Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike on Wednesday took a swipe at the Buhari-led administration as one that lacks responsibility going by current happenings.
Governor Wike made this assertion in Abuja, at the Executive Intelligence Management Course 14 (EMC14) during a lecture on the topic, ‘Governance, Security and Sustainable Development in Africa, Nexus, Challenges And Prospects: Rivers State As Metaphor at the National Institute for Security Studies (NISS), Abuja.’
He alleged that the President’s exclusion of other regions from critical projects and social justice were some of the factors causing crises in the country. He maintained that only a committed government with suitable policy measures could portray good governance.
“The President Muhammadu Buhari administration cannot be said to be a responsive government that will provide all these because the government of the day gives one excuse or the other for its failures.
“It is terrible. So, in the absence of a responsive government, there cannot be environmental sustainability because it requires good governance.
“When the President said over 90 per cent will go to only those who voted for him, that alone can create a crisis. That is not the hallmark of good governance. I don’t expect a President of a country to say that he will only recognise those who voted for him. That is not democracy,” he stated.
“Only a determined, committed government with the right policy measures can solve this and not a government of promises like what we have today. What we have today cannot be a responsive government that will provide all this,” he said.
He insisted that exclusivity of power leads to crises and insecurity, explaining that zoning of political positions at the state and federal levels represented equity, which ensured peace.
Wike further affirmed that insecurity in the country will stall it from achieving sustainable development.
Citing the instance when the Igbo were complaining against marginalisation in appointments into key positions in the country’s security agencies, he insisted that there was nothing wrong in listening to the Igbo, he said:
“What is wrong in sitting back and say, we are all one and we want this country to be together for us to achieve sustainable development?
“Because if the Igbo and other sensitive parts of the country like the Niger Delta region are alienated from the core of the country’s political and socio-economic considerations, they will begin to believe that they do not belong to the system.”
Wike further criticised the Federal Government for borrowing money from China, arguing that conditions must be met before any money would be given out.
“When you borrow, there are conditions attached. You go to China and borrow, China must be the contractors. I am borrowing, I am paying you as we have agreed but one of the conditions is that we must be the one that will carry out this work,” he said.
“Apart from the interest you are going to make from the loan, you are also making money from doing the work. You see the problem because you have no choice, it erodes independence. You must do what they say you should do.”
The governor further noted that states’ over-dependence on the Federal Government had weakened their independence, as he criticised governors who depend on the monthly Federation Accounts Allocation Committee (FAAC).
“No state is poor in this country, it is this over-dependence on the Federal Government,”
“At the end of every month, they send their Accountant-General/Commissioner of Finance for FAAC.
“Any state that tells you we are poor and they deceive you by saying their state is poor. I keep on telling them, if your state is poor, why do you want to be governor? Your state is poor; you want to run the second term.”
