By Mark Orgu, News/Comments
A former Commissioner of Information, Rivers State, Dr. Austin Tam-George, has stated why he resigned from the administration of former Governor Nyesom Wike, now FCT Minister, , noting that, the self-serving interest of his former boss, could not make him contribute meaniningful to the state, stressing however, the need for public office holders to deliver service rather than selfish agenda. He also described Supreme Court ruling against Governor Simi Fubara and the state, as judicial aggression against the state:
“I served in the Governor Nyesome Wike’s administration, I was his first commissioner for information, , as you probably know, but after nearly two years and so, I had fundamental objections concerning how the state was being managed. I tried to make suggestions internally, privately, to my boss, the governor, and when I saw that the state was takingly completely wrong turn , I had to resign from his administration.”
Dr. Tam-George hinted that, he didn’t go to government because he wanted the glamour hedonism that goes with public office.
“ I went into office because I wanted to add values . I realized when I was in government that we had some of the worst development indices and assessing the administration of any government can be very sentimental business.”
“Let me tell you exactly why I left. I left on the basis of failure on four developmental metrics, number one is education, we had the highest number out of school children in the south because the governor simply decided to defund education. The money meant for education was simply diverted to play PDP politics and all that, and twenty thousand children out of school in Rivers for the first time since 1963, and we also didn’t have investment in agriculture.
“We had a very vibrant agricultural sector that we inherited from Amaechi’s administration. The governor, Nyesome wike, unfortunately, because of his political differences with Ameachi, decided also to defund the agricultural sector, abandoned the Shanghai farms and the fisheries that we had across the state. So, these are very fundamental matters that I disagreed with him”
“We also had problem on social investment-investing in people’scapacity, for them to improve themselves while lifting community out of poverty. The governor, Nyesome Wike could not even implement the 30k minimum wage across the state. When the NLC requested for the minimum wage of 30k, he closed down their offices and started hunting them down like dogs.”
“Another fundamental point is that, if you are in public office, you should be able to deliver service to the people and when I saw that there was very strong failures, I decided that I was going to leave the government.”
Speaking on the Threat to Fubara by the defected lawmakers, and the threat by Asari Dokunbo,
The former Commissioner said, in Rivers state, there is a broad consensus, that the judgment of the supreme court represents a judicial aggression against the people of Rivers state because the allocation that has now been stopped by virtue of the judgment of the Supreme court doesn’t belong to Nyesom Wike or Governor Fubara- that is a statutory allocation that belongs to the Rivers people, so, today, if you go to Rivers state, as a matter of fact, I just arrived from Port Harcourt, two days ago, there was a very strong sense of anger across the street and across all communities in Rivers state.
“I believed personally that, that judgment was wrong, it means salaries of thousands of teachers will not be paid, over 200, 000 children are going to be out of school, if salaries are not paid, basic municipal services will not be delivered”
The Renowned communication expert wondered why such ruling could come from a apex court and asked: “ what for, why is that, so, I know while we don’t endorse violence , the judgment of the supreme court ill considered , it represents judicial aggression against the Rivers people and I believe that at some point, the people have to take their destinies in their hands.
Tam George clarifies that, he is not advocating for violence but reiterated that the judgment was very wrong while suggesting the way out. “The only way this can be remedied is to make sure that allocation is released to Rivers state. Over ten million people live in Rivers state and you cant hold the communities and the state to ransom because of the shenanigans of the FCT Minister.”
“Now, concerning the so called threats, made by Asari Dokunbo, I haven’t followed Asari Dokunbo and I don’t know what threat he is making but, I can tell you that there is a great deal of collective anger in Rivers state concerning what appears to be judicial aggression against ten million people, who are resident in the state.”
Dr. Austin Tam George spoke to Arise news during an interview with Mr. Sambo, one on one.
