Governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike has urged Nigerians to be more careful in their choice of who to entrust with the responsibility of governing Nigeria, particularly members of the All Progressives Congress in 2023.
He said this was because the ruling APC Federal Government has set Nigeria 20 years backwards in just six and half years of its misrule.
Wike made the assertion at the inauguration of the Rivers State Government Safe Home that was performed by the Akwa Ibom State Governor, Udom Emmanuel in the Borikiri axis of Port Harcourt on Wednesday.
The governor in a statement by his media aide, Kelvin Ebiri said it was only states controlled by the Peoples’ Democratic Party that are preoccupied with delivering the dividends of democracy.
“The other people (APC) are only fighting themselves about direct primaries and indirect primaries. We (PDP) are busy delivering dividends of democracy. You can see, the difference is clear.
“Your Excellency, I’m happy that you’re the one who has come because you’ve invited me severally to Akwa Ibom State to commission projects. I’m happy and I want to say to everybody that PDP governors are doing very, very well.
“So, we must be careful of dealing with those who are not serious. A party that is not serious, that has set our country 20 years back. We must be very, very careful,” Wike stated.
He explained that it was wrong for most governments to forget to include the well-being of the most vulnerable in society in their programmes.
The governor said such reluctance stems from the fact that they do not consider it in their place to provide services and programmes for the protection of the less privileged.
“We are only interested in constructing roads. We are only interested in constructing schools, hospitals and the rest of it. But one important aspect that the government forgets is the less privileged, the vulnerable.
“We do not think that we owe them that duty to also protect them. It is key that every government should take this as a special project,” the governor added.
Speaking further, Governor Wike observed that most times when issues of violence were discussed, the focus was only on women as the only victims even when boys are often assaulted by women.
Governor Wike stated that the services at the Safe Home should also be available to male victims of violence and not women alone.
“So, Let us not think that it is only for women. It is also for young boys who are also assaulted so that they can also have some psychological debriefing,” Governor Wike stated.
