Eminent Nigerian scholar and politic risk analyst, Uche Igwe, has warned the Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike to stop dragging the Chief of Army Staff, Lt Gen. Tukur Buratai in what he described as the divisive politics promoted by the government. In a terse statement circulated in the media, from his base in the United Kingdom, Mr Igwe opined that the Nigerian Chief of Army Staff ‘ is a committed patriot who know his work and can do anything within his power to protect the integrity of the country’s democracy.
According to him – “Governor Wike is facing serious legitimacy deficit at home. He should go back to Port Harcourt and clear his mess. He cannot explain where he has spent billions of naira that accrued to Rivers State since 2015 including all the loans he has taken so far. Every person conned to Rivers State is embarrassed with the bribery allegations, which has become a daily routine in the state. He formed that instead of answering the questions that Rivers people are asking him, he is busy chasing shadows.
“It is either his is accusing the Inspector General Police today or the Chief of Army Staff tomorrow. He may go down well as one of worst civilian governors since the state was created. Mr Wike must not forget the risks associated with the mission has begun for himself. The undue politicization of security will come with consequences. He should face the task of security citizens of the state against the incessant and inexplicable political killings that have increased the state since he came into power”
Igwe described Gen. Buratai as a thoroughbred profession, who is busy trying his bit and mapping out efforts to flush out the remnants of Boko Haram insurgents and allow displaced persons in the North East to return to normal life. He is interested in the legacy that he will leave behind. Wike should take his misguided drama and banal extravaganza elsewhere’, he noted.
Igwe joined the call for military men to ignore half-hearted overtures by politicians. He also called on everyone who loves Nigeria to pray for President Buhari and the entire nation, urging all patriots to come together to ensure that unscrupulous people do not plunge the nation into another avoidable crisis. In September 2016, Mr. Uche Igwe alongside other practitioners and activists attended a session at Washington DC based think tank, the Atlantic Council,where the Chief of Army Staff chronicled the efforts and challenges of the Nigerian Army in fighting terrorism and maintaining peace in the North East and other troubled regions in the country. It was after that session that the United States government realised the immediate need to relax the restrictions on weapon sales to Nigeria, allowing them to purchase precision weapons and platforms to intensify the fight again terrorism.
