The minister of State for Education as well as a Two-term Chairman of Obio/Akpor Local Government Area of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike who became acting education minister after the sack of Ruqayyat Rufai, has said that the political machinations of the Rivers State governor, Rotimi Ameachi to remove him from being a minister has failed.
Wike made the statements at the inauguration of the Grassroots Development Initiative (GDI) in Abonnema of Kalabari Kingdom, the headquarters of the coastal Akuku-Toru LGA of River state.
Wike said: “Man proposes, God disposes. They thought they could give condition, because of your prayers, all they have done have come to nothing. Help me thank Mr. President, for the confidence he has in me, to keep me back, as a minister in the Federal Executive Council.
“Change has come to Rivers State. I will plead with you to join me and say this: ‘Amaechi, you are not God and you cannot be God,’ because you are a tenant. Your house rent has expired and you cannot pay. Pack and go. Tenant, pack and go.
“Continue to support our brother, continue to support our son. Preach the message that come 2015, President Goodluck Jonathan will come back. Continue to support Dr. Goodluck Jonathan.
“There is only one PDP. Those who said they have two million votes; they are still going for meetings to give conditions. We are not accepting any condition. The only Chairman of this party is Felix Obuah.
“They wanted to dare us, to see whether we are still in government. We are in government. We are PDP government and nobody can open office of any parallel party in Rivers State. They should go to their Government House. I will not allow them to open it, even in Government House, because their rent has expired.”
Wike also accused Ameachi’s government of fraud and corruption and said he would ensure that Amaechi, is unable to open a secretariat of the “New PDP” in Rivers State.
In a prompt reaction to this, Amaechi’s Chief of Staff, Chief Tony Okocha, described the minister of state for education as a misfit, empty vessel, intellectually dry, a ragamuffin and playing God to a reporter in a telephone interview.
Okocha stated that every citizen of Nigeria had the rights of the freedom of association, freedom of speech and the freedom of movement, and that the minister of state for education had no right to restrict the governor’s movement.
Okocha said: “Wike should be told that the new PDP, led by Alhaji Kawu Baraje, has come to stay in Rivers State. There is nothing anybody can do about it. The secretariat of the New PDP has been opened and the party’s flags have been hoisted.
“Wike, as a lawyer, has never worked in any firm. He has never practised law anywhere in Nigeria. Wike, as the supervising minister of education, is a misfit and appointed in error. Wike is one of the indices to measure a failed state, by putting a square peg in a round hole, when all nations of the world know the importance of qualitative education.
“Wike has no pedigree. He is a tout. I do not know who is more 4-1-9 than Wike. He awarded to himself, all the contracts under the auspices of Almajiri, using pseudo names, without following due process. He never bothered about the quality or standard of education in Nigeria, but he is concerned about infrastructure to make money. ASUU strike does not concern Wike.
Ameachi’s camp however queried Wike’s business of campaigning for Rivers 2015 governorship in 2013, when INEC has not lifted ban on campaigns.
“He is using President Jonathan as a smokescreen. Wike is playing to the gallery, instead of focusing on ASUU strike.”
Nevertheless, it is pertinent to note in the midst of this fallout between the duo that wike was Ameachi’s Chief of Staff and was also the Director-General of the Amaechi Campaign Organisation in 2011, before his appointment as a minister.