TPCN spoke to Dike Vincent Amadi, the leader of the D-Source connect, a professional grassroots group championing good governance in Rivers State and promoting the image of Governor Nyesom Wike on Social media.
D-Source connect is a group of young professionals in different fields working and mobilizing towards the actualization of Governor Wike’s second tenure.
Barr Amadi in this interview with TPCN editor chimed on major issues and burning narratives across the state.
Enjoy…
TPCN: How have you been able to tackle the threat posed by the APC in Rivers State?
Amadi: APC has lost its grip in the whole country, let alone Rivers State which is the headquarters of the PDP. We have a vibrant governor that is doing very well. Whether you like it not, he is the pride of the PDP at the moment. APC is not a threat, let alone how we will tackle them. They are just passersby. Their ranks are depleting by the day in all the local governments in Rivers state. PDP is harvesting APC members every day. So, if you talk about APC, the chief person who is powering the APC is the former governor of Rivers State, Rotimi Amaechi, and his likes who run into Port Harcourt, make some noise and run back. Another is the former candidate of the APC, Dakuku Peterside, who is battling with the crisis in NIMASA. He has not been able to pay salaries for 3 months. The house of APC has crumbled in Rivers State as long as Rivers People are concerned.
TPCN: The relationship between Nyesom Wike and Magnus Abe has been generating lots of concern and stakeholders within both parties are getting worried….
Amadi: Anybody who is saying that the relationship is not healthy, is anti-people. The person does not also believe in friendly relationships in politics. What you saw the governor do, that is a clear indication that you don’t put your private enmity into political enmity. The governor, whether they like it or not, has calmed a lot of frayed nerves. What he did by going to the thanksgiving of Senator Magnus Abe has never been done. It is strange that a state governor of a party will attend the thanksgiving of a Senator in another party who even wants his office. Governor Wike has risen above board to tell the people “look, this is beyond anyone else. This is about Rivers State. Place Rivers state first”. It is of no political consequence. In fact, the people in APC will believe Wike the more because he has the heart of gold. It is good for our democracy and I will encourage all our leaders to do the same thing. Even when the president came back from a medical trip abroad, the governor was there to welcome him.
TPCN: The APC has urged Governor Wike not to spend money conducting local Government election as it would amount to waste of resources. Do you think that the Governor should continue with the CTC approach?
Amadi: The governor of Rivers State is a lawyer, he knows the law. He is not just a lawyer, he is a life bencher. Life bencher is the highest peak that you will get in the legal profession. He knows his onions and knows what is right. For him not to have conducted local government election all these while is still simply because of the same reason that the matter is still pending in court. But I will tell you that the people in the APC, it is either they are bereaved of the law or they are trying to be mischievous.
Why did I say so? Between when they were sworn in, the supposed local government chairmen; I call them midnight local government chairmen; between when they were sworn in and May this year, they would have served out their tenure. So whether or not the case is in court or dispensed with, their tenure has elapsed. After May 2018, that case in court will just be for academic exercise.
The governor did not conduct election because he knows the law. He decided to put in caretaker committee Chairmen with the belief that this matter will elapse. Don’t forget that Governor Wike was a local government chairman so he understands you will need democratically elected chairmen to run the affairs of the local governments. Don’t forget that the governor is a grassroots person. So, whatever the Rivers state APC is saying is the normal crying wolf.
TPCN: Many ethnic groups have said that it amounts to injustice for Ikwerre to rule for 16 years. On that basis, they have called on Governor Wike to hand over power come 2019. Don’t you think that their request is in order?
Amadi: Politics is not about my father’s kitchen or my mother’s kitchen. We are talking about people who have the capacity to deliver. Wike has touched virtually every sector in Rivers State. It should not be about whose turn it is but the person who has the heart to carry Rivers people along and make governance interesting. Only Wike has those qualities for now. He has the assured capacity to govern Rivers State. Whether Riverine or Upland, it doesn’t matter. The people who are the proponent of this Riverine and Upland theory are the same people who took away senatorial ticket from a Riverine senator and gave it to an Ikwerre man. Wike is the Governor, Amaechi is a Minister and an Ikwerre man is also a senator, so what are they talking about? Wike is a pan Rivers man. He gave the Senatorial ticket to a riverine man, Senator Thomson Sekibo but Amaechi took it from him and gave it to an Ikwerre man.
TPCN: The neighborhood watch bill has been generating lots of controversies. What do you make of it?
