2023: Why Nigeria needs Wike now – Nsirim

The Commissioner for Information and Communications, Rivers State, Mr Paulinus Nsirim, stated this yesterday while responding to some hack writers and critics who have been trying hard to build an erroneous image of haughtiness and intolerance around the governor in a bid to de-market him and sabotage his current aspiration to seek the highest office in the land.

Nsirim charged political detractors and critics of Wike not to misinterpreted his open and frank interventions in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as well as in the wider polity as acts of an overbearing personality. He said that given the current situation Nigeria has found itself, it needed someone as courageous as Wike to salvage the country.

“We need a President who will tell Nigerians the truth, call out those who are misleading and deceiving Nigerians. We need someone who can encourage Nigerian leaders to explore and exploit their comparative advantages in practice of true federalism, vocalize our problems and challenges and address them frontally.

“We need someone who will lead by example, celebrate our victories and successes even as he is setting up functional structures and delivering quality infrastructure to consolidate and ensure more victories and define our place as a proud, safe, secure and economically viable nation, in the comity of nations.

“Nigeria needs a strong, visionary, compassionate, astute, strategically articulate and pragmatically driven leader at this point in time in our history and Governor Wike has provided sufficient proof, that he is the man to lead Nigeria at a time like this. He knows the way, he will show us the way, and he will lead us all the way to the place of greatness where Nigeria belongs,” he said.

According to Nsirim, the Rivers State helmsman has displayed his pan- Nigerian posture over time and in several ways, adding that such qualities were difficult to find and should be harnessed right now.

“He is the only Governor in this present political dispensation in Nigeria and arguably in the country’s political history, who has invited opposition Governors and leaders like Vice President Yemi Osinbajo (who christened him “Mr. Projects”), Governor Kayode Fayemi (Chairman of Progressives Governors Forum and Ekiti State Governor), the Minister of Works, Raji Fashola, former Governors of Imo and Abia states (Sen. Rochas Okorocha and Sen. Orji Uzor Kalu) respectively and amongst others, to come and Commission projects all over Rivers State, in true celebration of bipartisanship.

“Governor Wike is also the only Governor in Nigeria who has visited more Northern States and identified and empathized with them in their times of human and natural devastations and catastrophes. It is even on record that he has reconciled two Northern Governors in Port Harcourt, brokered peace in the PDP in several states, and even brought two top retired military leaders to embrace each other, after many months of bitter malice in Plateau state. These are real Nigerian stories in the public space.

“Even recently in his presidential Consultative visits across the country, he was in Kano state where he bantered jocularly with Governor Umar Ganduje, who many Nigerians will remember, was the Chairman of APC Edo State Governorship campaign council, with Governor Wike leading the PDP, and the choice campaign language between both leaders, that added extra spice to the entire election process. Yet there they were basking in exchanges right inside Government House, Kano after an unprecedented state reception for a personal visit, which underscores the huge respect and acceptance Governor Wike enjoys in Kano.

“Governor Wike was also fearlessly in Borno State, the hotbed of insurgency, to consult the PDP Delegates, and he was warmly welcomed in a grand reception, usually reserved for royalty and official national and foreign visitors, right inside Government House, Maiduguri, by Governor Babagana Umara Zulum, who had only words of praise for the Rivers Governor’s bipartisan political philosophy.

“And most recently, we are proud to note the wonderful reception which Governor Masari of Katisina, the President’s own State, gave Governor Wike has completely nullified the lie which many columnists have been pedaling, that Governor Wike and President Buhari are ‘enemies’. The icing on the cake of that visit was his humble visit to pay respectful homage to the matriarch, Hajiya Aya Dada Yar’Adua, the mother of Late President Umaru Yar’Adua, who was also a former Governor of Katisina State.

“Indeed, no presidential aspirant in the PDP has embarked on this kind of marathon tour across Nigeria to meet and interact with Nigerians in over 30 states across the six geopolitical regions of the country. This is indeed incredibly impressive and rather than celebrate the fact that Governor Wike has actually united Nigeria and bonded with Nigerians in the North, South, East and West, some writers like Ray Morphy are busy dwelling on pedestrian issues like quarrels amongst politicians, which is actually an integral ingredient of politics all over the world,” he wrote.

Nigeria of today, Nsirim said, needed a President who is brave, courageous, bold and is not afraid to visit any part of Nigeria, even without presidential toga of authority and paraphernalia.