Opinion
The Youth And Future Leadership
What does the future hold for the average Nigerian youth? Are the majority of the youths fully engaged? If the nation fails in empowering the youth, it is most certain that social conditions might make them occupy themselves with that which is not glorifying and dignifying.
Who are the youths? Let me take as illustration, from teenagers to those who are 49 years as the youths. What are people saying about them?
The society calls them promising nation builders, the socio-political system calls them future leaders; and the church leaders call them the pillars of the church.
The economists in their classification of the human life show how each era succeeds the other. A child at infancy to 18 years depends on the parents. The child later grows up and becomes father or mother with responsibilities. It is this stage that Prof. Tekena Tamuno of the Economics Department, University of Port Harcourt, calls the working class, which I will dwell on a little. It is clear that when parents are old and can not fend for themselves as a result of old age, the children who are the working class take care of them. Thus, parents depend on their children at their old age!
My concern, therefore, is that our youths (tomorrow’s leaders) must not be allowed to waste away. It is equally true that government cannot do everything, yet they can assist greatly in order to help our youths to be ganged in one activity or the other. I am not an economist or prophet of doom; but I still have my reservations or permutation that the workers in different ministries and parastatals far out-number the youths that are unemployed. Wherein lies the problem? We are not saying the problem is illiteracy; neither can we say it is incapacitation.
Government, in its own way, should create thousands of jobs yearly to meet up with the burden of today’s unemployment rate. My heart was troubled on Friday, 17th of June, when yet another set of thousands of NYSC members were participating in the passing out parade at Isaac Boro Park in Port Harcourt. Imagine the proportion or addition such number across the states will be for the 36 states of the federation. My guess is as good as yours.
This is not the time for government to fold hands. The Ministry of Economic Planning should put the youths in its yearly employment plans even if it will be hundreds or thousands of jobs. I know the private sector players are also doing their best. However, if the ministries of youths and economic planning take this into consideration religiously every year, the turn-over yearly will make government and the governed to have the last laugh.
It reminds me of a few weeks ago when the Rivers State Ministry of Employment Generation and Economic Empowerment was carrying out an employment scheme for youths. I went to see for myself but the crowd scared me. I have to beat a retreat after inquiring what was happening. In fact the number of youths who stormed the venue was startling.
I advise government to execute the plan, since the youths have confidence in the government. Employment must be on merit and should not be politicized. It is my prayer that majority of the youths will be employed while government sustains the scheme for the future growth of the nation.
Recently, governments disarmed the militants and engaged them meaningfully. However, the “Boko Haram” religious sect operating in our neighbouring states in the North is still threatening the existence of the federation as more killings, bombings, among others, are still being unleashed in broad day light by jobless youths.
Let’s look at it, if the government takes it as a policy to employ 2,000 to 5,000 youths every year in productive activities while also engaging the remaining ones in non-violent activities through skills training and inculcation of morals in them while awaiting their time of employment, this ugly situation will recede. I want to see Nigeria so strong like America operating the same federal system like us (even if there are some imperfections in the Nigerian system) to care for the youths, employ and empower them. Since wastage demands weeping, I believe the government, in each state, should compile names of those unemployed and those employed. Though the work is not easy but it is worth the effort.
Government has great responsibility, mostly here in Rivers State. The throngs of employable youths scattered here and there calls for weeping and mourning. The Chibuike Amaechi administration can help a little before the four-year tenure elapses. We expect to see sufficient investment in and employment of more youths of the state in productive and sustainable activities.
The future rests on the youths. They must not do anything evil or inimical to development. Government needs to urgently come to their aid. The Niger Delta states need not cry over poverty. Most youths have certificates but they also have aged parents. Truly, it calls for lamentation.
Frankly speaking, the only way Rivers youths can crush poverty is through meaningful employment, vocational and skills acquisition programme. These precious youths must not waste away. Their tears, aged parents, certificates, gifts and natural endowments must also not waste away. The youths are today’s seed planted for tomorrow’s leadership. Let’s not allow them to waste anymore.
Harry writes from Port Harcourt.
Amaechi’s Governance: An Appraisal
POLITICS; 1
Felix Okogbule
The present democratic dispensation in the state under the leadership of Governor Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi has significantly been described differently by people with equally varying degrees of opinion.
This is reflected in the popular hackneyed cliche of different strokes for different folks.
Notwithstanding the misconception about the government particularly by the opposition political parties, the Governor has continued to add more feathers to his cap, thanks to the federal government for recognizing the contributions of Governor Amaechi towards the development of Rivers State and indeed Nigeria by honouring him with the Commander of the Ortder of the Niger (CON).
Just recently, the governor left no one in doubt about his determination to make a difference in the leadership of the state. He probably must have taken some tutorials and wants to break away from the past to avoid been hunted by history for acts of Omission or commission while superintending over the affairs of the state.
