Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike has attributed the alleged underdeveloped of states to what he called the overbearing attitude of the Federal Government.
The governor said the central government had dysfunctional organisations which allegedly slowed down the pace of development.
He said governors should no longer be addressed as Chief Security Officers (CSOs) but mere Chief Logistics Officers providing logistics for Federal security agencies.
Addressing the Executive Intelligence Management Course (EIMC) 9 at the Institute of Security Service (ISS) yesterday in Abuja, Wike said: “The Federal Government is simply too overbearing with too much powers and resources at its disposal.
We know the recurrent rifts between the Federal Government and the states over development issues, including revenue sharing, resource control, excess crude oil account, appointments into federal agencies and arbitrary location or withdrawal of federally-funded projects.”
In his paper, titled: Institutional Weaknesses and Challenges of development in Rivers State, the governor argued that Federal Government agencies had been turned against states and local government areas, thereby embarking on alleged unconstitutional activities that stall development.
He said Rivers State had been at the receiving end of Federal institutions’ failures.
According to him, no new projects has been instituted in the state by the Federal Government for years.
Wike said: “Given its contributions to national development, Rivers State deserves a special status and consideration from the Federal Government. But it is not.
“Rather, the state has suffered sustained neglect, marginalisation and injustice from successive Federal governments and its agencies.
Even as no new development project has been initiated in the state for decades, what is most distressing is the failure of the Federal Government to adequately maintain some of the critical infrastructure in the state.”
The governor noted that the centralisation of security and the poor use of security agencies had negatively impacted on the state’s development with what he called anti-people measures instituted to work against the state’s peace.
He said: “Developments in Rivers State in the last few months point to the capture of the state’s security system by some special interest groups in their attempt to overawe the state government and achieve their political agenda.
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