On Friday, October 21, 2022, the Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Ezenwo Wike, was conferred with the \u201cDistinguished Award in Infrastructure Delivery\u201d by President Muhammadu Buhari, at the Nigeria Excellence Awards in Public Service (NEAPS) ceremony, which took place at the State House Conference Centre, Presidential Villa, Abuja, Nigeria.
\nThe monumental significance of this prestigious NEAPS, which was also conferred on some other prominent and outstanding Nigerians in different fields of endeavor, is not lost on both the supporters and loyalists of the Rivers Governor, but most especially on the naysayers, detractors and the handful of Rivers anti-progressives.
\nThere are also those who were overbearingly obsessed with \u2018brick and mortar\u2019 innuendos, who took it upon themselves to embark on an unsolicited campaign of negative criticism against every good work of Governor Wike, from the moment he assumed office on May 29, 2015.
\nSpecifically, NEAPS was set up to recognize distinguished public service to Nigeria, either in contributions to individuals, state or local community, or the public through excellence in leadership, service, or humanitarianism.
\nTo qualify for recognition, the recipient must be a living Public Official or a private citizen, excelling in a given sphere of influence, in good character, standing and must also be at the forefront of service and innovation.
\nThe individual must show an act of public service beyond the acts of their given mandate in endowing their society positively, in the service to the country.
\nThere is absolutely no doubt whatsoever, that Governor Wike met and satisfied all the criteria stipulated for the recognition, nomination and conferment of this prestigious national award on him by the President.
\nThis point is germane especially against the backdrop of comments by some naysayers, who annoyingly alleged that the award had been procured, after some pecuniary commitment had been extended to certain quarters, to facilitate the nomination.
\nNothing could be more ludicrous and irrationally nonsensical than this allegation, especially given the clear and incontrovertible fact that the \u2018Distinguished Award for Infrastructure Delivery\u2019, could be said to have been perfectly designed and flawlessly tailor-made for a leader like Governor Wike, at an auspicious time like this, in our national evolution as a country.
\nThat the Rivers State Govenor has been meritoriously recognised for this distinguished award did not come as a surprise to many Nigerians, most of whom even opine that the award was overdue and Governor Wike ought to have received it before this time. Their reason is not farfetched.
\nAs early as 2017, barely a couple of years into his administration, he had already carved his indelible niche in the annals of infrastructure delivery in the country, when none other than the Vice president of Nigeria, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, christened him \u201cMr. Projects\u201d, in recognition of the tremendous achievements of the Rivers Governor in infrastructure, in such a short period when most of his first term colleagues, were still trying to find their feet and settle down to the rudiments of their new mandate.
\nNeedless to say that in the five years that have passed since the Vice President\u2019s uncommon acknowledgement of Govenor Wike\u2019s pragmatic leadership, the Rivers Governor has accomplished an outstanding galore of breath-taking, fabulous, gigantic infrastructural projects across the length and breadth of Rivers State, which have not only transformed the landscape of the capital territory of Port Harcourt and environs into a befitting capital city, but also provided comfortable access and expressway passage into many ancient kingdoms, hitherto accessible only by sea.
\nThe 12 flyovers (some already completed and in use while others are nearing completion and will all be completed before his tenure is over), criss-crossing the ambience of Port Harcourt and environs, the massive, state-of-the-art Justice Nabo Graham Douglas Campus of the Nigerian Law School complex, Dr. Peter Odili Cancer and Cardiovascular Diagnosis Treatment Center, the impressive Mother and Child Hospital, the iconic Real Madrid football academy.
\nOther projects include, Sakpenwa-Kono dual carriage expressway, Opobo Unity Road, the reconstructed jetties, the renovated schools, the rehabilitated internal roads across the state…are just some of the infrastructure projects in the list that is just too comprehensive to reel out.
\nIn addition to these is the admirable fact that Governor Wike\u2019s generosity and humanitarian acts, both within and across the country have now become legendary.
\nGovernor Wike has done all these, despite the comatose state of socio-economic and infrastructural decay he inherited from his predecessor and the massive dislocation and disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, which ravaged the entire country.
\nHe commissioned projects upon projects at a time when some of his peers were still struggling to even lay foundation for some and he has not relented in his quest to continue to deliver quality infrastructure to Rivers people, which has upgraded his monicker to \u201cMr. Quality Projects.\u201d
\nThe real icing on the cake of Governor Wike\u2019s Distinguished Award on Infrastructure Delivery, is that it has come from a sitting President who belongs to a different political party, which in itself, is a phenomenal statement and testimony of recognition for Governor Wike, who many have recognized as one of the ardent and most objective critics of the government of the day, who speaks truth to power and always stands on the side of justice and equity.
\nThis of course is richly complemented with his unparalleled achievements and national stature in infrastructure delivery, amongst all the state governors in the country, which is actually the core consideration for the award.
\nHe has proven beyond all tenets, scrutiny and parameters of analysis, that he truly deserves the \u201cDistinguished Award in Infrastructure Delivery\u201d by President Muhammadu Buhari, at the Nigeria Excellence Awards in Public Service (NEAPS).
\nHe needs no further validation to be fully recognised, endorsed and accepted not just as, \u201cMr. Quality Projects\u201d but should be hailed and addressed officially henceforth as, \u201cMr. Infrastructure\u201d in Nigeria.
\nCongratulations Your Excellency!<\/p>\n
By: Paulinus Nsirim<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
On Friday, October 21, 2022, the Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Ezenwo Wike, was conferred with the \u201cDistinguished Award in Infrastructure Delivery\u201d by President Muhammadu Buhari, at the Nigeria Excellence Awards in Public Service (NEAPS) ceremony, which took place at the State House Conference Centre, Presidential Villa, Abuja, Nigeria. The monumental significance of this prestigious NEAPS, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-306667","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-interview"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306667","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=306667"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306667\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":306668,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306667\/revisions\/306668"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=306667"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=306667"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=306667"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}