The governor took a bold initiative when members of his cabinet, Permanent Secretaries and all heads of other model Songhai farm in Bunu, Tai local government area to take critical retrospective analysis of his administration’s first tenure and to design a road map for the last lap of the government to ensure a clean departure from the morass of abandoned projects upon leaving office.
The environment was serene, atmosphere pleasantly conducive for meaningful discussion and the event was the 2011 strategy Retreat organized by the State government for top functionaries of government to take stock of previous performances with a view to proffering workable perameters for achieving sutainable development and thereby fulfilling the electioneering campaign promises to Rivers people.
When the governor visited the state Songhai farm earlier in one of his inspection tours, and told newsmen that the farm settlement would be the venue for the State Strategy retreat for the egg heads in government, not many people believed that the pronouncement had a pinch of salt, including yours truly.
The reason for our unbelief were simply based on the antecedents of past government retreats or call it executive talk shows where new government officials get their baptism in the practice of protocols which involves all the attributes of those serving in government such as telling deliberate falsehood except for the mysterious God that is all-knowing.
To the dismay of many, the retreat gathered the long and mighty serving in the present administration at the Songhai farm as against the luxury of a five-Star hotel or its equivalent for one week that the programme lasted. While many criticized the decision for virtually shutting down government business during the period, others were of the view that the approach demonstrated the importance the governor attaches to the outcome of the brain storming session to aid in realizing the vision of the government.
Another underlying benefit is the improvement in facilities provided at the Songhai Farm which has been transformed into an agro-tourist centre for the state as over 60 retreat participants were accommodated at the farm including the state chief executive himself. This obviously had reinjected funds into the system rather than expending huge funds in a private hotel either in Port Harcourt or any other city like Calabar.
Addressing participants at the opening session, Governor Amaechi charged them to painstakingly pin-point flaws inherent in the government desire to serve Rivers people better. In his usual characteristics, he raised a number of mind bgoggling questions bordering on honesty, transparency and accountability as well as the perception of the people on the performance of the government after the first – tenure.
He prophetically opined that the popularity earned by his administration is diminishing faster than the evening shadow and warned political appointees to jettison the euphoria of being in office and guard their loins for service, noting that the retreat was designed at proffering solution to the leakages in government structure to meet the yearnings of the people by delivering dividends of democracy to them.
The governor provoked and challenged participants in these words, “have we achieved our objective in government? The answer is certainly no, therefore you must work out template that would drive the road map towards realizing the vision of the present administration”, and directed all the commissioners to itemize projects not completed in their various Ministries for proper funding, monitoring and eventual completion.
It is no longer news that the determination and focus of government is to consolidate on the progress made by the administration in providing social infrastructure for the people that would uplift the living standard but the despicable act of leaving government projects unmonitoried perverts the trite presage of delivering quality services to the people.
There is no gain saying the fact that only the visioner can propel his vision to frustration, although, inspite of the enthused criticism of some of the state government’s policies and programmes, credit must be given to the visible effort to reposition the state for a better tomorrow by the present administration.
The retreat which had resource papers from renowed experts in different fileds also witnessed presentation of progress reports by some ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) which were critically assessed in an attempt to arriving at potent threashold for “deliverables”.
In responding to the Palpable and Manifest distract, suspicion and lack of genuine interest to completing contractual obligation by government contractors, the participants resolved to identify plausible ways of averting delays in project execution while those found culpable of collecting money and fail to carry out such projects would face the full weight of the law.
It is imperative to mention that the enactment of the law and the establishment of a Bureau on Public Procurement (BoPP) otherwise called Due Process was not to cause delay in the execution of government projects but to ensure compliance with best practices in award of contracts to check manipulation associated with the exercise in the past.
However, they are to function to save funds and to realise that government needs to fulfill its promises of better services to the people within the short time available.
To that effect, it has become necessary to strengthen institutions of government through energy within the system to have an integrated coordination of executing programmes and policies of government to avoid duplication. The road map to 2015 had been streamlined by inputting methods of measuring and evaluating performance by giving time lag to the completion of projects as the monitoring and supervision inter ministerial committee under the office of the Secretary to the state government would ensure strict adherence.
According to the governor, government did not feign ignorance of the suffering of residents of Port Harcourt and its environs especially during the rainy period but had consistently appealed for patience and ancillary understanding. No wonder that remedical work are being carried out in some bad portions of the road while road contractors have equally been mobilized to site to capitalize on the dry season and complete their jobs.
The Secretary to State Government Mr. George Feyii, said the retreat was to come together, chart a news course on the direction of government by looking critically at the present situation and come up with a strategy that would take the administration to where it is expected to be in the next four years.
