The Minister of Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Ezenwo Nyesom Wike, has hit back at the former governor of Rivers State, Dr Peter Odili, who he said was politically dead until he (Wike) decided to revive him.
Describing Odili as a sycophant who would praise any government in power for pecuniary gains, Wike said he won’t be shocked if Odili goes ahead to arrange a new wife for the incumbent governor, Siminalayi Fubara.
Recalling how Odili praised him to the high heavens when he (Wike) was governor, the minister said Dr Odili went as far as hanging his (Wike’s) portraits in all the rooms in his house, including the kitchen and toilets.
Wike, who described Dr Odili as a rent seeker, said “An elder statesman should not be a trader and a sycophant all the time.”
Recall that Dr Odili was quoted as saying that Fubara stopped Wike from turning the state into a private estate.
Odili, who spoke at a Christmas ballad organized by him in honour of Governor Fubara and his family, had said the governor summoned an unusual fortitude to confront the quest by Wike to capture Rivers State through ferocious but unnecessary political war.
“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,” Odili had said.
However, Senior Special Assistant to the FCT Minister on Public Communications and New Media, Lere Olayinka, who said Wike spoke at a Special Thanksgiving Service organized by the factional speaker of Rivers State House of Assembly, Martin Amaewhule, at the Church of the Holy Spirit, Anglican Communion, Eliozu Parish of the Diocese of Evo in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, yesterday,
He said it was unfortunate that somebody who was supposed to be seen as an elder statesman and a father could reduce himself to a sycophant and a trader.
Must you be a trader all the time? As governor for eight years, what else are you looking for?” Wike queried.
Speaking further, he said: “You know, I didn’t want to say anything but somebody called me last night, and told me what someone said in the 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 elder brother’s son who 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?”
Wike said it was painful that Dr Odili, out of political sycophancy, had forgotten all he said in the past, adding that “all of you here remember when I was governor, this same Odili praised me to high heavens. 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.
N500m for Odili varsity annually
“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, Rivers people were attacking me up and down.
“I personally called Julius Berger to build a mansion for him to live. 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.
Asking what could be learned from such an elder, 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 queried: “When I was plotting who will be governor after me, was he (Odili) there? Then, he complained about this governor, saying he couldn’t stand to talk to the public. But today, he is organizing Christmas for the same governor he was against then.
(Vanguard)