In his routine and usual show of theatrics, the governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike, in a function at the Rivers State University claimed he made the University of Port Harcourt authority to include Law as one of its regular courses when he was the Minister of State for Education but that Rt Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, the Honourable Minister of Transportation, was yet to attract any meaningful project or achievement to Rivers State as a serving Minister under the present Federal Government.
This statement, coming from a governor, is not only reckless but dubious and deceitful. We are stumped at the governor's rapidness and creativity at falsehood. It is saddening that a serving governor would brazenly distort and misrepresent facts in the public to suit his selfish agenda and mislead unsuspecting members of the public.
While we do not intend to vest useful energy in responding to Governor Wike's sickening customary outbursts, we wish to put the records straight and refresh his mind with the pellucid truth. Unlike Wike who did absolutely nothing with his ministerial position other than to advance his selfish political ambition of becoming governor, Amaechi as a Minister, has attracted numerous people-oriented projects to Rivers State and influenced juicy appointments for Rivers sons and daughters in the present Federal Government.
Beyond all that, in May 31st 2017, less than two years as Minister, Amaechi attracted two major military institutions to Ubima in Rivers State: the Naval War College which is the highest Naval training institution in Nigeria and the Nigerian Navy Intelligence School. Situating the Naval War College and Nigerian Navy Intelligence School in Rivers State has considerably improved security around the axis of its location by checkmating the activities of criminal elements and bandits armed by the People's Democratic Party, PDP, during the 2015 elections and abandoned thereafter, hence their resort to kidnapping, cultism, robbery and militancy within that axis. Both institutions have also helped indigenes gain employment in more ways than one and boosted economic activities within the locality. Whereas, Wike's claims of introducing Law into the University of Port Harcourt is at best a ruse.
It would be recalled that the Senate of the University of Port Harcourt at its 337th Extraordinary Meeting approved the establishment of the Faculty of Law in the University in February, 2008. Following several false starts, the Senate at its 395th Meeting on Wednesday, January 29, 2014, again approved the commencement of the law programme in response to an application by the pioneer Dean of the Faculty of Law, Professor Kaniye Ebeku to commence the legal education programme which paved way for the commencement of a pilot Diploma programme domiciled in the College of Continuing Education (CCE) in 2014, however, it was only till President Muhammadu Buhari assumed office that the University obtained final approval to commence admission of students into the LL.B programme in 2017 after a final Resource Verification visit by a crack Council delegation led by the Director-General of the Nigerian Law School, Mr. Olarenwaju Onadeko on Tuesday, March 21, 2017 to ascertain the University's readiness to commence the LLB programme.
It is therefore vile and unstatesmanly for Governor Wike to seek to take credit where he deserves none. More so, it smacks of high-level mediocrity for the governor to consider the introduction of a degree programme into a University as a laudable feat. This mindset explains why Rivers State under his watch is flooded with low-profile projects that are not sustainable by all standards.
We urge Governor Wike to focus on ways of improving his scorecard which is presently below average instead of drawing baseless comparisons. The immutable truth remains that the only thing Wike achieved as a Minister was to connive with the Presidency to politically persecute Amaechi and foist himself on Rivers people as governor.
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