Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike’s announcement of a N500 million donation to help Sokoto State rebuild the burnt Sokoto Central Market and assist affected traders have pitched the governor against Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) in Rivers.
According to a statement by Kelvin Ebiri, his media aide, Wike made the announcement while being conducted round the burnt market by Sokoto State Governor, Aminu Tambuwal on Wednesday.
Wike pledged that the government of Rivers State will support Sokoto State to rebuild the market and ameliorate the plight of the traders with N500 million.
“On behalf of the government and the people of Rivers State, we will support the Sokoto State government to see how quickly they can rebuild this market” the governor added.
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Tambuwal had told Wike during the inspection tour that the market continued 16,000 shops out of which 60 percent were gutted by fire.
Reacting, Chairman of Rivers State Civil Society Organisation, Enefaa Georgewill said that the N500 million donation could have been better utilised to tackle pressing needs in Rivers State.
He noted that while there was nothing wrong in commiserating with disaster victims, the governor must not forget that the welfare of Rivers people supersede that of others.
“We see it (pledge) as pure act of wickedness for the governor to have ignored a lot of salient and pertinent issues in the state and pledged such huge amount of money to citizens of another state.
“It is more like the proverbial refusal to remove the log in your eyes but instead attempt to remove the speck in somebody else’s eyes.
“We have the case of the Orashi region that has been ravaged by flood. Governor Wike did not make any response and there is no well-coordinated distribution of relief materials to the people.
“We are in a state where pensioners and retirees are complaining that they have not been paid their gratuities since he assumed office as the governor of Rivers State, and he is going to donate N500m to citizens in another state,” Georgewill stated.
He added, “We are talking about a state where since the inception of this government, we have not witnessed bursary paid to Rivers students, which is the culture and tradition that previous governments had followed.
“We are talking about a state where even the minimum wage has yet to be fully implemented, because workers are still grumbling. A whole lot of issues need to be attended to.
“As far as we are concerned, what the governor has done by that pledge or donation is mere eye service and unnecessary politicking.”