By Christie Obiaruko Ndukwe
Governor Wike sacked his Commissioner for Environment in the middle of a summit on the hazardous Sooth in Rivers State.
It’s not a problem since he has the power to hire and fire. But the reason he gave for the sack is what I find amusing.
Dr Tamuno Igbiks had allegedly written a letter asking Julius Berger to stop work all over their construction sites in the state.
According to Wike, the young man exhibited undue power not available to him as a Commissioner, and worse still, he failed to inform his Works counterpart.
That to me is a raw exhibition of executive recklessness, arrogance and inordinate quest for power to subdue, without considerations that Julius Berger had already been paid ahead of the completion of the said contracts.
On the surface, the Governor was right to punish the erring aide in order to serve as a deterrent to others who may also be ignorant of the limits of the power and privileges they enjoy while serving as Aides to a Governor.
But a little peep into Wike’s 6 years of governance would reveal that he has also severally halted work by Federal Government through its agencies, in the state and sometimes, threatened lawsuits or outright blockage of access to buildings occupied by some of these agencies.
The Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, NPA and others are not left out.
Just recently, the Governor threatened to shut down access roads leading to the newly commissioned headquarters of the NDDC on the pretence that the state government was about to commenced earthworks for the road. This is without recourse to the fate of those who live within the said axis and would be blocked from having vehicular access to their homes.
Need I bore readers with more examples of this same act of executive misapplication of power which the Commissioner in question may have unconsciously imbibed from the Governor.
It is pertinent to ask who then can punish Gov. Wike for similar acts of gross misconduct and acts of bully pulpit. Does a Governor’s immunity confer on him unlimited display of impunity, simply because we are under a faulty democracy with a chequered and controversial Constitution?
If the Commissioner erred this once, is it enough to sack him without a query on why he embarked on such a rudderless voyage of power?
Let me stop with this popular Eastern Nigerian proverb which says “when the mother goat is chewing its cud, the baby goat is closely watching and learning the ropes.”
