Austin Tam-George, a former Rivers State Commissioner for Information and Communication, has accused Nyesom Wike, the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, of being a destabilising force in Rivers State.
He claimed that Wike is attempting to exert godfatherism over the state’s political affairs.
In a Thursday interview on Prime Time on Arise Television, Tam-George, who served in Wike’s administration before resigning, explained that he stepped down because of Wike’s tendency for chaos, instability, and the reduction of governance to a personality-driven system.
He said: “Nyesom Wike has been a complete pestilence on Rivers state. I served in his administration as commissioner for information. As you know, I resigned precisely because of these, his propensity for chaos, for instability and reducing government to a personality cult, more or less. And I’m so disappointed that this propensity has now crystallized today to a stage where the state is now held by the juggler by person who thinks that he will be political godfather over the rest of Rivers state.
“But what I think is going to happen in this final phase of this struggle is that Rivers’ people ultimately are going to resist and defeat this tendency to want to privatize the state, to want to capture the state for his own personal aggrandizement.”
Tam-George criticized Wike for creating an environment where political decisions are driven by his personal agenda rather than the state’s welfare.
He expressed his belief that Rivers people would resist and ultimately defeat this tendency to privatize the state for personal aggrandizement.
He praised Governor Siminalayi Fubara for his work in building people’s capacity and transforming critical sectors such as education, health, and infrastructure.
According to Tam-George, Fubara’s achievements, including the revival of the healthcare system and the improvement of primary health care centers, have garnered significant public support.
He said: “Governor Fubara has been an excellent administrator. I have to say he’s spending money building people’s capacity, lifting communities out of poverty. Money you would have expected that he would have diverted to political godfathers are now being spent in critical sectors such as education, where he’s completely transforming the sector, in health where almost all the tertiary health care systems are revived, 122 primary health care centers spread across the 23 local government areas.
“There is a total transformation happening on a sector by sector basis, and this has endeared the governor to the people of the state.”
However, Tam-George warned that Fubara’s possible pursuit of a second term could threaten Wike’s influence in the state.
He suggested that the ongoing impeachment proceedings against Fubara are likely a political maneuver aimed at reasserting Wike’s control.