The Rivers State Commissioner for Information and Communication, Pst. Paulinus Nsirim and his counterpart in Imo State, the Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Hon. Declan Emelumba have engaged each other in a media war over election matters.
Trouble started when the Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, at a reception on Wednesday, February 23, 2022 organised by the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, to welcome home the National Secretary of the party, Senator Sam Anyanwu, at Owerri, the Imo State capital, said that the PDP was the party that would rule Imo State.
He had said:
“Ordinary convention, a party in power cannot hold one. Look at how we did our own convention. That is to tell you that PDP is the party that should rule Nigeria. This is the party that will rule Imo State too. The only mistake that we will make to allow the man come back is for us not to work together, and we will not make that mistake.”
In a swift reaction, Emelumba stated that the re-election of Governor Hope Uzodinma would be done by the people of Imo State who would not be influenced by Nyesom Wike, who he described as a rabble rouser.
He accused Wike of squandering the goodwill of the people, chasing shadows and meddling in the affairs of other States.
He said:
“The man in question is a colossal failure and a megalomaniac whose posturing has left Rivers State poorer in the last seven years. He is a complete failure in governance and leadership and therefore is unfit to assess Uzodinma.”
Nsirim, obviously piqued by these comments, said the Imo State Commissioner for Information and Strategy had often been described as a man who seems to take pleasure and delight in controversies, one who seems to have a penchant for speaking from both sides of the mouth and that many in Imo State see and regard him as a shameless purveyor of falsehood.
He further said:
Let us even concede, in recognition of the dubious political propaganda which the likes of Emelumba thrives on, that he has the right to his warped and skewed opinions, one actually wonders whether as Commissioner for Information and Strategy, he even reads newspapers or listens to the news on Television and Radio, otherwise how did he even conjure the hallucination that ‘In many States of Nigeria including Cross River, the man has been declared a person non grata.
He concludes, “Let him not test our will.”
