Ime Akpan
The war of words between the governor of Rivers State, Mr. Nyesom Wike and the former managing director of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Mr. Dakuku Peterside, has taken another dimension as the latter said the former has poor upbringing and is always inebriated.
At issue in the current exchange is a statement credited to Wike wherein he is quoted to have mocked Peterside after he was denied the governorship ticket of the All Progressives Congress (APC) despite that he (Peterside) had, in the past seven years taken it as duty to criticise him and his administration.
Speaking at a thanksgiving service held at St Paul’s Cathedral in Port Harcourt, Rivers State on Sunday, May 8, the governor said Peterside’s motive for the verbal attacks on him was to convince the minister of transportation, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi to give him the APC governorship ticket.
“Somebody who cannot even get the ticket of his party, whom I defeated since 2015, thinks if he abuses me they will give him ticket, but they didn’t give him. Now you have abused me and your master refused to give you ticket. Your master refused to give you second term at NIMASA.
“Now they have promised to make him minister. Who will be president and give you minister. I will be the president of Nigeria; so I can’t make you minister,” he said.
Wike also accused Peterside of allegedly threatening the peace and stability of the state over the arrest and arraignment of a member of the house of representatives and governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Mr. Farah Dagogo.
Reacting in a statement entitled ‘My criticism of Wike not driven by personal ambition,” Peterside said if Wike expected him to keep quiet while things are not done right, he would not remain silent.
He contended that his criticisms were borne out of his love for the state.
“Maybe Wike expected that I kept silent while he shamelessly and brazenly raped Rivers State that our founding fathers laboured to achieve, some with their blood?
“Or, he expected me to have remained silent, or hailed him as he continued his unbridled and unexplainable greed exhibited in his continual, forceful seizure of developed and undeveloped public and private property which he converted into personal use?
“Or, Wike thought that he had conquered Rivers State and reduced her citizens to zombies and mannequins that nobody would raise their head to ask him appropriate questions on accountability?”
“He said that I have been criticising him for the past seven years so I can get APC governorship ticket. Nothing can be more run off at the mouth than this statement. Proud to say I am a patriotic stakeholder who cannot fold my hands and watch Wike’s maladministration and corruption in the past 7 years.
“His incoherent and uncouth statement in the church shows clearly his poor upbringing and that he was under the influence of alcohol, as always. I have consistently and constructively engaged Wike in the past 7 years not for any personal ambition but strictly for what he represents – gross incompetence, corruption, greed and lack of vision.
“If Wike thought that his guttersnipes and tantrums against me would debar my informed and topical reviews and criticisms of his failed administration, he better goes to hire more lecterns and turn every day in the week a Sunday, because I shall not stop unless he turns from his draconian style of governance; pays Rivers’ pensioners their legitimate entitlements; shows practical commitment to development of education and healthcare; resumes the payment of bursary to Rivers’ students as well as revive and fund the State Scholarship Board
“He should allow open democratic society where his opponents are not framed, gagged, and slammed with frivolous charges; except Wike ends his shameful and disgraceful display of high-something on national television regrettably financed with unaccounted for state funds; until Wike returns, with due restitution to Rivers’ natives, like Zacchaeus in the Bible, those landed property scattered all over Port Harcourt which he appropriated by brute force, I shall not relent in bringing him before the torchlight of good conscience.
“Let Wike put his ears down. He will hear how Rivers people are ashamed of having him since 2015 as their governor. Let him put his ears down and he would hear how no sensible Rivers native takes his word for anything.
“Wike should stop chasing shadows and see if he can use the ten months left to redeem whatever is left of his battered image. One assurance I can give Wike is that his days are numbered and Rivers people cannot wait to see the end of this nightmare. No amount of “kokoma “last dance can save a drowning man,” he said.
