Wike: Why I Congratulated Buhari

Ernest Chinwo in Port Harcourt

Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, has explained that he congratulated President Muhammadu Buhari after the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal confirmed his election because it was better to offer public congratulations than visit the president at night.

Wike said unlike some governors of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) who visited Buhari at night, he made his declaration public because it came from the heart.

He spoke yesterday at the funeral service in honour of the Blessing Awuse, Mother of Sergent Awuse, at St Luke’s Anglican Church, Emohua.

He said: “I am sure all of you are surprised that I congratulated Buhari. Is it not good for me to congratulate him, than to go to his house in the night?”

“So many PDP governors go to see him in his house in the night. I have never gone and I will not go. I won’t go.”

“We are the only state that the federal government refused to pay us our money used to execute federal projects because I don’t go to see him in the night and I won’t go. He is not my friend, he is not doing well, but he won in court, should I say that the court did wrong, no.”

“President Buhari, congratulations and carry Nigerians along. Unify the country, the country is too divided. I am saying what is right. What I will do, I will do, what I will not do, I will not do”.

Wike said politics is a game of interest, noting that Rivers people in the All Progressives Congress (APC) are under obligation to attract federal benefits to the state.

“Politics is a game of interest. And my only interest is Rivers State. Anything that is against the interest of Rivers State, I will not agree.

“These people sold us out, thinking that they are doing Governor Wike. It is the State that you are offending, because I am just one person,” he said.

Wike expressed displeasure that Rivers State has key links to President Muhammadu Buhari from the state, yet the East-west road, the seaports and other federal projects have been completely neglected since 2015. He said nothing indicates that Rivers State has prominent APC members working with Buhari.

The governor maintained that Rivers State is a Christian state and that the fact would not be changed by negative propaganda and falsehood targeted at his person.

He said he never demolished a Mosque as was falsely circulated by some mischief makers.

He said Rivers State is a major oil-producing state that deserves major projects from the federal government.

“We produce oil. They should not punish Rivers State because of me. I am just one individual. We have not benefited anything from the federal government. The only thing we have benefited is the abuse they heap on me.

“They turned the NDDC into a cash cow to sponsor elections against us. Nobody protested that anomaly. Now they want us to protest because someone did not nominate the management of NDDC this time.

“Since 2015, NDDC has not had its governing board, but nobody protested. I will not be dragged into such protests,” he said.