A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Eze Chukwuemeka Eze, has lampooned the planned Infrastructure Award Investiture on the Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike by the Federal Government.
Eze went further to accuse the Governor of exchanging millions of taxpayers’ money for a mere award, adding that the award is misplaced, unwise and unmerited.
He urged Buhari to investigate how the Rivers Governor was nominated for such honour.
Eze, erstwhile National Publicity Secretary of the defunct New Peoples Democratic Party (nPDP), expressed displeasure over plans by the Federal Government to bestow an infrastructure award on Governor Wike.
In a statement in Port Harcourt, he said he read with misgiving the report titled, “Buhari to confer infrastructure award on Wike Oct. 21” by one of the leading national newspapers in Nigeria, stating that, Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike has been nominated for the “Distinguished Award in Infrastructure Delivery” at the forthcoming Nigeria Excellence in Public Service Award by the Federal Government.
The report went further to quote the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha, as stating that Buhari will on October 21 present the award to the governor at the State House Conference Centre, Abuja.
The party Chief said as a close watcher of Rivers State politics, member of the APC Legacy Projects Media Team and one of the key players and contributors to the formation of APC by virtue of his position as spokesperson for the defunct nPDP, which formed an integral part of the merger that gave birth to the APC, he feels embarrassed and emotionally tormented and troubled to learn that a government that almost caused him his life has concluded plans to honour a bigot whose only achievement in eight years is the erection of 12 over-bloated flyovers in Obio/Akpor, his home LGA and nothing more.
“The cost of each of those flyovers, some of which are still at their elementary stages of construction, can build four to five flyovers in any part of the country,” he claimed.
Eze called on President Buhari to rescind the proposed award, stressing that Governor Nyesom Wike, who, according to him, has been hiding under the veil of a perpetual court injunction to evade investigation into the odoriferous corruption perpetrated under his administration, does not in any way merit such recognition.
“As a government that is peculiar in fighting corruption, it will be unwise to have anything to do with a Governor that has myriad of corruption allegations on his neck, to the extent of honoring him with an award investiture after he had bribed FG officials with millions of Rivers money just to get what he does not merit.
“As of today, the governorship candidate he foisted on the PDP, Mr. S. Fubara, still holds sway as an employee of the state government (civil servant) and this is against the rule of neutrality in the civil service.
“He neglected the Supreme Court judgment which derecognized Celestine Omehia as a former Governor, concocted a law, recognized him just to undo his predecessor, and all of a sudden, he has unmade the law to derecognize Omehia because the latter has found for himself a political direction up north.
“Everything he does is against the law yet he belongs to the Body of Benchers. This calls for a question.
“It is the resources of the State that are stressed here and this should be a source of concern to the federal government.
“If Wike should be honoured because he built 12 flyovers within one major road in a Local Government Area, Obio-Akpor, then what award will the FG give to Governor Umahi of Ebonyi State who has built 16 flyovers scattered in almost half of the Local Government Areas in Ebonyi State?
“What Award are we to give to the Governor of Borno State, who, not minding the insecurity ravaging his State, is changing the face of Borno State. What about the Governors of Delta, a silent multi-sectoral achiever? What of the CRS State Governor who sees tomorrow, what award are we to give the Lagos State Governor whose inputs have surpassed all the inputs of the last administrators of Lagos State,” he queried.
Eze said the proposed award has an obvious political undertone that has already been uncovered.
“Maybe the award is to compensate the Rivers Governor for destroying the educational facilities and industries built by the administration of Amaechi and making Rivers State one of the capitals of poverty.
“Maybe the recognition is for depriving pensioners their due, after making sacrifices and putting-in decades of service to society, and subjecting them to abject poverty. Or maybe it is to applaud him for not building one industry to create jobs for the teeming unemployed youths in Rivers State and weaponizing poverty,” he added.