On May 29, 2015, successful candidates in that year’s gubernatorial elections in Nigeria took their oath of office, swearing to God before the people and the entire world to provide good governance and consequently change the socio-economic life of the people for the better.
Four years down the line, some have been outrightly rejected and thrown out of office by the people who gave them the mandate they mismanaged, others got their mandate renewed but not without an experience akin to that of the proverbial Carmel passing through the eye of a needle. Yet there are some others who got their mandates revalidated by an overwhelming popular endorsement.
Notable among the last category of States’ Chief Executives is the Rivers State Governor, Chief Nyesom Ezenwo Wike whose re-election in 2019 can be described as a fait accompli following from the avalanche of endorsements that attended his stewardship in the past four years. The endorsements which came in the form of awards, prizes and public proclamations and affirmations were mostly from credible, critical, dispassionate, impeccable, well-meaning and reputable individuals and organizations from not only within his sphere of service but across the world. No doubt, the Rivers State Governor can be said to be the most decorated State Chief Executive in Nigeria between May 29, 2015 and May 29, 2019.
Within the period under reference, Gov Wike won the Apostle of Peace Award, the Vice President of Nigeria, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, irrespective of their party difference, christened him ‘Mr Projects’ ahead of the other 35 state governors in the country. In 2016, the Independent Newspaper named him the Man of the Year, the Authority Newspaper and the Sun Newspaper awarded him the Governor of the Year.
For the first time in the organsations history of award presentation, the Sun Newspaper found no one else worthy to receive its Governor of Year award in Nigeria in 2017 but the Rivers State helmsman.
In 2017, Governor Nyesom Wike won the award for the Most Fiscally Responsible Governor; the Global Human Settlements Outstanding Contributions Award, the Silverbird Group’s Silverbird Man of the Year; the New Telegraph’s Man of the Year; the Independent Newspaper’s Political Icon of the Year; and the Zik Prize for Good Governance among several others. And in 2018, he was awarded the Pillar of Sports in Africa by the International Sports Press Association, AIPs.
For the year 2018, Gov Wike as well won the Nigeria Union of Journalists, NUJ, Prize for Outstanding Achievement In Leadership/ Infrastructure Development.
While many of these awards were delivered at organized and well-publicized functions and ceremonies several others were never celebrated.
According to Emma Okah, Lawyer and immediate past Commissioner for Information and Communication, Rivers State, ‘’ Governor Wike is seen as a man who prepared to govern and who saw big gaps in governance efforts of Rivers State. He came with solutions.’’ The former Commissioner explained that the governor ‘‘thus divided the state into sectors for the purpose of priority attention: Road Infrastructure, Rural Development, Health, Education, Housing, Economic Empowerment, Security, Administration and Justice, and Sports and recreation.’’
‘’ Observers and those who want to judge his(Wike)administration would have to base their opinions and observation on these laid down sectoral priorities,’’ he said, reiterating that ‘’ If they want to be sincere, they would agree that there have been tremendous activities in these nine sectors and His Excellency has won awards in many of these areas.’’
Speaking with The Tide in Port Harcourt, a legal practitioner based in the Rivers State Capital, Dr Chukwuma A.J. Chinwo described the awards and prize giving system generally as a means of recognition of excellence.
Dr Chinwo who is also a lecturer in the Faculty of Law of the Rivers State University, Nkpolu, Port Harcourt said even though the initiative has been abused, especially in Nigeria, it still has a valid place in the developmental efforts in society as it encourages hardwork.
‘’ Ordniarily, prizes and awards are supposed to be means of recognizing people who have excelled and ordinarily should motivate people who have been awarded to do better and for others to do more. So, awards and prizes are actually good motivators of development of society- for people who contribute their best in society,’’ he said.
He averred that there are many in Nigeria who have been undeserving recipients of awards, especially within the political class, as they usually paid for them with little or nothing substantial to justify their selection.
‘’Somebody is proclaimed the best governor, may be the best local government chairman and you go to the place where they preside and you don’t even see anything that is imaginative or transformational that this person had done and after that the man rests on his oars and says ‘‘don’t you know I was given that award?’ he lamented while called on award giving organisations to refrain from merchandizing in order to genuinely contribute to growth and development in the society.
Asked if he found any credibility in the awards given to Governor Nyesom Wike, the university don did not hesitate to say emphatically‘‘As for him, I will say yes.’’
According to Dr Chniwo,’’when we assess him from where we were and where we are, he deserves awards. I can say that. I keep telling people, if there’s nowhere Wike deserves award, he deserves award on Rivers State University’s transformation; he deserves awards on my own community, Oroigwe.
‘’ As a lawyer I travel round this state driving; he deserves award on road construction and we can’t deny him that.
‘’If you look at what we have here and where we’re coming from, Wike deserves award. If I have one, I will give him an award. As Chairman of Okpo Club, we have given him an award.’’
Going forward, the law teacher urged Gov. Wike to avoid the bug of complacency and relax on his laurels but to push the frontiers of his excellent performance in the past four years as there are still new grounds to break and more lofty heights to attain in the development efforts of Rivers State.
‘’For all he has done and the awards he has won, I only pray that he does not rest on his oars. This second tenure, we expect him to do far better and to look into other areas he has not moved into.
‘‘Rivers State needs industralisation; we need development in agriculture; we need in improvement. If we attain those things, peace will come, security will come.
‘’Nobody expected him to do everything in the first four years, but in this second four years, let him touch areas he has not touched and do better in the areas he has done before,’’ he advised.
Indeed, by his performance in the execution of the social contract he signed and swore by God to deliver on May 29, 2015, Rivers people have given him a renewed mandate as an expression of their confidence in his proven ability and capacity to manage their affairs and improve their lot.
As Governor Nyesom Ezenwo Wike therefore, breasts the tape at the finishing line of his first term and takes off the starting block for his second and final term in service to the people, nothing should motivate him better than the awards and prizes of excellence he had won and wears as badges of honour, encouragement, appreciation and inspiration to better the high standards he has already attained. The reward of hardwork, they say, is more work and that is the making of heroes and transformational leaders who have carved a niche in the history of their people.

Opaka Dokubo