By Emma Njoku
Former Akwa Ibom State governor and Senate Minority Leader, Godswill Akpabio has said there is no basis to compare President Muhammadu Buhari and River State Governor, Nyesom Wike in terms of performance.
In a statement, yesterday, signed by his Special Assistant on Media, Aniete Ekong, Akpabio, who was reacting to a recent report entitled: “Governor Wike has surpassed Buhari in project execution,” credited to him described the report as “misleading and political mischief taken too far.”
“The attention of the Senate Minority Leader, Godswill Akpabio has been drawn to a mischievous headline which made the rounds in the media entitled: ‘Governor Wike has surpassed Buhari in project execution’.
“For the avoidance of doubt, the former governor of Akwa Ibom State and Senate minority leader was in Rivers State to attend the 60th birthday celebration of his colleague, Senator George Sekibo. The Governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike, on Monday, April 4, 2017, went on routine inspection of his ongoing projects accompanied by Akpabio,” the statement read.
Ekong said during the visit, his boss visited the Brick House, some road projects, the ongoing Rivers State Ecumenical Centre, the Port Harcourt Pleasure Park under construction and massive landscaping architecture works at various locations.
“Senator Akpabio, impressed with the quality and litany of projects inspected, commended the efforts of Governor Wike; he said considering that Rivers State government receives less than one percent of the nation’s monthly revenue, Wike had done well in infrastructure development.
This could be explained by the fact that over 75 percent of the Federal Government’s share of monthly allocation goes into recurrent expenses and pensions which cannot be blamed on President Buhari.
“That the Rivers State Government dedicates more money to capital projects explains the visible infrastructure renaissance that the state is witnessing under Governor Wike. Akpabio recommended this as a model to other states of the federation,” he said.
Ekong said Akpabio has been an advocate of the need to unbundle the federal government and has severally expressed his displeasure that a large chunk of the federal resources are dedicated to recurrent expenditure to the detriment of capital projects.
“At no time, during the media interview, did Senator Akpabio compare the performance of Governor Wike to that of President Buhari. Rivers State is a component of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and it will be fallacious to compare the performance of a state to that of the federal government. In fact, doing so will be like comparing apples and beans as there is no basis for that,” the statement said.
Ekong said Akpabio, throughout the interview, did not mention president Buhari “whom he holds in high esteem.”