Amadi: Partisanship aside, as a human being who has his investments in Rivers State, the conventional Police have failed. They have failed and as such, what do you expect from the government? Is it not to get an alternative to the police that will watch over the towns and villages in Rivers State? Capable hands that will protect the people against any internal and external threat? So, for me, the neighborhood watch is timely and strategic because if I live in Eneka and I call the Nigerian police that people are in front of my house waiting to rob me, Police will tell me that they don’t have car, they don’t have fuel to come and save me at the wee hours of the night. So what will you do? But when you have young men who know the terrain, who know these bad boys and can go after them, you will see that security in Rivers state will be more effective. So I thank the governor for sponsoring that executive bill. I think it is timely because we cannot rely on the police to be here and be taking instructions from Abuja that whatever Abuja says is what they will do. You remember how it was happening at Omoku. Without the aid of the local vigilante, the young man terrorizing Omoku wouldn’t have been gunned down but we have SARS here, we have an anti-terrorism unit of the police, we have an army, we have all of them and yet, the young man was a lord until the local vigilante came in. Yes, they might have some shortcomings but the argument by Wike is tenable right now. We should look at the people who know the terrain and know the people living in the environment to guard it. I support it
TPCN: There have been talks that the government is not providing jobs for the youths...
Amadi: When you talk about job creation, job creation can be likened to so many other things. If I tell you that right now, the project going on in Isiokpo internal roads has employed about 230 youths, you won’t believe. You don’t just talk about job creation as regards white collar jobs. If you have 300 people employed at a construction site in Isiokpo, another 300 at another one in Etche and another at Kalabari, you can understand that directly or Indirectly, People are being employed. Everybody will not be in the civil service but I know that the civil service jobs will come.
TPCN: People are saying that the ones who have retired from the civil service have not received their pension and gratuity.
Amadi: Anybody who is saying that, may not have completed his or her documentation. I have a mother who just retired from the civil service and they have been paying her her pension regularly, though they may not have been paid their gratuity but do not also forget that there is paucity of funds. But I can tell you that some of those people who have retired have also been receiving their pensions except for those who have not concluded their documentation.
TPCN: What are your strategies for making sure Wike sails through in 2019?
Amadi: We have our strategies. We are playing them to our chest. We don’t want to let everybody know of our plans but I can tell you that in 2019, we are putting everything on the ground to ensure the re-election of Nyesom Wike, which we know is already a done deal but for the purpose of doing what we have to do as humans. Although God has already sealed it, we are working very hard to make sure that Wike stays in power.
TPCN: Don’t you think that the APC will spring up a surprise and remove Wike?
Amadi: How can they spring up a surprise when they are not even existing? We are not unaware of their plots to use security agents. They did it before and they were floored. They had the security, they had the president, they had everybody yet they were floored. We are not bothered about those because when the time comes, they will be defeated.
TPCN: Buhari’s visit. Many people have said that his visit is not necessary and that he is coming to play politics and rebound APC in the State..
Amadi: It is not necessary. President Buhari has interest in Rivers State but the truth is that, whatever his interest is, if it is anti Rivers people, he will be disgraced. Rivers state is not a crisis-ridden place. We don’t have crisis in Rivers State. Yes we have one or two security lapses but it has been curtailed by the Governor through the security agencies and since then, we have been enjoying peace in Rivers State. So, he doesn’t have anything he is coming to do except politics but the truth is that Rivers people know who they are following. Is he coming to commission any projects? What has he given to Rivers people? What is he coming to do? It is embarrassing that he will leave Abuja and come to Rivers State to talk about what? Mention one thing he has done for the people of Rivers State, of all his promises. Look at Ogoni clean up! Nothing has been done, look at the PortHarcourt-Enugu express road! Nothing has been done. Look at our airport! We are still using tapouline as departure and arrival. What are they talking about? He is coming to play politics and this is the headquarters of politics. We trust our people, we will give it back to him. In as much as I agree that as a president, he has the right to visit anywhere he likes, but coming to rivers state to do whatever….
TPCN: He said he is coming to access the security in the state….
Amadi: That wound has been healed. The governor has taken care of it. Let him come and commission one project and we will clap for him.
TPCN: The soot. The State Government have come out to say that the onus lies on the Federal Government to stop the soot. Do you think that the Rivers State Government should have done more?
Amadi: Well, I don’t think it is in the place of the state government to curtail the soot. Yes, the state government have done what they can do. They have set up a committee to look at the cause of the soot and how it is coming about and so far, they have shut down some plants which they felt were responsible and it continued. I think it is the burning of these illegal refineries by the military and civil defence. So, the federal government needs to wade in and look at it holistically and try to see how they can encourage these young men who have these illegal refineries and see how they can be transformed into modular refineries so that they can end this once and for all. So, the federal government that controls all the security agencies should deal with the soot. The Governor of Rivers state is a mere logistics officer of the security agents and not the chief security officer of the state.
