The recent paradoxical and absurd statement credited to the Rivers State Commissioner for Information, Pastor Paulinus Nsirim, has continued to attract wide condemnation and public criticism, as it calls for serious concern.
Mr. Nsirim, had on August 8, 2020, published an irking piece where he tried hard but failed, to discredit and sabotage the very reputable image and landmark records of the person and office of the Chief Medical Director of the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital (UPTH), Prof Henry Ugboma, in a bid merely to massage the very nauseating ego of his paymaster and justify his trashy emoluments.
Reacting to the irky and defective parapsychological intuitive piece, former National Publicity Secretary of the defunct New People’s Democratic Party (nPDP) and chieftain of the All Progressives Congress, Chief Eze Chukwuemeka Eze, said it became pertinent, after a long hiatus, to respond to the preposterous and very disconcerting cocktail to properly guide the reading public who may have been swayed by the grossly unskilled character assailant of Gov. Wike, having been inundated with calls and messages as to the real essence of the vilifying trash.
In a statement made available to The Story, Chief Eze said Mr. Nsirim may have thrown his conscience to the dogs to allow himself gabble inarticulately in a matter of public knowledge and counselled him to develop the courage to strike a balance between the head and the heart and to say ‘no’ each time occasion, such as this, demands, stressing that it pays to protect one’s integrity than his job.
Eze settled that the projects for which the 78 Billion Naira refund was made and under whose administration the said works were executed is not an issue to contend with as that has already been taken care of in previous publications and especially, the recent video clip released by the Chief Medical Director, UPTH, Prof. Henry Ugboma.
The life and health of Rivers people has been the cardinal priority of the CMD of the UPTH, Prof. Henry Ugboma, who has been in the forefront of the war against the ravaging Covid-19 since the state recorded her index case a few months ago.
His professionalism and dexterity in handling the outbreak has earned him commendations and endeared him to the populace. The towering profile of UPTH as the Chief Health Institution for Covid 19 sample testing in the South-South region under Prof. Ugboma, is momentous. Majority of the Covid-19 cases in the state are handled at the UPTH by Ugboma and his team of competent professionals. Eze said, it is sickening and pricks the conscience to learn that the state government is unsettled with this.
Do Gov. Wike and his allies obviate the fact that the state would have been the worst-hit in the pandemic had Prof. Ugboma not stood in the gap? Eze queried. As a matter of fact, the state government is indebted to the CMD and the UPTH for covering the multitude of rot, dearths and lapses in the health sector under Gov. Wike and called on Mr. Nsirim to immediately apologize to Prof. Ugboma for his unruly comments.
In the said piece, Nsirim equally labelled the Rivers monorail project as a white elephant thus: “…the monorail project which is a monumental disaster …still serve as references on the landscape to remind Rivers people of the mind boggling rape of our resources”.
In his reaction, Chief Eze said, it is flamboyantly idiotic and a sheer misnomer for the Information Commissioner to tag a project as economically viable as the Rivers monorail as a monumental disaster.
Mr. Nsirim’s assertion further adds credence to the general assertion that the current administration is grossly populated by a crop of unenlightened laymen.
He said developed societies pride in monorail and the facility adorn the landscape of notable cities. In fact, no architectural design of any smart city is complete without monorail.
One would have loved to see Mr. Paulinus Nsirim exert energy on the use of the #78 Billion refunded the state government for Federal Projects executed by Rt. Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, when he was Rivers Governor.
What if the state Information Commissioner could update Nigerians on the conditions of the over 160 prototype state of the arts Primary Health Centres built and equipped by the administration of Rt. Hon. Chibuike Amaechi.
“I heard the Information Commissioner say President Buhari believes that government is a continuum”. Has Mr. Paulinus Nsirim forgotten that the 24 university-like model Secondary Schools built by the Amaechi administration currently suffers reckless abandonment?
Eze challenged Nsirim and the state government to show Rivers people the continuity in a grossly docile government which only policy in agriculture is the destruction of critical public investments in the sector. What is the state of Songhai farm? what has happened to the Buguma fish farm? What about the banana plantation? etc. All these and many more public income generating investments which engaged thousands of Rivers people have gone under.
Eze said with the refund, the Governor has no further excuses to continue denying retirees their pensions and gratuities.
Commending the UPTH CMD for his shrewdness and commitment to health of Rivers people, Chief Eze tasked Gov. Wike to heed to the counsel of Prof. Ugboma and channel the #78 Billion Naira to job creation, critical infrastructural development in health, education and the revival of agriculture and the economy.
Not minding that Nsirim’s Comment on the Rivers Monorail is borne out of ignorance, idiotic, sad, unfortunate and exhibition of lack of common sense.
Eze counselled him seeing that he has misfired in this regard to publicly apologize to Prof Ugboma and people of Rivers State for working for an anti peoples’ administration.
