The Director-General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Dr Dakuku Peterside, says he will consult with his family and God before revealing his decision as regards contesting for the governorship of Rivers State come 2019.
Peterside, who stated this in Port Harcourt at the weekend while appearing on a magazine radio programme, View Point, stressed that at the appropriate time he would make his intention known.
According to him, “I will consult with my family and God, only then can I come out to say anything. Whatever my intention is, I will make it known then.”
Recall that Peterside was the Rivers State governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the 2015 general elections.
He spoke on several issues happening in the state including soot, seeming crisis in Rivers APC and his impression of what the Governor Nyesom Wike has done despite the revenues that have accrued the state in the last three years.
The NIMASA boss particularly blamed the government for the soot that is presently ravaging the state, pointing out that the inability of the Wike-led administration to create employment opportunities and provide business-friendly environment is responsible for the menace.
Speaking on what he could have done if he was the governor, he explained that he would end illegal through the provision of opportunities for the youth and create the right environment for investment to thrive so that the people can be gainfully employed.
Said he: “If you don’t put in the right thought process into an action, you won’t get the result. You have to create entrepreneurial opportunities, create the right environment for entrepreneurs to thrive, you have to create skills that will enable them to tap into opportunities that are available.”
On the seeming crisis in the Rivers State chapter of the APC, he attributed it to the “monkey hand in the soup” and refusal by some people to explore internal party structures to resolve disputes.
“In a big party, there would be different tendencies. What is seen as an internal crisis in Imo state is a struggle for the party structure and the national working committee of the party has intervened, the vice president of the country as a leader of the party has intervened. These are people who understand what it means to seek proper internal channels of the party to resolve issues; they didn’t approach any court.
“In Ekiti, indeed, they had an election that ended in a stalemate, they have also sought internal party processes to resolve their issues, they didn’t approach any court. But because we have a monkey hand in the soup, as they would say and I put that in quote, our case in Rivers is different. The democratic path is to create institutions where you can seek redress within the party,” he stressed.
Peterside advised those who have disputes within the party to explore internal processes before heading to court.
“There is an appeal panel, have they approached the panel? If they are not satisfied, they can approach the National Working Committee (NWC) and of course, the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the party. So it is clearly the voice of Jacob and the hand of Esau,” he stated.
On the issue of protests around the Judiciary complex last Friday in Port Harcourt, he said from what he has been told, some of the protesters were led by PDP chieftains in the state, just as some people who may be members of the APC were also protesting.
He vehemently denied being aware of the protest and that at no time did he mobilise anybody to embark on the protest, even though he stated that the right to protest is part of democracy
