing to be God in the affairs of Rivers people, you have closed your eyes and ears to reason; you see nothing and hear nothing that can cause you to rethink on the path you have chosen. In your quest to “show Fubara” you have unwittingly united a vast majority of Rivers people behind him, so much that even those who despised him because of you, now like or love him, because of you too. In your scheming, I will advise you not to forget that “the voice of the people is the voice of God”.
Note that the war which you have or are waging against Governor Fubara, has gone beyond being merely political as you might see in your minds eye. It is now one that, fortunately for some and unfortunately for others, has evolved into a war against Rivers people. It is good to point out that no one has taken a stand against Rivers people and won. No one has gone against God and won. In your defiant characteristic manner, it will be unfortunate if you believe your own hubris and that of those around you on the possibility of you being the first to successfully go against Rivers people. It will be a needless gamble; one where if you win you create more enemies for yourself than you can withstand on your political journey, and if you lose, your legacy becomes an inglorious and irredeemable one in Rivers State, the Niger Delta, and Nigeria at large. For your sake as regards posterity, it is my greatest wish that you have a moment of sobriety and a deep reflection and introspection on this path you have chosen.
Honourable Minister, sir, what is left of your legacy is on the brink of being completely desecrated and relegated to the dustbin of our political history, and it will be a sad end to what I will say has been a wonderful political career that many can only dream of. The ball is in your court, and may God Almighty have mercy on us all and forgive us for our shortcomings.
Gabriel Baritulem Pidomson
Dr Pidomson is former Chief of Staff, Government House, Port Harcourt and former member, Rivers State House of Assembly.
In 2015, I made a conscious decision to invest my financial resources, my time, and energy into supporting Nyesom Wike’s gubernatorial campaign. I poured my heart and soul into ensuring Nyesom Wike emerged victorious even at the risk of my personal safety.
Again in 2019, I doubled down on my commitment. I invested a significant amount of money to procure campaign outfits for all twenty-three Local Governments Areas of Rivers State. I spared no expense in supplementing Wike’s election efforts in my own local government, and once again putting myself at great risk to safeguard the fairness and transparency of the electoral process.
However, despite my unwavering loyalty and sacrifices, I found myself abandoned and forgotten by Wike. Throughout his eight-year tenure, he failed to acknowledge my contributions or fulfill his promises and agreements. Even as a former Deputy Governor, Wike denied me my severance benefit.
My investment in Wike’s governorship was not just financial – it was a commitment of passion, dedication, and belief in a better future for Rivers State. Yet, his leadership style of dishonesty, greed, drunkenness and rash abuse of senior citizens brought me nothing but disappointment, misery and losses.
By the grace of God, today I speak not as a victim, but as a hero. I have accepted my losses, and I have moved on. And as I reflect on my experience, I cannot help but urge Wike to do the same and allow peace and development to reign in Rivers State.
Nyesom Wike, when you speak of investing in Governor Sim Fubara’s election, remember those like me who also invested in you. Remember the sacrifices I made, the risks I took, and the promises and agreements you left unfulfilled.
It is time for you, Wike, to let go of the past and allow Governor Sim Fubara the breathing space he needs to lead Rivers State forward. Allow him to focus on the challenges of good governance and the aspirations of the people. Spare him these unwarranted and ill-conceived political manoeuvrings founded on personal agenda and not for general good of Rivers State and her people.
I may have lost my investment on Wike, but I have not lost hope in the future of Rivers State. And together, we will continue to strive for a brighter tomorrow.
Long Live the Governor to Rivers State, Sir Siminialayi Fubara!
Long Live the Good People of Rivers State!!
Long Live the Federal Republic of Nigeria!!!
Engr Ikuru is former Deputy Governor of Rivers State.
Tele Ikuru
