The Governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike, on Tuesday, donated three months salary due to him at a book launch in Abuja.
Wike donated N20m at the launch of a book titled, ‘The Big Interviews’, authored by Eric Osagie, the immediate past Managing Director of The SUN.
The amount donated by Wike is almost equivalent to the three-year salary and allowances of a Nigerian governor which is N23.3m.
Revenue Mobilisation and Fiscal Commission report shows that a governor’s basic salary is N185, 308.75 while he is entitled to a hardship allowance of N92, 654.37.
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He is also entitled to a consistency allowance of N370, 617.50 making the total monthly package to N648, 580.62 or N7.7m a year.
The total salary and allowances earned by a governor in three years is N23.3m.
“To launch this book and support Eric…I am not afraid of naming anything. I am not afraid of anybody. I will support him and launch this book with the sum of N20m.” he said.
Wike who spoke after the national chairman of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Adams Oshiomhole, urged the media to be dedicated as it was during the administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan.
He said it was unfortunate that the Muhammadu Buhari government does not obey court orders.
Countering a statement by Oshiomhole who said that the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, does not believe in what they say, Wike asked the audience whether the country is enjoying the rule of law under the APC-led government.
The audience’s response was a resounding ‘No.’
Bolstered by the response, Wike went on to give a long list of the failures of the APC in power.
“Let me begin from where the APC national chairman stopped. Where are some of you who did Occupy Nigeria? Do you still write and speak the way you used to do?
“Who are those now sponsoring all manner of bills against free speech?”
Wike chided Oshiomhole for what he called a deliberate ploy to mislead Nigerians into thinking that he still wore the khaki of old when he was a labour leader, saying “the kind of safari he wears now are different.”
In his response, All Progressives Congress National Chairman, Adams Oshiomhole, said he was not as rich as Wike.
He said he also had to curb his spending going by a recent Federal High Court judgement which ordered all former governors who now hold political office, to stop receiving pension.
Oshiomhole added, “You know there is now a court ruling about pensions. He (Wike) is not yet on that (pension) even though he has an eye on it. I don’t know how it will affect Wike. Let me say that President Buhari is practising what he is preaching.”
The former governor subsequently donated N500, 000.
“We will negotiate and I will pay what I can afford and it will not be in excess of what I earn in a month. I will transfer it to you quietly because there is a new revenue board (FIRS) chairman. He will ask that we deduct consumption tax. So, thank you, I will support you with N500, 000.”
Oshiomhole praised his party for allowing the rule of law to reign and one-man-one vote.
He called on media practitioners to be more courageous, particularly when taking on men in power.
The former governor cited an instance when a foreign journalist once took on an unnamed Nigerian President a few years ago on the scourge of population control, saying that the ex-President was wrong to have spoken on the subject matter when Nigerians were yet to be told the number of his children and wives.
According to Oshiomhole, “How could he speak on population control when Nigerians didn’t even know the number of his wives, both registered and unregistered? Nigerians didn’t know the number of his children and I think leaders should learn to practice what they preach.”
