30th May, 2021
Okafor Ofiebor/Rivers
Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State has explained how his successor as governor of Rivers State in 2023 will emerge.
Wike spoke at a special thanksgiving church service in commemoration of the second anniversary of the second tenure of his administration at St Paul’s Cathedral, Diobu, Port Harcourt on Sunday.
The Governor pledged that he will not impose a successor on the people of the state.
But Wike also vowed to resist any cabal within and outside Rivers State planning to foist a successor on the people of the State come 2023.
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Rather, he said leaders and stakeholders in Rivers at the appropriate time, will sit down to look at the ‘pros and cons’ and then collectively decide who his successor will be.
The governor, who declared that he has not anointed anyone to succeed him in office, therefore urged church leaders in Rivers State to pray for a rancour free transition in Rivers ahead of 2023.
Wike, who described the remaining two years of his administration as crucial, said he has never sat with anyone in private and promised to handover the realm of governance to the person by the end of his tenure.
“Let me say it again, I have never sat with anybody to say I will make you governor. But, as a governor, nobody from anywhere, be it in the party, in Abuja, will impose who will be the candidate of PDP in Rivers state.”
“Nobody can impose a candidate here in this state. So, if you are running to Abuja, you are wasting your time,” Wike said.
He also explained that he is not unmindful that some persons presently pretending to be his ally are actually political foes plotting evil against his administration.
To this end, he prayed God to continue to expose such persons as the state gears up for another transition era.
Wike also urged the leadership of the church to pray and ceaselessly seek God’s benevolence intervention for a crisis free transition in 2023 and that the next governor of Rivers State will be God fearing.
“I urge you to pray that we will have our transition very smooth. That there will be no crisis.”
The governor, declared that despite the crisis orchestrated to destabilise his administration at the inception in 2015 and subsequently in 2019, he has steadfastly continue to deliver the dividend of democracy to the people of the State.
Wike, who ascribed the sustenance and successes of his administration to God’s divine guidance and protection, said without God, there was no way he would have survived the evil machination of some All Progressives Congress governors in connivance with the presidency, that attempted to foist any atmosphere of insecurity in Rivers State in order to rig him out of power.
He explained that his administration will not relent in delivery of needed infrastructure to every part of State despite the limited time left.
And as part of effort to further address the issue of traffic gridlock experienced in some parts of Port Harcourt, Wike announced that his administration will award contract for the construction of a tenth flyover at Tank Junction at Rumukurushi in Obio-Akpor Local Government Area.
In his sermon, Rt. Rev Wisdom Budu Ihunwo, Bishop of Diocese of Niger Delta North, prayed God to grant Governor Wike, who he said has turned Rivers State to a huge construction site, the grace to finish his tenure well.
The Bishop noted that amidst recession and economic crisis that has beset all the States in Nigeria, Governor Wike has not failed the people of Rivers State.
He ascribed all that the governor has achieved in the past six years to the divine grace of God.