Another item on Governor Chibuike Amaechi’s menu as the Rivers State governor is to consolidate on the projects he started in his first tenure in office and their sustainability. This, he had said, was the major reason he re-contested. The areas he said that would be consolidated are Education, Transportation, Agriculture, Power and Security. A leader of a group in the state once described him as a layer of foundations.
We must feel the impact of what Amaechi is doing today in Rivers State, and not until after he has left, and another comes in again with CONSOLIDATION. We know that very few politicians will do what works that have been chronicled of Amaechi, but many people outside politics can do them more than he has been perceived to have achieved, if the opportunity beckons. It is only the Nigerian politicians that are thinking of today, the masses are asking of their future glory. And we will continue to accuse politicians of not completing their promises to us.
Amaechi should start doing things not very fast, even though that four years is big, very short to come by. But he should know that someone might come into office if some of the projects are not completed in the form of laid down policy of the state and stop them, no matter how laudable projects they are. Many frameworks that will put in place the proper foundation for things to be done in this state have been implemented but rubbished by successive governments. No one should think that it will be hard to reverse them. Greed is eminent in human beings.
We have heard much about the covenant Amaechi had with God that if He makes him to be governor, he would diligently, serve the public. We wish God could tell him the days have started running for a second term. No cost of project in Rivers State that the state is not worth it.
When we look at the free education programme, we shouldn’t say practically that the government has taken away all the responsibilities from the parents in terms of ensuring that their children go to school, because many of the parents are very poor and the children are hungry; would the government feed them?
The government has its responsibilities as a government, while the parents have their own responsibilities as a family, so no one should be talking as if the government has relieved the parents of all their responsibilities, because government awarded free education. The pains of the parents could be reduced by this feat, but not eradicated.
It is nice that the government is making sure that every child has the opportunity to acquire education, but where are the industries Amaechi is building in Rivers State that will accommodate them when they are through? Or, is he not industrial-oriented? Emotions of the people whose lives his programmes have touched are praising him, but are their people not still crying of un-employment in Rivers State?
Why has Michelin not returned to the state? Has the issue of perception been dealt in Rivers State? What about insecurity? Even if the city no longer dances the rhythm of gun shots, are people walking freely in the state? Amaechi needs more work to do in dealing with the mindset and perception of the people in and outside of the state, about the state. Amaechi has to go back to the Re-branding Rivers State initiative, as he once intensely started. We need a total package: Change We Can See. Let no one show us pictures of the health centers and schools the government has built for the suffering masses.
Observers: “Amaechi has tried? Given that Rivers state receives almost triple times the amount other states receive as revenue? I’d prefer to measure his performance against income”, “Master plans can be easily created by paying some contractor to create some fancy model. The health centres look impressive, but at what cost? Compared to what the state receives in terms of revenue, can this work be said to be ‘great’?”, “I cringe when I see and read these politicians and their boot-lickers spin and list necessities and must-haves as achievements and dividends of democracy.” Would we not say that “Gov Amaechi Is Doing Great Works In Rivers State?”
We have to agree that it is only in Rivers State that no one is being unrealistic, a governor utilizes financial allocation for what it is meant for and it becomes worthy of news? It is said of achievements here as if he is not just doing the service he is elected for. Observer: “It is bizarre and grotesque how these elected officials are termed messiahs for doing their job.”
While we know that a little encouragement goes a long way, the government should encourage us by not being too over emphasized. Observers: “In Nigeria we’re more used to insulting the leaders, not praising them, and praising the ones who should be queried. Everything is upside down”, “Even getting in that tiny boat takes courage”, “Seems some Nigerians want a quick fix”, “Most times, it is not even about quick fix, it is about the normal things. We keep chanting the “Rome wasn’t built in a day” mantra, but I am rooster sure if Rome had been built with the pace at which governance is done in Nigeria, there will be no Rome today.”
Observer’s question:
“2 years ago, the excuse was “Rome was not built in a day”
2 years later, the same excuse, “Rome was not built in a day”
What is the probability that 2 more years down the line,
the excuse would not be “Rome was not built in a day”?
It is very sad with the speed that we are being subjected to unwarranted ridicule in Nigeria due to bad governance. Amaechi once hated praise singers of those in power, but very amazing today that one of his statutory responsibilities is to do the job of sycophants he hated himself.
