Rivers Guber 2023: PDP Candidate, Fubara Will Be Judged With Gov Wike’s Legacies

Agreeably, politics is the only altruistic vocation in the society, and leaders are weighed by how much impact they have made in the lives of their people. It is not selfish because it borders on the growth, development and general well – being of a people.

The Governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike is one of the most feared yet respected political leaders in Nigeria. This is so because he has raised the bar of governance and provided dividends of democracy to his people, thereby naturally collapsing the hedge of blame of non-performance and standing to speak for his people against any form of oppression or suppression in whatever guise.

For the Governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic party (PDP) in Rivers State, Siminalayi Fubara, he can be likened to a Prince who will be first seen through the spectacle of his father.

In Africa where heredity and nurture are indices that must be brought for prognosis to know the predictable threats of a person still plays out even in politics. Surely, if Fubara has taken tutelage from Nyesom Wike, then the question will be; what manner of person is Wike? This is where nurture or grooming matters. Of what use is Wike to the development of Rivers State? In times of confusion, how would Wike react to resolve the challenges? And what are his accomplishments while in power?

This logic is valid because the question will be, how has the party fared under Nyesom Wike and this suggests that if Wike is a failure, it follows that his disciple is likely to end up a failure if given the opportunity to steer the affairs of the State?

Nyesom Wike had inherited a broken Rivers State with a comatose economy with badly negotiated projects and programmes. It took him time to dismantle these structures of under-development. Today, the narrative has changed for the better.

During the celebration of his seven years in office, some of the projects inaugurated include: the iconic Bori-Sakpenwa-Kono highway (phase 1) the Cassava Flour Processing Plant, Oyibo; Mother and Child Hospital, Rumuomasi; Opobo axis of the Unity Road, Rehabilitation Centre, Iriebe and Judges Quarters. The ambience of Port Harcourt and Obio-AKpor Local Government areas, which harbour the Capital City, has been majestically transformed as over seven flyovers have been completed. The flyovers provide fantastic, jaw dropping scenic beauty in the daytime and at night with glittering street lights, walkways and drainages.

In addition to these, new campuses of Rivers State University (RSU) at Emohua, Etche and Ahoada, as well as projects at Nigerian Law School, Yenagoa, Bayelsa State and the sprawling spread of the Nabo Graham Douglas Campus of the Nigerian Law School, Port Harcourt, will soon be commissioned. Riverine communities like Okrika, Abonnema/Obonoma have sand filling projects to create vast expanse of land for development. In the area of Education, funds have been released regularly for the restoration, upgrade and expansion of secondary schools across the state.

The Rivers State Government in February 2021, released the sum of N16. 6 billion for the upgrade of facilities at the Rivers State University (RSU), with N9 billion (N3 billion devoted to each of the new campuses) to serve as take-off grant for the establishment of new campuses of the institution in Ahoada, Emohua and Etche Local Government Areas to facilitate the construction of faculty buildings, hostels, offices, libraries, auditoriums, lecture halls and address other needs required for the campuses to operate maximally.

The state government also released N7. 6billion to enable the College of Medical Sciences of RSU establish the Faculty of Basic Medical Sciences, Faculty of Clinical Sciences and Pathology Building, which in turn has now enabled the college to fully commence its programme leading to the award of Bachelor of Medicine, and Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) and also strengthened accredited department and those due accreditation at the Rivers State University Teaching Hospital (RSUTH).

Time and space may not permit an exhaustive presentation of his achievements.

Recently, the Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Olukayode Ariwoola said that the leadership legacy of Governor Nyesom Wike will be hard to beat in Nigeria.

Ariwola made the observation Thursday January 22, 2023 in a banquet held in his honour by Governor Nyesom Wike in Port Harcourt ahead of his task of Friday as Special Guest of Honour to commission projects completed by Rivers State Government under Governor Wike.

Governor Wike as it were had also invited other politicians of differing political parties to the state to also commission different projects raging from Roads, Health facilities, Nigeria Law School Complex, Rural development and Human Capital Development schemes coupled with construction of dozens of flyovers, which have eased off movement and out of Rivers State.

Chinua Achebe of blessed memory said; “The trouble with Nigeria is simply and squarely a failure of leadership. There is nothing basically wrong with the Nigerian land or climate or water or air or anything else. The Nigerian problem is the unwillingness or inability of its leaders to rise to the responsibility, to the challenge of personal example which are the hallmarks of true leadership.”

Governor Wike is an effective leader who rose to the responsibility, the challenge of personal example. He made promises and fulfilled them. Today, Rivers State is one of the safest if not the safest state in Nigeria. It is the true reflection of leadership.

The fact is that Siminalayi Fubara has become a name on every Riverien’s lips. He is sung as the prince of a powerful king and true to the story, he was there when Wike conceptualized, planned and executed them all. He was part of the intelligentsias who designed the road map. He was that man behind the scene holding tapes, holding note books to remind His Excellency, Nyesom Wike, the set goals and of course offering strategic means of generating revenue and financing programmes and projects of the government. When Rivers State was threatened by insecurity, he was there and took part in how it was brought under control.

For informed electorates, they would readily vote for a man who understands the system and not somebody who would be coming to experiment and begin to take the state backward.

Governor Wike certainly takes the glory  and reprehension of the office as the leader of that government but there is no separating Fubara from Wike considering his statutory role in Rivers government.

As the electorates vote, the achievements of Wike led government will be alluded to Fubara just as he could have been recognized as a failure if the government had not done well.

Therefore, it is expected that PDP led government exploits will be brought to reckoning on the D-Day. Certainly, Fubara stands to gain from the goodwill of Wike’s government.

Beyond legacies, in his recent endorsement of Siminalayi Fubara, speaking on the qualities that put Rivers PDP guber candidate, Siminaliayi Fubara ahead of others in the race for who succeeds him, Governor Wike said  “He (Fubara) is a very humble person, very committed person and will not disappoint the people of Rivers.

“He is not the talking type, but the working type. I could not have achieved so much and then support somebody who will do better than me. He was the Accountant General of the state and has followed all our workings in this state.