Wike — Amaechi made me minister to reduce my influence

THE immediate-past Minister of State for Education, Chief Nyesom Wike, on Thursday alleged that the Rivers State Governor, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi, made him a minister in order to whittle down his influence in the state.

Wike, who is seeking to become the next governor of the state, explained that becoming a minister was not aimed at promoting himself, adding that the target was to make him less influential and lose his base politically.



He recalled that he had wanted to vie for the senate position to represent Rivers East in 2011, but was barred from doing so, adding that the governor never told him that he (Amaechi) was nominating him (Wike) for the position of a minister.

Wike, who spoke in an African Independent Television interview monitored by our correspondent on Thursday, stated that he was at a time no longer interested in working in a hostile environment when the governor hinted him of his intention to scrap the office of the chief of staff.

“Amaechi was told that if he wanted to have a successor, without anybody disturbing him, there was the need to push me away from Rivers State, to go and be a minister, for my influence in the state to be reduced. It was not a promotion for me, rather it was a strategy to make me less influential and to lose base.

“The governor never discussed with me that he was nominating me for a ministerial appointment. Ten persons were nominated to be minister from Rivers State. I was the second person on the list. Atedo Peterside was the first person on the list. Tonye Cole was the third person.

“Amaechi said he was going to scrap the office of Chief of Staff and I said I was no longer going to occupy it again. I was the Director-General of his campaign organisation in 2011 and having seen what had happened, it would no longer be conducive for me to work in an environment of hostility,” he said.

On his governorship ambition, Wike explained that his initial aspiration was not to succeed Amaechi and added that he had to consult stakeholders in the state before he decided to run.

Wike attributed the enmity between him and Amaechi to unnecessary suspicion, maintaining that he never left his constituency after becoming a minister.

“Succeeding Amaechi was certainly not my ambition. As events unfolded and time went by, a lot of things happened and I had to consult widely on whether to run or not. It is not as if I had the ambition all along to succeed Governor Amaechi,” he said.

Source Punch