The Rivers Leadership Advancement Foundation (RIVLEAF) has advised Governor Nyesom Wike to watch his utterances and desist from actions capable of destroying the vision of the founding fathers of the state.
In a statement on Friday in Port Harcourt, signed by its Director of Communications, Nnatah Peters Onyeche, RIVLEAF said Wike’s recent conducts were unbecoming of a public officeholder, whose motivation should always be to shape the hopes and aspirations of the people.
The group was reacting to a broadcast today by Wike, in which he threw caution to the wind as he descended into pedestrian outbursts very undeserving of the office he occupies.
RIVLEAF tasked the governor to devise civilised ways of speaking on matters of state and national importance, stressing that his utterances are doing incalculable damage to the people and image of the state.
The statement said, “RIVLEAF believes Governor Wike should show a reasonable sense of responsibility when addressing the state, as there are better ways of passing messages across without sounding boastful and vengeful.
“Time and time again, Governor Wike speaks as if he has conquered the state, as if he is the owner, creator, and benefactor of the state; he speaks as though Rivers State is his personal inheritance.
“Rivers people are not conquered and will never be conquered by a civilian dictator. Rivers people contributed sweat, grit, and industry to bring the state to where it is and one man will not destroy it in eight years.
“There are much more decent ways of making statements without sounding combative and desperate. Nobody is flexing muscles with him and he should know that. The situation in the country calls for measured responses and decency.
“It is during occasions like the present one the country is passing through as the world groans under the coronavirus pandemic that leaders and statesmen are known. This is the time to know those who will not play politics with delicate situations and who weigh their words rather than complicate things.
“RIVLEAF charges the governor to stop threatening those living and doing business in the state but choose mutual respect, which is the only ways of bringing about development.
“But Governor Wike has seemed to portray himself as targeting the oil and gas industry with the latest arrest of workers of ExxonMobil. This is unnecessary and capable of having an international backlash on Nigeria.
“The governor himself during his state broadcast exempted oil workers from the lockdown. One would have expected him to meet with the oil majors and fashion out peaceful means of ensuring compliance with the state’s directive.
“While the governor reserves the right to protect the state, he should do so in cooperation with relevant agencies of the federal government and corporate bodies, rather than threaten them all the time.”