Governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike, has accused his predecessor, Rotimi Amaechi, of rejecting a proposal to establish a law school in the state.
Wike made the accusation on Friday at the commissioning of the new Dr. Nabo Graham Douglas Campus of the Nigerian Law School in Rumueme, Port Harcourt.
The governor, who was Amaechi’s Chief of Staff, said his former principal rebuffed the proposal to have a law school campus in the state
He said: “I remember when I was chief of staff, the law school that is in Bayelsa today was to come to Rivers but the government at that time said no. They were not willing to have a law school campus in Port Harcourt.”
Governor Wike narrated how attending a Call to Bar at the Nigerian Law School in Abuja led to the establishment of the new Rivers campus.
The governor said as the Nigerian Body of Benchers filed into the hall, he could not help but notice the poor state of the surroundings.
Wike said the Director General of the Law School said the poor state of the campus was due to the lack of funds.
He said: “How can we have this as a law school and especially the headquarters of the Nigeria Law School? This is unacceptable.’ I sent somebody to call me the Director General of the Law School, though I didn’t know him,” Wike said.
“He came and I said, ‘This is our law school? What is happening?’ He said they would manage with what they had as there were no funds. This is my constituency.
“If I leave tomorrow as governor and then I’m criticising, people would ask me, ‘When you were there, what was your contribution to making sure we have a better legal education?’”
Wike said the Director General turned down his offer to renovate one of the buildings in the Abuja campus, opting instead for him to “take the money to Bayelsa State”.
The governor after a trip to the Bayelsa campus said he was moved to establish the Rivers State campus.
“You would never allow even your worst slave to go to that school. It was so bad. I was touched and I said, ‘What do we do?’ (The DG) said their immediate problem was that there was no accommodation or auditorium for them to do any activity.
“I said the Rivers State Government would contribute to building 900 spaces of hotels and then 1,500 capacity multipurpose hall. Then I told him to go and design it. He designed it and brought it at the cost of over N5bn. We passed through the due process and awarded the contract,” he said.
