Nyesom Wike, Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), has fired back at the former Governor of Rivers State, Dr Peter Odili, saying that “an elder statesman should not be a trader and a sycophant all the time.”
Wike, who was speaking at the Special Thanksgiving Service organized by Speaker of the Rivers State House of Assembly, Hon. Martin Chike Amaewhule, at the Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion), Oro-Igwe/Eliogbolo Archdeaconry Church of the Holy Spirit, Eliozu Parish, Port Harcourt on Sunday, said it was unfortunate that somebody who is supposed to be seen as an elder statesman and called a father can reduce himself to a sycophant and a trader.
Lere Olayinka, Senior Special Assistant to the FCT Minister on Public Communications and New Media, disclosed this in a statement on Sunday.
Wike was reacting to comments made by Odili, a one-time presidential aspirant of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), that Governor Siminalayi Fubara stopped Wike from turning the state to a private estate.
At a Christmas ballad organised by Odili in honour of Governor Fubara and his family, the former governor said, “Governor Fubara confronted the challenge, prevented the quest by one man to capture the state as a private estate, emancipated Rivers people, steadied governance and made civil servants and Rivers people happier as it used to be until he left office in 2007.”
He asked; “Must you be a trader all the time? As governor for eight years, what else are you looking for?”
The Minister said; “You know, I didn’t want to say anything. But somebody called me last night, and told me what someone said on social media. I said until I read it myself. This morning, I read in the newspapers what our former Governor, Sir Dr Peter Odili said.
“What did he say? He said that the present governor has been able to stop one man who wanted to convert Rivers State to his personal estate.
“Between him and myself, who has turned Rivers State to his personal estate? His wife is a Chairman of Governing Council, his daughter is a commissioner, his other daughter is a judge and he is the general overseer. Who has now turned Rivers State to his private estate? I am sure if care is not taken, if there is a chance, he can even arrange a marriage for the governor.
“It was his nephew, his late senior brother’s son that was recommended for commissioner. He took the slot and gave it to his own daughter. Someone who didn’t remember to stand for the son of his late elder brother, is that an elder statesman?”
Speaking further, the FCT Minister said it was painful that Dr Odili, out of political sycophancy, has forgotten all that he said in the past, adding that; “All of you here remember when I was governor, this same Odili praised me to high heaven. In fact, he said then that all past governors in Rivers State combined did not do better than me.
“In 2007 after he left office, he couldn’t come near power in the State because Amaechi was the governor then. He was gone!
“Like somebody said that God will use someone to lift up someone. When I came in as governor in 2015, I won’t use the word resurrected, but I brought him back to life.
“All of us know about PAMO University. But for us, there wouldn’t have been anything called PAMO University. Rivers State was sponsoring 100 students per session and for every semester, each of the students was paying nothing less than N5m. Then, River’s people were attacking me up and down.
“I personally called Julius Berger to build a mansion for him to live in. He was calling everyone to the house then, telling them, come and see what Wike has done for me. Wike has shown me love. He was taking them round the house.
“Now, because you have organized a Christmas Carol for the governor, I didn’t say you should not do your Christmas Carol. But why reduce yourself to such a laughing stock. People will still see it on television how he was telling the whole world then how God used me to bring him back to life politically.
“Why not do your Christmas Carol, collect what you can collect and leave me alone?
“The governor that all of us made has not spent one year in office and the same Odili was already saying that the governor has beaten the records of all the past governors of Rivers State.
“When I was there, he said I had surpassed the records of all the past governors, including himself. What can he even show that he did in his eight years as governor? But a governor has not spent one year, you are saying he has done more than all the past governors.
“You spent eight years as governor and someone who hasn’t spent one year has surpassed your records, what manner of elder talk like that? Is that what an elder statesman should be known for?
“When I was governor, my pictures were everywhere in his house. Sitting room, bedroom, kitchen, even the toilet, my picture was everywhere. But today, all the pictures have been removed.”
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Asking what can be learned from such a sycophantic elder statesman, Wike said; “What can I learn from this kind of elder? What kind of advice can one get from him? This moment you are saying something, the next moment you are saying something else.
“You see, if your children begin to ask you, is this not the same man you were praising before? What would you tell them?”
On the State governorship issue, the Minister asked; “When I was plotting who will be governor after me, was he (Odili) there? Then, he was complaining about this governor, saying that he couldn’t stand before the public to talk. But today, he is organizing a Christmas Carol for the same governor he was against then.
“He has forgotten all that he said in the past. I named this after you, I named that after your wife. What have I not done?
“You said we should not be part of the government, we have left. We are managing, you have taken assembly money, they are not dying of hunger and they will not die of hunger. We are okay. I’m focusing on my job in Abuja and all these sycophancy won’t take him to the level I have attained.
“This is a man who wanted to run for president then, he didn’t have the balls, he chickened out. Simply because Obasanjo said no, he will not contest, he ran away. Because of him, I never invited Obasanjo to Rivers State to commission projects. I felt it would humiliate him.”