In seeking for greater productivity that would generate economic growth, lawlessness display on the roads which result in loss of man-hours will be curtiailed if traffic laws are obeyed. Thereore TIMA-RIV should be encouraged to step up the good work to ensure sanity on the roads.
Similarly, the much anticipated influx of investors into the state as the hub of oil and gas business in Nigeria as evident in the interest shown at the just concluded Rivers State Investors’ Forum 2011, would amount to a nullity if security of lives and property cannot be guaranteed. To cash in on the enthusiasm of foreign investors that would ultimately create employment opportunities for the teeming youths, residents of the State must cooperate with security agencies by giving information of surreptitious movements of men of the under world around their vicinity.
A common parable says that a good dance begins with the first step, it is hoped that the step taken by Governor Amaechi in the selection of his team and the zeal to actualize the target of bequeathing a legacy in the governance of the state would be pursued with greater vigour we match towards the terminal date of the government. History will tell.
Tamunoemi Harry
Opinion
Restoring Order, Delivering Good Governance
The political atmosphere in Rivers State has been anything but calm in 2025. Yet, a rare moment of unity was witnessed on Saturday, June 28, when Governor Siminalayi Fubara and Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Chief Nyesom Wike, appeared side by side at the funeral of Elder Temple Omezurike Onuoha, Wike’s late uncle. What could have passed for a routine condolence visit evolved into a significant political statement—a symbolic show of reconciliation in a state bruised by deep political strife.
The funeral, attended by dignitaries from across the nation, was more than a moment of shared grief. It became the public reflection of a private peace accord reached earlier at the Presidential Villa in Abuja. There, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu brought together Governor Fubara, Minister Wike, the suspended Speaker of the Rivers State House of Assembly, Martin Amaewhule, and other lawmakers to chart a new path forward.
For Rivers people, that truce is a beacon of hope. But they are not content with photo opportunities and promises. What they demand now is the immediate lifting of the state of emergency declared in March 2025, and the unconditional reinstatement of Governor Fubara, Deputy Governor Dr. Ngozi Odu, and all suspended lawmakers. They insist on the restoration of their democratic mandate.
President Tinubu’s decision to suspend the entire structure of Rivers State’s elected leadership and appoint a sole administrator was a drastic response to a deepening political crisis. While it may have prevented a complete breakdown in governance, it also robbed the people of their voice. That silence must now end.
The administrator, retired naval chief Ibok-Ette Ibas, has managed a caretaker role. But Rivers State cannot thrive under unelected stewardship. Democracy must return—not partially, not symbolically, but fully. President Tinubu has to ensure that the people’s will, expressed through the ballot, is restored in word and deed.
Governor Fubara, who will complete his six-month suspension by September, was elected to serve the people of Rivers, not to be sidelined by political intrigues. His return should not be ceremonial. It should come with the full powers and authority vested in him by the constitution and the mandate of Rivers citizens.
The people’s frustration is understandable. At the heart of the political crisis was a power tussle between loyalists of Fubara and those of Wike. Institutions, particularly the State House of Assembly, became battlegrounds. Attempts were made to impeach Fubara. The situation deteriorated into a full-blown crisis, and governance was nearly brought to its knees.
But the tide must now turn. With the Senate’s approval of a record ?1.485 trillion budget for Rivers State for 2025, a new opportunity has emerged. This budget is not just a fiscal document—it is a blueprint for transformation, allocating ?1.077 trillion for capital projects alone. Yet, without the governor’s reinstatement, its execution remains in doubt.
It is Governor Fubara, and only him, who possesses the people’s mandate to execute this ambitious budget. It is time for him to return to duty with vigor, responsibility, and a renewed sense of urgency. The people expect delivery—on roads, hospitals, schools, and job creation.
Rivers civil servants, recovering from neglect and under appreciation, should also continue to be a top priority. Fubara should continue to ensure timely payment of salaries, address pension issues, and create a more effective, motivated public workforce. This is how governance becomes real in people’s lives.
The “Rivers First” mantra with which Fubara campaigned is now being tested. That slogan should become policy. It must inform every appointment, every contract, every budget decision, and every reform. It must reflect the needs and aspirations of the ordinary Rivers person—not political patrons or vested interests.
Beyond infrastructure and administration, political healing is essential. Governor Fubara and Minister Wike must go beyond temporary peace. They should actively unite their camps and followers to form one strong political family. The future of Rivers cannot be built on division.
Political appointments, both at the Federal and State levels, must reflect a spirit of fairness, tolerance, and inclusivity. The days of political vendettas and exclusive lists must end. Every ethnic group, every gender, and every generation must feel included in the new Rivers project.
