BREAKING NEWS: Rivers State held hostage: Who benefits from delaying the people’s budget

BREAKING NEWS: Rivers State held hostage: Who benefits from delaying the people’s budget?

The continued reluctance of the Wike-controlled Rivers State House of Assembly to facilitate the approval process for the State’s budget is deeply troubling.

To my understanding, and of course, those who know me know that I know what I know very well, the Assembly has failed since February to consider the Medium Term Financial Forecast submitted to it by the Governor. That forecast forms the foundation upon which the State budget is built.

This prolonged delay by the Rivers State House of Assembly, particularly after the reconciliation meeting facilitated by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, continues to tighten the noose on governance and development in Rivers State.

What makes the situation even more disturbing is the obvious contradiction in the Assembly’s conduct. 

This is the same Assembly that moved with lightning speed to convene sittings and deliberate on matters surrounding the political crisis in Rivers State, including needless vacuous sessions carried live on national television to promote Wike’s agenda. Yet, when it comes to their core constitutional responsibility to the people of Rivers State, they have gone silent and inactive.

The question therefore becomes unavoidable: what exactly does Nyesom Wike stand to gain by ensuring that the State budget is delayed? Is the intention not to frustrate governance? Is it not to preserve the commonwealth of Rivers people until his political control can be fully reclaimed? Why should the budget of an entire State be held hostage for this long? What justifies it?

I hope Rivers people and Nigerians can now clearly see that even access to the State’s commonwealth is being restricted by political actors and their loyalists, to the detriment of the people. Yet in some quarters it appears as though it is the Governor who has refused to send the budget, when in reality, the process is being stampeded by the State Assembly.

Everything appears to have been systematically stripped from the Governor of Rivers State by Wike. Even the Governor’s right to freely determine his political future was taken away by what Wike refers to as an agreement. Now, Rivers people are being denied a budget that should ordinarily drive governance, development, and service delivery. Is that also a component of Wike’s agreement?

What exactly does Wike really want? What exactly is the justification for any sane minded Rivers person to rally support for APC in Rivers State?