Dakuku Peterside, former director-general of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), has criticised Nyesom Wike, governor of Rivers, over the treatment of pensioners.
Pensioners in Rivers state recently took to the streets to protest the non-payment of their gratuities and pension arrears.
Commenting on the development, Peterside said the Rivers governor “should be ashamed” of his administration’s inability to pay pensioners.
In a statement shared with reporters on Saturday, the former NIMASA DG said Wike’s failure to pay the senior citizens is “callous and inhuman”.
He said many of the pensioners are “already dead without getting their due benefits”.
“Governor Wike should be ashamed that people who are old enough to be his father have been abandoned to their fate, with many already dead without getting their due benefits,” Peterside said.
“There is no greater wickedness than this, in fact, his action is callous and inhuman. Here is a man who has received hundreds of billions of naira in both federal allocation and internally generated revenue.”
“Since 2015, Wike has not promoted a single civil servant, neither has he employed anyone. A brick and mortar governor does not fit into proactive governance anchored on human capital development, which is the main driving force of economic wellbeing worldwide.
“Rivers youth have benefitted nothing under Wike. He prefers to hire them for political rallies rather than create platforms through which they can contribute to the economic prosperity of the state.”
