By Amaechi Okonkwo, Port Harcourt
The Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike has declared that Nigeria is presently caught up in a serious existential crisis that is self-evident.
The governor pointed out that the politicisation and active involvement of key national institutions, such as the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the Police in the rigging of the re-run elections in Rivers State, was not only an affront to democracy but constitute serious invitation to chaos with destructive consequences of unknown dimensions.
Delivering a lecture titled: “Defining Development for Rivers State and Steps to Sustainable Implementation”, at the Royal Institute of International Affairs (Chatham House), London, Wike lamented that Nigeria was in serious political and economic decline.
“There is need for the international community to save the country and its democracy from imminent collapse by putting sufficient pressures on the Federal Government to uphold the rule of law, guarantee the integrity of the electoral system and do socio-economic justice to all segments of the Nigerian society
“The fact cannot be disputed that states bear greater development burden than the federal government. However, under the flawed revenue allocation regime, the federal government alone retains 53 per cent of national revenue and allocates only 22 per cent to the entire 36 States of the federation.
“Obviously, when 22 per cent of national revenue is disaggregated among 36 States, what comes to each state is not more than 0.6 per cent on the average per annum, which by any stretch of imagination is incapable of funding serious developmental programmes for any state.
“As an integral part of the country, Rivers State is entitled to development support from the federal government through the direct provision of projects and programmes in the state. This is even more so considering the state’s enormous contributions to the national revenue bowl. Unfortunately, this is not the case as the federal government continues to neglect and marginalise the state in the provision of development projects.
“For instance, the federal government has not undertaken any new development project in the state for the last two decades. Even the existing ones, such as the Port Harcourt international airport, the two seaports and the East – West highway have severely degenerated without attention for years. These are important economic projects that needed to function maximally to drive the socio-economic development of the state, yet the federal government continues to turn blind eyes to them with impunity,” he said.
He called on the international community to save Nigeria’s democracy from imminent collapse by mounting sufficient pressures on the APC Federal Government to uphold the rule of law and guarantee the integrity of the electoral system. http://orientdailynews.com.ng/news/nigeria-facing-existential-crisis-wike/lalasticlala mynd44 seun 
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