A former National Publicity Secretary of the defunct Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Eze Chukwuemeka Eze, has cautioned President Bola Ahmed Tinubu against including the immediate past Governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike, in his ministerial appointee list.
Since news began making the rounds that there has been a series of speculations that Wike would get a ministerial position under the All Progressives Congress (APC) administration.
While admitting that it is within the exclusive rights of President Tinubu to appoint any Nigerian into his cabinet, Eze warned that if Wike can destroy a great and ‘standard’ party like the PDP, destroying the APC and the president himself would be like sipping a glass of wine.
Eze, who insisted that there should be reservations in the case of the former Governor of Rivers State, described Wike as a self-centred politician whose usurping leadership in the pursuit of selfish, private vendettas portends grave danger to any organization of humans.
He noted that the APC prides itself as a party rooted in democracy and the rule of law, and going by that standard, the entrance of Wike into its fold would ordinarily not be easy because the party abhors his type of politics, which is clearly antithetical to progress.
Eze said that Wike’s desperate engagements ridiculed the Nigerian system.
“He earned the country a global embarrassment. In saner climes, his likes are subjected to the slammer for their very many crimes.
“If he nurses any interest in joining the APC, just be sure that such interest is not pure; it is definitely for a clandestine purpose as his custom is,” Eze said.
Speaking further on President Tinubu appointing Wike as a Minister, Eze said it would be the greatest political mistake ever envisaged by the President in his political life.
“Nigerians have set a target for the President, and they know that Wike does not fit into the calibre of people needed to help him meet the expectations and yearnings of country people as he lacks the minimum record and character prescribed for people who should hold public offices in the present day contemporary Nigeria,” Daily Post quoted Eze saying.
He added: “Check his antecedents; all through his eight-year reign in Rivers State, the ‘Treasure Base of the Nation’ could not attract any foreign inflow, not one. The State recorded zero investment all through that period.
“He undermined all the basic areas that required attention to grow the state and only channelled energy to building 12 overhead bridges with the biggest media fanfare in the annals of history just to gain cheap popularity.
“What do you think of a man that bragged so much about overhead bridges as legacy projects in this era of technology? Aside those overhead bridges, he cannot point at anything as his achievement in office as Governor.
“The Mother and Child Hospital he built has been under lock and key many years after it was commissioned. That facility has not been able to diagnose a child of any ailment; what about the Peter Odili Cancer and Cardiovascular Diagnosis and Treatment Center?
“That place is being overtaken by grass. He scammed the state of so much money and I wonder what the EFCC is doing till this moment.
“Already, he has a case with the anti-graft agency for the billions of naira he stole as Education Minister during the Jonathan administration.
“He bargained to refund the money, and he was refunding N300 million monthly with Rivers money while as Governor before former President Buhari stopped him. That matter is still pending.
“Aside from all of that, appointing Wike Minister exposes the fear amongst some of us in the party that Mr President has a hand in the decimation of APC in Rivers State this past eight years where Wike deployed state resources against the party in the State.
“He used the judiciary to stifle the party. Just the other day, his chief lobbyist, one Tony Okocha, mentioned that the Rivers State Judiciary became a laughing stock and an object of mockery because Wike used Judges to deal with the Rivers APC during the crisis when he was still Governor. His loyalist made that confession.
“The above notwithstanding, Wike’s emergence as cabinet member will be an insult not only to APC members but also to those faithful who died in the struggle to water and sustain the party in Rivers State all these years.
“But one thing is sure and Mr. President must be wary of it; if Wike could destroy such a great political party like PDP, then destroying both Tinubu and APC will be like sipping a glass of wine.”
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