A former commissioner for information in Rivers state, Austin Tam-George, has faulted Governor Nyesom Wike’s containment effort against coronavirus in the state.
Mr Tam-George served as a commissioner under Mr Wike before his resignation in 2017.
He said the governor’s approach has been more of “dramatic announcements that have little to do with the viral disease itself”.
The former commissioner’s remark is contained in a statement he published on Facebook, March 28.
Mr Tam-George said Mr Wike, for instance, ordered traders to vacate markets and when they did the administration “failed to take even the most elementary step of disinfecting the market”.
“Indeed, no single market, bus stop or public space has been decontaminated by the Wike administration, as part of a rearguard action against the Coronavirus.”
Mr Tam-George said the Rivers government has not paid pensions for five years and has refused to pay N30,000 minimum wage to civil servants in the state, thereby worsening the hardship in the state during the lockdown.
“According to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), Rivers State has the highest rate of unemployment in Nigeria, under Mr Wike’s watch.
“The State has the highest misery index in the country, according to the NBS. For five years, pensioners in Rivers State have not been paid their gratuities and benefits by the Wike government
“The governor has also refused to pay the nationally approved N30,000 minimum wage to civil servants in the State,” he said.
He accused the governor of ‘dismantling’ all the primary healthcare centres in Rivers State “because they were built by his political rivals”.
“Well-equipped primary healthcare centres are our first line of defence in the event of a pandemic such as COVID-19. I say this with infinite sadness because the neglect of the primary healthcare infrastructure of any state could spell disaster for the people.
“To his credit, Governor Wike rebuilt and painted the residential quarters for doctors at the Braithwaite Memorial Specialist Hospital. But this was typical of the administration’s cosmetic approach to sectoral reform. In medicine, nobody gets well by simply running into a newly painted apartment.
“In Rivers State, Governor Wike is fighting the virus with thuggish garrulity, expressed in thoughtless state broadcasts,” the former commissioner said.
Rivers State government response to Mr Tam-George’s allegations could was not gotten as the Commissioner for Information in the state, Paulinus Nsirim, did not respond to several calls and text message to his phone line.
Mr Wike, on March 23, shut down night clubs and banned public burials and wedding, part of his early efforts to stop the spread of coronavirus into the state.
Rivers State, however, recorded its first case of coronavirus three days later, forcing the governor to order a complete lockdown of the state.
