We read the rambling vituperations of Chief Chukwuemeka Eze, the self styled APC Chieftain & former National Publicity Secretary, nPDP, titled: “Apologise to UPTH CMD for your misleading, unruly comments, Eze tells Nsirim” and we will never cease to be amazed, not only by the bogus title, but by the unfortunate penchant of the obnoxious old man to continually debase himself in the publice space with the gutter language he deploys in response to straight forward issues.
We however sympathise with him for the simple reason that senility, which is a common condition with old age, often manifests in mental infirmity, disorientation and the dislocations that attend the onset of deteriorating cognitive faculties and optical disillusionment.
One is not quite sure if the frail old man has visited Port Harcourt township since his paymaster left Government House. Otherwise, how does a man like Chief Chumwuemeka Eze feel, and even begin to explain the ugly monstrosity that defaces the landscape from Lagos Bus-Stop to UTC Junction, snaking like a desolate administrative imprimatur, as it stretches like a crooked exclamation mark of utter disbelief at the mind boggling waste of Rivers resources which defies logical and infrastructural reasoning.
It is even utterly laughable for an inconsequential, totally irrelevant and completely infinitesimal nincompoop in the collective Rivers equation like Chief Eze Chumwuemeka Eze, to go to the public space and shamelessly demand for an apology as his response in defense of the atrocious behaviour, incorrigible excesses and unacceptable provocations of a man who has since overstepped his medical responsibility boundaries to areas he has little or no knowledge and expertise over.
For the avoidance of doubt, and in direct response to Chief Eze and his cohorts, we wish to state categorically once again, that the Rivers State Commissioner for Information and Communications, Pastor Paulinus Nsirim, has no apologies whatsoever to anyone, for calling out Professor Henry Ugbomah, the Chief Medical Director, CMD, of the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital, UPTH, over his continued meddlesomeness and deliberately covert efforts to sabotage the courageous, comprehensive and pro-active, life-saving initiatives of His Excellency, Governor Nyesom Ezenwo Wike, to contain and curtail the ravaging outbreak of the deadly Covid-19 pandemic in the State.
Rivers lives matter and are top priority to Governor Nyesom Wike, so when anyone at all, no matter who you are, tries to play petty politics with the lives of Rivers people, then you will certainly have the Governor to contend with and we are satisfied that those involved have heeded the Governor’s warning.
We are not surprised that Prof. Ugboma has carried this pugnacious attitude into his professional calling and attracted the opprobrium of the National Association of Resident Doctors, NARD, who have called for his sack for what the Association describes as the “Administrative Rascality and Abuse of Power of the Chief Medical Director of the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital, UPTH”, contained in a communique issued at the end of NARD’s emergency NEC meeting in Gombe from July 20 -25, 2020.
The communique, read by the National President of NARD, Dr Sokomba Aliyu, was very clear in its castigation of Henry Ugboma thus: “NEC notes with dismay the continued administrative rascality and victimisation of its members by the Chief Medical Director of (UPTH), Prof. Henry Ugboma.
“We frown at the suspension of resident doctors, who also double as the legitimate executive council officers of the Association of Resident Doctors in UPTH.”
NARD, which called for immediate removal of Professor Henry Ugboma as CMD of UPTH for alleged fraud, administrative rascality, unnecessary onslaught, victimisation and abuse of office, also demanded an immediate and unconditional reinstatement of suspended executives of the Association at the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital (UPTH), led by Dr Solomon Amadi.
Such damaging recommendation by your own professional colleagues which has even been trending virally on social media under the hashtag: #UgboMustGo, is not only a damning vote of no confidence in the reputation and administrative ineptitude of the man, but an unfortunate dent on the image of Rivers State.
As for the endless rantings and verbal diarrhea over the state of Government owned assets in Rivers State, wisdom demands that while it’s advisable to let sleeping dogs lie peacefully, there’s the need to remind the likes of Chief Chumwuemeka Eze, that the Rivers State Government, in line with Governor Nyesom Wike’s philosophy that government is a continuum had concluded arrangements for the economically viable concessioning of these state-owned farms and assets to willing and capable investors to partner the Rivers State Government for their optimal utilization in the interest of Rivers people. A program which had already commenced with the Rivers State cassava processing plant in Afam, Oyigbo and would have been fully onstream if not for the Coronavirus outbreak.
Suffice it to say that this was also how these government owned facilities were concessioned with plenty of fanfare and razzmatazz previously, until faced with a plethora of relentless litigations and other operational challenges, some of the investors had to withdraw long before Governor Nyesom Wike even assumed the mantle of leadership in the State.
Yet, the likes of Chief Chumwuemeka Eze, will not tell Rivers people the truth, but would rather twist the narrative to suit their warped mindsets and massage their bruised and battered egos.
As a penultimate word on this matter, we urge the likes of Chief Chumwuemeka Eze and his bandwagon of diehards and refuseniks, to stop living in the past, open their eyes and see the amazing infrastructural legacy projects which Governor Nyesom Wike’s administration is delivering to Rivers people to sustain the present, secure the future and position Rivers State for the developmental challenges of a post modern global community.
Indeed, we want to, as an act of goodwill, advise Chief Eze Chumwuemeka Eze to be more circumspect with the kind of gutter language he deploys in his usually un-coordinated and verbose ramblings, tainted with misplaced tenses and shameful grammatical lacunas.
The elevation of mediocrity, which propelled him to the amorphous positon of ‘former National Publicity Secretary, nPDP’ may have concocted visions of hyped flamboyant literary prowess in his febrile imagination, after reading his own writings, even he will accept the fact that he is a horrible role model for young people who wish to embrace creative writing as a calling.
Finally, it is important to assure the likes of Chief Eze Chumwuemeka Eze that this response is an act of charity in recognition of his senility and that Governor Nyesom Wike is not at all perturbed and will definitely not be deterred or distracted in his committed and firm leadership resolve to protect and secure Rivers Lives, even as he continues to justify the excellent sobriquet as “Mr. Projects” by delivering quality and enduring legacy projects in the steady transformation of Rivers State into a modern state.
Soibi Max-Alalibo is the SA on Media to the Hon Commissioner, Ministry of Information and Communications, Rivers State.
