The Rivers State Commissioner for Information and Communications, Paulinus Nsirim, has responded to last Friday Article written by the President Muhammadu Buhari’s Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, titled, “Wike Vindicates Buharists”.
In his response, Nsirim said President Buhari approves the refund of ₦78.9bn to Rivers for the repair of federal roads because of Governor Nyesom Wike’s “courage to speak up when others are silent.”
Wike who is a member of the People’s Democratic Party recently appreciates Buhari for approving the refund. The Federal Executive Council approves a total sum of ₦148bn to five states which include Rivers, Cross River, Bayelsa, Ondo and Osun.
Adesina in his article describes the governor’s appreciation as one that is in a “completely different direction compared to what he had always said of President Muhammadu Buhari”, saying that “The Wike we knew was either usually crying wolf where there was none, alleging that the Federal Government wanted to kill him, or claiming that he was not answerable to the central government at Abuja in any way, or even pontificating that the President and his political party, the All Progressives Congress, had failed the country in diverse ways.”
Adesina also add that Buhari chose not to deal with Wike and former Ekiti State Governor, Ayodele Fayose for their “anti-Buhari tendency”.
The Rivers Commissioner in a rejoinder titled ‘Wike That I Know’, on Sunday, says “what Femi Adesina describes as ‘crying wolf’ and ‘pontificating’ is nothing more than the ability to say and do things which other people are too frightened or lily-livered to say or do.”
Nsirim made it clears that the refund is not a gift or favor as Adesina has painted it to look like in his piece.
According to him, “If Governor Wike’s courage to speak up when others are silent and cowering in fear, leads to the approval of the refund of the N78.9 billion which the Federal Government owes Rivers State, then the expression of gratitude that recognises and appreciates such appropriate magnanimity is the highest form of nobility.
“The money is neither a generous loan gift or a desperate bailout package as people like Femi Adesina are shaping the narrative to sound, but a refund of monies already spent by Rivers State on federal projects.”
“While Rivers people will not complain that the money was actually reduced from the original amount and that it even took so long for President Buhari’s fairness and justice to touch Rivers State, while he has been fair and just to other states, we are all still very happy and grateful that this approval for refund has been made, finally.
“Attempts by people like Adesina to make political capital out of the genuine stance of a statesman will not be bought by well-meaning Nigerians.”
