Governor Nyesom Wike’s announcement of over N350 million largesse has drawn sweeping criticisms from residents of the oil-rich southern state and beyond.

Addressing a revelling audience at a reception concert in honour of Rivers-born Burna Boy late Saturday, Mr Wike said all entertainers who performed at the overnight event would each receive N10 million.

The governor said it didn’t matter what previous arrangement the artists might have entered with the state’s culture and tourism department, prompting concerns that his action was impulsive, ostentatious and done to the detriment of longsuffering residents who should be his priority.

The elaborate event tagged “Burna Boy homecoming”, was already organised and paid for by the state government in celebration of Burna’s Grammy earlier this month. Mr Wike disregarded the prudent arrangement of state officials and subjected the state’s taxpayers to wasteful expenditure even as workers and pensioners have been languishing under months of unpaid remuneration.

“Those of you who have come to play, whatever you have agreed with the ministry of culture and tourism, it is not my business,” the governor said. “All of you that have come today and the Niger Delta people that have come to play today to show the talent you have, I’m very proud of you. All of you will go home with N10 million each.”

A flyer of the event obtained by Peoples Gazette showed that 20 artistes were listed to perform at the event. Amongst them were Burna Boy, Timaya, Ducan Mighty, Omah Lay, Nisi and five comedians. In addition, Mr Wike also promised Burna Boy a choice piece of land in the affluent GRA Quarters of Port Harcourt, saying further that the mansion that would be built on it would be paid for by the state.

Real estate experts said a plot of land (roughly 450 square metres) in GRA Quarters costs well above N120 million before substantial land registration taxes and other levies. With at least N200 million already paid to the 20 entertainers, Mr Wike would spend no less than N150 million procuring land for Burna Boy in the exquisite neighbourhood.

Priorities

Mr Wike’s controversial payout to entertainers comes barely a few months after his government spent heavily on rides for comfortable judges. He also travelled to Sokoto to donate N500 million after a market fire, even as Rivers residents languish in poverty and deprivation despite decades of oil wealth.

Earlier this month, public teachers attached to primary and secondary schools run by state universities protested five years of unpaid salaries. Mr Wike ignored a previous court order asking him to pay the teachers.

Also, the governor has yet to announce support for victims of the timber market fire near Port Harcourt, more than a month after the incident.

Mr Wike has been accused of not paying gratuities to pensioners since assuming office in 2015. The Gazette had reported how hundreds of pensioners have fallen ill and several others lost their lives due to the failure of the governor to pay their gratuities and monthly pension arrears.

Outrage

Nigerians have continued to wage their collective outrage against what they described as the governor’s reckless use of taxpayers’ money on artistes.

While some Nigerians on social media have described the gesture by Mr Wike as a misplacement of priority and mismanagement of state funds, others said it would not gave been an issue were the payouts coming from the governor’s personal pocket.

A resident, Tonye Princewill, said Mr Wike’s action was a clear assault on the consciencence of Rivers people.

“This man insults our conscience at will,” Mr Princewill said. “It is unfortunate that someone we elected to lead us democratically is leading us like a drunken dictator looting and sharing distributing the loot as he pleases.”

Mr Princewill said his father has not been paid his gratuities after years of proceeding on retirement, a situation he said has left to the death of dozens of retirees.

“Those who are still alive are suffering in pain from many diseases that they are unable to treat because the governor has been holding on to their entitlements without any sense of shame or pity,” he said.

Enefaa Georgewill, chairman of the coalition of Rivers State Civil Society Organisations, urges Mr Wike to be serious with governance.

Mr Georgewill told The Gazette that the entertainment industry is dead in the state and other than the governor to enrich individuals, such monies would have been used to invest in the industry

“We expected that the governor would use the event to declare his proposal for an entertainment village with first-class facilities to promote entertainers and their brand and not to give attention to tokenism”, Mr Georgewill said.

He admonished that a state with a high record of unemployment rate should not give in to a high level of tokenism, saying there are a lot of things to use the money for. 

“We are lacking fire stations and firefighters in the state. Not less than five fire outbreaks had occurred since this year, and the state fire service could not respond and goods worth N100 million were destroyed,” he said.

Wike’s Rivers

In August 2020, the Nigeria Bureau of Statistics (NBS) ranked Rivers the second state with the highest unemployment in the South-South region at 43.7 per cent, while underemployment stood at 19.8 per cent. 

NBS said 1,714,189 residents were recorded as unemployed, with a total labour force of 3,921,860. The governor had since described the statistics as fake, claiming that his dozens of construction jobs have employed hundreds of youth.

Data from NBS and Debt Management Office also showed Rivers owed N303.78 billion and harboured 34 per cent out of school children as of the last update earlier this year.

A spokesperson for the governor declined comments about his controversial pay to artistes against prevailing realities of state residents.