Rivers government is in intensive care unit – Tony Okocha on Fubara’s one year in office

Tony Okocha, caretaker committee chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), has rolled out his own assessment of the one year in office of the Sir Sim Fubara administration.

He wrote off the governor as scoring minus zero. Okocha, who is also the Rivers State Representative on the board of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), made many other startling statements especially on the status of the 27 defected lawmakers who left the PDP to the APC.

Okocha was livid with anger over recent news pieces claiming he had quarreled with the man he calls his boss, FCT Minister Nyesom Wike, and worse, that he had done a turn around and congratulated the state governor, Sim Fubara. He reacted vitriolically before releasing his assessment of the Fubara one year.

DETAILS:

Intensive care unit

I think it is right to throw jabs very idiotic script titled: “Tony Okocha Makes a U-Turn, Congratulates Governor Fubara on a Successful One Year in Office and Apologies for Any Wrongdoing in a Press Statement he Personally Signed”.

I make bold to category and unequivocally say that what I just read is a document that emanated from the pit of hell. It is not only cruel, it’s a jejune, nonsensical, and it is fake. I could not have congratulated a government that is in intensive care unit; not as Tony Okocha, worst case as the Chairman of All Progressives Congress (APC) in Rivers State and by that fact the leader of opposition parties and voice of the voiceless in Rivers State. I couldn’t have done so, not even at the point that I was going to breathe my last.

This document should be thrown to the trash can and seen as the concoctment of purveyors of wickedness whose intention is an attempt to malign my name by showing me off as one who speaks from both sides of the mouth.

Minus zero:

*While I was away, a lot of you called to know my take on the 365 days in office being celebrated nationwide including that of the governor of Rivers State. So, I have called you to hear my own take.

I want to say to you clearly that the administration of Rivers State today under Governor Siminalayi Fubara is a sham. On a scale of 01 to 10, he scored minus zero. In other words, it is apt to say that we have relapsed to the days of primitive administrations in our political history. There is nothing to show and I challenge the Governor and his handlers to show just proof of one project he commenced and completed in 365 days. The moment I see and hear that, I will immediately recount and publicly congratulate the governor.

Does he compare with his other brothers? I will name particularly those who are first timers as he. Take a typical case of Abia State, take a typical case of Akwa Ibom, take a typical case of Ebonyi State, take a typical case of Anambra, take a case of Enugu, and let’s look at the far North, Niger State. Juxtapose the achievements of these governors individually, they are first timers like him. Take a facts-check of what is happening in those states and you will realise that Rivers State is a case of mumbo-jumbo.

Let him show me one project he can franchise to himself, not the appropriation of the projects of the former governor.

Projects plagiarism:

Admitted that government is a continuum; and again, he rose on the plans of continuity and consolidation and so it’s also not unexpected. The danger of what he is doing, however, is that he doesn’t even accord one per cent of credit to the person who started. In the literary world, they call it plagiarism. You lift somebody’s work or intellectual property and you don’t put a quote or in fact, without crediting it to the source, then the law says you are guilty of plagiarism. So, in other words, Siminalayi Fubara is a plagiarist.

Again, I want to challenge you to compare what he has achieved in 365 days. We are in trouble in Rivers State. It’s an era of horror, stagnation and all other vices that anybody can think of.

Correct assessment:

In Rivers State under Siminalayi Fubara, security is suspect. In Rivers State under Siminalayi Fubara, companies are leaving in droves, industries are closing down because of the fear of the unknown. The achievements of Governor Fubara known to me is the fact that he has traversed the 23 local councils of Rivers State in what he dubbed, ‘Thanksgiving For Supreme Court Victory’; that’s his own achievement and it amounts to nothing other than profligacy and throwing away of Rivers fund.

So how then would somebody imagine that I, Chief Tony Chidugam Okocha, would stand up to grandstand, to now be in the bag of people who show vagaries to begin to love what I hate. That’s not my training and I condemn it and it’s condemnable.

Status of Defected lawmakers

Responding to inquiries whether Martin Amaewhule and the 26 other members of the Rivers State House of Assembly loyal to Nyesom Wike are members of the APC he replied thus: “Can we agree that what makes you a member of a group is that you have your name in the register of that group; and if there is an identity card, you also have your own identity card to show that you’re a member. And in the case of a political party, you also have your membership card? However, the matter is sub-judice.

On probe of Wike;

A day of reckoning will surely come:

It is only a fool, for want if better word, that would leave a public office and conclude like it was a private enterprise and because of that you don’t think that you will be susceptible to probe. A day of reckoning will surely come. So, for anybody to imagine, including Siminalayi Fubara, to think that the mention of probe is a threat, no, it’s not a threat.

So that he mentioned probe is nothing. I have been asking, what is the delay in setting up the panel. I have challenged him and I’m challenging him again that he who goes to equity must go with clean hands. I listened to him; he said he was going to probe past administrations, not just Wike, though it was an innuendo targeted at Wike. Also, we are saying that you cannot also do so without vacating that order procured long ago by former Governor Peter Odili that stopped the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) from probing him, Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, Nyesom Wike, and now you, Siminalayi Fubara will benefit from that judgment.

Also shed off your immunity as governor because as Director of Finance and Administration, Government House, Accountant-General of the state, there is no way you can be absolved of probe of a governor.

Don’t forget also that the governor is not a signatory to any government account but only gives mandate. So, as Accountant-General, it’s clear that he was signatory to the account so he too is not free.

So, to say that talk of probe has gutted Wike is not correct. Don’t also forget that Wike is a Minister of the Federal Republic so whether people speak for him or not, he has to be circumspect. At the fullness of time, everybody will speak up.