By Etimbuk Akpan
“The truth is that, and let me say it for the first time, and many people have been asking me, ‘where do you get money for all these projects/’. Let me say, and I want the Attorney-General to thank Mr. President. For monies that were not paid to Niger Delta States, rom 1999 – the 13% derivation money that was not paid, Mr. President approved and paid all of us in the Niger Delta States. And for me, it would be unfair not to tell the people. It is not money from FAAC. It is money paid to Rivers State, Akwa Ibom State, Delta State, and I thank God.
“That is why since 2019 till now, we have been commissioning projects in the State. Yesterday, we commissioned the 10th flyover. In December, we will commission the 11th flyover and in February, we will commissioned the 12th. The other day, we commissioned a cancer centre which we named after our leader, Dr. Odili. Julius Beger built it and charged us N25.9 billion. It is equipped by General Electric (GE). We paid, and no one naira is being owed. So, I want to sincerely from the bottom of my heart, and on behalf of government and people of Rivers State, thank the President for this…”
It is no longer news that the Rivers State governor, Mr. Nyesom Wike, made the above disclosure on Friday, November 18, 2022 while commissioning a purpose-built campus of the Nigeria Law School financed by the Rivers State Government, frankly and boldly noting that the project, like many others he had undertaken, was funded by the arrears of derivation funds owed Niger Delta State governments since 1999, which the Buhari administration had cleared. It was instructive to hear a state governor mention openly the contract sum of a project.
Imagine that Wike did not make this shocking revelation! Had it come from anybody within or from Akwa Ibom State, even with facts and figures readily available and accessible, Mr. Essien Ndueso would by now have issued a million useless press statements debunking the naked truths or the source of the information assaulted, stalked or persecuted in various ways. Those raising questions on such matters would be penciled down and branded as enemies of the State. Thank God. It came from Wike.
Against all manner of pretenses, Wike’s revelation has clearly shown what Akwa Ibom people have been made to pass through in the past seven years, while official quarters keep mouthing on mountaintops how prudent they have been with the stupendous commonwealth of the State.
Until Wike made the above revelations, the Akwa Ibom State government that has been presenting itself as a saint – prudent and transparent- for which it wants worship from the people even as it prepares to handover to someone who will do better, “for continuity”, has kept closed lips over such huge monies.
Now that the myth has been broken, the question is: How much has the present Akwa Ibom State administration received from sundry sources of the federation account and what has been done with such humungous funds that have seen Governor Nyesom Wike completed and commissioned 10 flyovers and many other laudable, verifiable, capital-intensive, and people-oriented projects, contract sums of which he never hid from Rivers people?
The simplest test now is, if the government of Akwa Ibom State disagrees with Wike, it should make public its financial statements with the federation accounts since 2015 – covering refunds from federal projects executed by the Akpabio administration, refunds for Paris Club refunds, payment of arrears for derivation funds, and FAAC.
Otherwise, it must stop insulting our collective intelligence with watery claims of transparency and integrity, and allow the people lick the wounds of the damage already done. This is a big shame for a self-righteous administration that is deceiving itself with a gigantic Worship Centre of undisclosed billions. Where is the God so claimed in all of this?
If this is indeed the “Good Governance” they have been fooling the masses about, we now can see clearer and understand better what they mean by “continuity in 2023”, and why they were bent on lavishing the little that may remain to ensure that the one to champion that “continuity” is being foisted on the masses, hook and crook, to cover up the dirty tracks.
Some questions begging for urgent answers now are: What is to be continued? Is it the breach of public trust or the sleaze? Is it the unconscionable extravagance or greed and sadism? Is it the anti-people policies or impropriety or the concentration of growth and development in only one corner of the State? Or is it the dramatic hypocrisy that have not been witnessed by any administration since the creation of the State until now? Indeed, what is to be continued?
Thanks to Gov. Wike and President Muhammdu Buhari! With the new Electoral Law, and revelations like this, the people now have the ultimate option to be liberated.
The expectation is that, no matter how much they may have stashed away for the purpose of the 2023 elections, to actualize their “continuity”, Ballot Revolution shall drive the last nail into the coffin of imposition and official selfishness in the State.
Then shall the New Dawn emerge, to return governance to the people in whom power should belong in a working democracy. May Akwa Ibom people never again be blindfolded by a wolf in sheep’s blanket, except those who have sold their consciences to deceit.