Rivers APC mourns 2015 in Wike’s hands

While Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State has outlined good works that marked the out-gone year and many good things to come via the 2016 budget, the rival All progressives Congress (APC) has rather begun mourning the fate of the oil-rich state in 2015. This is as the opposition party has resurrected the issue of a governance structure or blueprint with which Wike governs the state.

In an appraisal statement soon after the governor’s New Year broadcast, the APC pointed at what it called declining structures. The statement signed by the publicity secretary, Chris Finebone, said the Nne Kurubo Model Secondary School at Eleme has been shut down with no hope of reopening.
He added: “Youths of Rivers State on overseas scholarships have been disgracefully repatriated because the Wike government decided to levy group punishment on them, not necessarily because the government cannot dig deep to sustain their stay to finish their studies”.

The APC went on: “The Rivers State Sustainable Development Agency (RSSDA) and the various projects and programmes the agency operates have been abandoned by the administration”.

The party said that the Banana Farm at the Ogoni axis has even been burnt down by those it called ‘suspected government arsonists’ while the Buguma Fish Farm and others have allegedly been abandoned by the State Government.

The party said in the past seven months of Wike administration in Rivers State, kidnapping, cultism, armed robbery and other dangerous crimes have become the order of the day. “The government has not started a single project or programme suggesting that it had a blueprint of any sort”.
Saying the list of harm to Rivers State was inexhaustible, the APC accused Wike of learning from 2015, adding that the governor was wrong on saying he was governing on laid down blueprint because there was none.

The APC said: “During the election campaigns, on January 26, 2015, Nyesom Wike as candidate formally presented to the public what he called his Development Blueprint aimed at repositioning Rivers State. While making that presentation which he reportedly titled “A new Rivers State, new vision, new thinking, better possibilities”, Wike said that the blueprint was expected to guide the incoming administration and address development challenges that had crippled the state.

The party said it was a surprise that a couple of weeks after the swearing in of Wike on May 29, 2015, the world was stunned when the governor announced that he was setting up a “Steering Committee on Development of Blueprint for Rivers State” headed by Nimi Walson-Jack as the chairman.

The APC said it was at that point that it dawned on honest Rivers people that Wike had pulled a fast one on everybody. “His earlier launch of a blueprint at the start of the campaigns was a mere ruse laced with big, big talk signifying nothing. If Wike launched a blueprint during the campaigns on January 26, 2015 which other blueprint did he set up the Nimi Waltson-Jack Steering Committee to draw up for Rivers people in June, 2015?”
The APC said it was grateful to God that Rivers people have seen the truth at last and have decided to make earth-quaking moves beginning from this January. “We are convinced that even if Wike declares every card-carrying PDP member in Rivers State as Commissioner, Special Assistant or whatever, Rivers people have taken a stand and Wike will soon discover that he is standing alone”.