Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, has told critics of his administration that he never promised to solve all the socio-economic and infrastructural problems of the state.
The governor said it was preposterous for the opposition to continue to live in denial of his performance as a governor because he could not address all the needs of the people.
Wike spoke on Tuesday during the inauguration of an ultramodern secretariat he built for the National Union of Rivers State Students (NURSS) at the Rivers state University.
The governor said irrespective of the country’s current economic challenges, his government had made tremendous progress in tackling some of the infrastructural deficit in Rivers.
He said: “I never said I will finish the whole work in Rivers State. Did I say so? Even if you keep me here for 40 years, I cannot finish the work in Rivers State. What we have said is, go to any local government, you’ll see our impact.
“I said in Omuma, we did so-so number kilometers of road. What you should bother yourself with is to go and check. On Saturday, we were in Opobo. The issue is, is there road to Opobo?”
The governor urged the leadership of NURSS not to allow itself to be used by disgruntled politicians to cause friction between them and state government.
“Sometimes, most of you leave what you’re supposed to do and concern yourself with irrelevant things, and allow politicians to use you to come and block Government House”, he said.
Wike explained that when he assumed office in 2015, there was virtually no state government’s presence in the university.
He accused the previous administration of wasting the state’s resources and completely neglecting the institution.
He attributed the current ranking of the state university as one of the best in the country, to the huge investment of his administration in the past six years to improve infrastructure, capacity building and welfare of the workers.
Performing the inauguration, Senator Bennett Birabi said since 1999, no governor of the state had worked to improve infrastructure and enhance the wellbeing of the people, particularly during their second term, like Wike.
He urged students to make judicious use of the edifice and shun social vices like cultism.
Earlier, the Special Adviser to the Governor on Special Projects, George-Kelly D.Alabo, said the NURSS secretariat had offices, conference hall, cafeteria, ICT centre and a 400 capacity auditorium.
Alabo, who described the secretariat as the biggest in West Africa, said NURSS is expected to generate at least N50million as revenue from the complex annually.
The Commissioner of Education, Prof. Kaniye Ebeku, thanked the governor for erecting a befitting edifice for NURSS.
Vice-Chancellor of the Rivers State University, Prof. Nlerum Okogbule commended the governor for his commitment to improve academic environment in the university to enhance academic excellence.
