Dahiru
Hassan Kera
In any political situation, there are exceptional statesmen and farsighted leaders who strive to ensure that there is an equitable balance of forces among contending interests and factions so that tyranny and dictatorship do not predominate to stifle healthy democratic practices and processes.
Rather than entrenching a monopoly of political and economic power, those farsighted, dynamic and resourceful leaders tend to foray into the political arena in order to deepen the democracy and promote healthy competition devoid of winner takes all syndrome of some old fashioned gladiators see themselves as messianic potentates bestriding the nation’s political landscape like a foreboding colossus.
Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State has been the reliable figure that took the center stage in the battle of entrenching true democracy and ensuring its sustenance in the South and indeed all other zones of the country.
He has acted as a formidable bulwark to thwart the grand design of the All Progressives Congress (APC) to forcefully take over the South-south geo-political zone, that has remained as one of the last mainstays of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). APC with the former Rivers State Governor, Rotimi Amaechi at the helm, had mobilized mammoth financial and material resources coupled with the deployment of the Nigerian military to overawe and browbeat the Rivers’people to pave the way for massive rigging of the National Assembly re-run elections.
The Rivers re-run seemed to be a state war where heavily armed soldiers were deployed throughout the nook and cranny of the state on the pretext of hunting for cultists and their hidden caches of weapons. But the ultimate aim of the deployed soldiers was allegedly a fishy arrangement from the Abuja cohorts to assist in moving ballot boxes and papers to obscure areas where massive thumbprinting would be illegally and brazenly carried out.
However, those APC tacticians did not factor in the resilience, tenacity and doggedness of Governor Wike, who swiftly mobilised hundreds of thousands of Rivers people in a massive display of people’s power pouring into the streets to signal that the will of the Rivers people was indomitable and unassailable. At the end of the day, the revanchist APC and their foot soldiers backed down hurriedly leading to the sweeping victory of the PDP throughout the state.
Wike emerged victorious throughout the election debacle and has accordingly served notice to his APC traducers, Amaechi et al that notwithstanding their display of federal might, Rivers State remains a no-go area for APC and they would do well to peddle their outmoded and outdated political wares elsewhere as Rivers State was not open to political chicanery and electoral jobbers as the case may be.
Determined and armed with a single intention to serve the people of Rivers, apart from his political steadfastness and durability, the kinetic Wike has moved swiftly towards delivering the proverbial dividends of democracy to the long-suffering Riverians who have unjustifiably borne the brunt of eight years of gross misrule of Amaechi.
Without much ado, Governor Wike has embarked on a massive road construction and rehabilitation project which has seen the uplifting of hundreds of kilometers of roads throughout Rivers State thus boosting the socio-economic activities of the people who depend on the road network to move their goods and services from the hinterland to the cities and vice versa. Indeed, long neglected rural and urban road networks have been rehabilitated and Gov. Wike is a familiar sight within and around Rivers State as he moves around with his officials to conduct on the spot assessment of ongoing road construction projects to ensure that they are progressing timeously and proactively.
On education and health sectors, a farsighted Wike has rehabilitated numerous schools at the primary, secondary and tertiary levels while construction of brand new classroom blocks is ongoing. And at the same time hospitals, health centres and maternity clinics have been uniquely transformed with the supply of urgently needed drugs and state of the art medical equipment. The governorhas also pad the backlog of salaries and pension arrears, completed the headquarters of the Greater Port Harcourt Development Authority that would employ more than 200 professionals, as well as constructed two water booster stations.
On the critical sector of security, the ever vigilant governor has galvanised the various security formations in the state including the Police, SSS, NSDSC, Customs, Immigration, etc, with various financial, material and logistics support. He cautioned that the issue of security should not be politicised for selfish, self-seeking, parochial or partisan ends. Governor Wike provided the security apparatus with over 100 well-equipped patrol vehicles to boost the security of the state and neighboring towns. No wonder, events that need tight security like the PDP national convention and the All Nigerian Editors Conferences were hosted in Rivers State.
Indeed, Governor Wike has risen to the occasion in tackling the numerous, social, economic and political challenges bedevilling Rivers State, the South-south zone and nation at large. He is unarguably and unassailably, the man for this and indeed all seasons.
Kera wrote from Abuja