Rivers is too diverse to be governed by one faction. Lasting peace can only be built on concessions, maturity, and equity. The people are watching to see if the peace deal will lead to deeper understanding or simply paper over cracks in an already fragile political arrangement.
Wike, now a national figure as Minister of the FCT, has a responsibility to rise above the local fray and support the development of Rivers State. His influence should bring federal attention and investment to the state, not political interference or division.
Likewise, Fubara should lead with restraint, humility, and a focus on service delivery. His return should not be marked by revenge or political purges but by inclusive leadership that welcomes even former adversaries into the process of rebuilding the state.
“The people are no longer interested in power struggles. They want light in their streets, drugs in their hospitals, teachers in their classrooms, and jobs for their children. The politics of ego and entitlement have to give way to governance with purpose.
The appearance of both leaders at the funeral was a glimpse of what unity could look like. That moment should now evolve into a movement-one that prioritizes Rivers State over every personal ambition. Let it be the beginning of true reconciliation and progress.
As September draws near, the Federal government should act decisively to end the state of emergency and reinstate all suspended officials. Rivers State must return to constitutional order and normal democratic processes. This is the minimum requirement of good governance.
The crisis in Rivers has dragged on for too long. The truce is a step forward, but much more is needed. Reinstating Governor Fubara, implementing the ?1.485 trillion budget, and uniting political factions are now the urgent tasks ahead. Rivers people have suffered enough. It is time to restore leadership, rebuild trust, and finally put Rivers first.
By: Amieyeofori Ibim
Amieyeofori Ibim is former Editor of The Tide Newspapers, political analyst and public affairs commentator
Opinion
Checking Herdsmen Rampage
Do the Fulani herdsmen have an expansionists agenda, like their progenitor, Uthman Dan Fodio? Why are they everywhere even the remotest part of other areas in Nigeria harassing, maiming, raping and killing the owners of the land?”
In a swift reaction, The Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) decried and strongly condemned the invasion by suspected Fulani herdsmen.
In his denunciation, MOSOP President Fegalo Nsuke described the incident as very unfortunate and deeply troubling, warning against a recurrence of the violence experienced in Benue State. “The killing of yesterday is bad and very unfortunate. We are getting preliminary information about how the herders gained access to the farmland, and it appears some hoodlums may be collecting money and granting access illegally.”
He called on the Hausa community in Rivers State to intervene swiftly to prevent further attacks.
“We want the Hausa community in Rivers State to take urgent action to ensure these issues are resolved”.
But will such appeal and requests end the violent disposition of the Fulani herdsmen? It is not saying something new that the escalating threat and breach of peace across the country by the Fulani herdsmen or those suspected to be Fulani herdsmen, leaves much to be desired in a country that is bedevilled by multi-dimensional challenges and hydra-headed problems.
Some upland Local Government Areas of Rivers State, such as Etche, Omuma, Emohua, Ikwerre, Oyigbo, Abua, Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni, have severally recounted their ordeals, as herdsmen invaded farmlands, destroyed crops, raped female farmers and killed protestant residents.
Again the wanton destruction of lives and properties which no doubt has overwhelmed the Nigerian Police, makes the clamour for State Police, indispensable. The National Assembly should consider the amendment of the Constitution to allow States to have their Statutory policing agencies.
Opinion
Is Nigeria Democratic Nation?
As insurgency has risen to an all time high in the country were killings has now grown to be a normal daily activity in some part of the nation it may not be safe to say that Nigeria still practices democracy.
Several massacres coming from the Boko Haram and the herdsmen amongst all other insurgencies which have led to the destruction of homes and killing, burning of communities especially in the northern part of the country. All these put together are result of the ethnic battles that are fought between the tribes of Nigeria and this can be witnessed in Benue State where herders and farmers have been in constant clashes for ages. They have experienced nothing but casualties and unrest.
In the month of June 13-14, the Yelwata attack at the Guma Local Government Area by suspected gunmen or herdsmen who stormed the houses of innocent IDPs (Internally Displaced Persons) claiming the lives of families, both adults and children estimated to be 200 victims. They were all burnt alive by these unknown gunmen.
This has been recorded as one of the deadliest insurgencies that had happened in recent years. Some security personnel that were trying to fight the unknown gunmen also lost their lives.
Prior to the Yelewata attack, two days before the happening, similar conflict took place in Makurdi on June 11, 2025. 25 people were killed in the State. Even in Plateau State and the Southern Kaduna an attack also took place in the month of June.
All other states that make up the Middle Belt have been experiencing the farmers/herders clash for years now and it has persisted up till recent times, claiming lives of families and children, homes and lands, escalating in 2025 with coordinated assaults.
Various authorities and other villagers who fled for safety also blamed the herdsmen in the State for the attack that happened in Yelwata community.
Ehebha God’stime is an Intern with The Tide.
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