By Seyi Odewale
Rivers State governor, Nyesom Wike yesterday explained why most socio-economic and educational problems linger in the country. According to him, it is because Nigerians elect people who cannot solve problems.
Governor Wike noted this yesterday at the Executive Chamber of Government House in Port Harcourt while signing into law three bills passed by the state House of Assembly.
The three laws are the Rivers State Prohibition of the Curtailment of Women’s Right to Share in Family Property Law No. 2 of 2022; the Rivers State Compulsory Treatment and Care of Victims of Gunshots Law No. 3 of 2022, and the Rivers State Pension Reform (amendment) Law No. 4 of 2022.
Speaking on the law to prohibit the curtailment of women’s right to share in family property law, the governor expressed displeasure at how most cultures, particularly in Rivers State, do not encourage what engenders growth among the people.
In a statement by his media aide,Kelvin Ebiri in Port Harcourt yesterday, Wike wondered why women are deprived from sharing in the inheritance of their families when they are often the most useful members of the society in comparision to most male children.
He asserted that the law was important to the development of the state because it would enable its people to actualise their potential, as women would be allowed by law to inherit their entitlements.
He said: “I don’t know why it’s a taboo; because you’re a girl, because this is a woman, you’re not entitled to inherit what belongs to your father. It is not you who decides whether you will have a girl, or you’ll have a boy, it is God. So, put yourself in their shoes today where, by the mercy of God you have three children and they’re all girls and you struggle in life to see what you can keep for your children.
“Tomorrow, one of their uncles comes, and says, my friend, girls don’t inherit their father’s property. With all your efforts in life, somebody comes to discriminate against them, why? We have even found out that women are more useful to us than even the men.”
He added: “The day you’re getting old and dying you’ll know that you need more daughters than men. They will leave their husbands’ house and come to take care of you.”
Governor Wike urged women not to be afraid of any threat from members of their families, concerning inheritance, asking them to stand up for their rights and challenge any discrimination against them in court, using the law in order to access their entitlements.
The governor spoke on the pension reform law, adding that when pensioners protest, it is because they do not quite understand the good intentions of the government.
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He explained that because of paucity of funds, the government must prioritise its spending in order to have funds for the provision of services, projects and also pay workers’ wages.
He said: “The government has good intentions and wants to do it at its own time. Only the government knows when it can carry out this responsibility. Government will pay when it will.”
He added: “Government cannot carry everything at the same time. Whether you like it or not, a huge chunk of our resources goes into the civil service.”
Concerning the law on compulsory treatment and care for victims of gunshots, Governor Wike said within the confines of the law, any victim of gunshot would be required to be properly identified, so that such a person could be traced if the person runs away after treatment.
He, however, explained that the law was in furtherance of the responsibility of the government to protect life because even the criminal needs to be alive to be tried and made to suffer for his crime.
According to Governor Wike, the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) was right in it’s demand from the Federal Government. He, however, noted that any government that releases that kind of money ASUU requires, given the current economic reality, would crumble.
He advised that both parties should sit and make concessions in the context of no winner, no loser in the interest of the students. “The problem didn’t start today. It has been there. Again, it is that we elect people who cannot solve problems,” he said.
The governor acknowledged the receipt of a report from the House of Assembly on the revocation of ownership of the land occupied by the media organisation, the African International Television (AIT) in Ozuoba, Rivers State, for lack of requisite titled documents.
According to Wike, the days of Rivers State being seen as a Father Christmas were gone, ‘because nobody can illegally acquire what belongs to the state’, asking the state Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice to take appropriate action on the report.
Speaker of Rivers State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Ikuinyi-Owaji Ibani said the healthy synergy between the executive and the legislature exemplifies what is expected of a true democracy.
