Featured
Wike, Nigeria’s Best Performing Gov …As RSG Rolls Out 15 Roads In Okochiri -Atiku
Former Vice President, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar has stated that the Rivers State Governor, Chief Nyesom Wike has continued to win the best governor’s award because of his state-wide delivery of relevant projects.
Speaking before commissioning 11 roads under the Isiokpo internal roads Phase 1 constructed by the administration of Governor Nyesom Wike in Ikwerre Local Government Area, yesterday, Abubakar said that Wike has won the “Governor of the Year Award” consecutively since 2016 because he was executing projects to improve the lives of the people.
He said: “Since May this year as part of the Third Anniversary of Governor Wike’s administration, one project is commissioned each day. The Isiokpo internal roads form part of the projects.
“No wonder, Governor Wike keeps winning the “Best Governor of the Year” consecutively since 2016. No governor has achieved that record. It will be very difficult to beat that record.
“I am extremely proud of Governor Wike’s achievements and we are proud of the governor’s leadership”.
The former vice president noted that he appreciates the quality of work done so far by Wike because he lived in Port Harcourt and understands the profound nature of the projects delivered.
In his remarks at the commissioning ceremony, Wike said that the second phase of Isiokpo internal roads would be completed before the end of this year.
The governor also announced that the Ibaa-Isiokpo Road would also be completed and commissioned by the end of the year.
Wike said that the commissioning of projects will be sustained because of the need to keep Nigerians informed on the massive infrastructural regeneration in the state.
The governor said the previous administration in the state could not commission projects because no projects existed.
“When we make promises, we fulfill our promises. We are not like those who make promises and give excuses why they cannot be achieved”, he said.
Wike urged Isiokpo people to reciprocate the developmental strides of his administration by ensuring they support PDP in 2019.
Former Rivers State Governor, Sir Celestine Omehia described the delivery of the Isiokpo internal roads as historic, saying that Wike has shown love to the people of the area.
Chairman of Ikwerre Local Government Area, Engr Samuel Nwanosike assured Wike that the people of the area will support his re-election, because he has done what their brother, Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi could not do for them.
In a project description, Rivers State Works Commissioner, Hon Dumnamene Dekor said that the majority of the 11 roads are completely new, while they span 11 kilometres, adding that the roads would boost agro-based businesses in the area.
There was traditional display of the Ekpo masquerades to mark the commissioning.
In a move to grow the economy of Okrika Local Government Area, Rivers State Governor, Chief Nyesom Wike, last Wednesday, rolled out 15 roads in Okochiri Kingdom.
The 15 roads comprise of one link road and 14 internal roads, constructed to boost connectivity of the ancient riverine community.
Commissioning the 11.5-kilometre Okochiri internal roads, Wike said that his administration resolved to construct the community roads to bring development to the people of the area.
He said with the completion of the Okochiri internal roads, economic activities will appreciate, alongside the improvement of the value of community lands.
“This is pure development to the people of Okochiri town. Now, the people will have access to their communities and the value of land will appreciate.
“We are executing projects and that is why we are commissioning projects. We want good things for our people. Therefore, we will continue to develop our communities”, the governor said.
While commending the people of the area for supporting the contractors to deliver, he lauded former minister of transport, Dr Abiye Sekibo and the Amayanabo of Okochiri, King Ateke Tom for placing their people ahead of personal considerations.
On the forthcoming elections, Wike said that his focus for now was to serve the people, noting that when it is time for politics, he would enter the political mode.
He said: “We are focused on working for the people of Rivers State. Our objective is to deliver. We are masters of this game. This is our job. When the time for politics comes, we will know the professionals”.
The former minister of transport, Dr Abiye Sekibo said with the kind gesture by the Rivers State governor, the Okrika people would support Wike 100 per cent.
“The support of Okrika people for Governor Wike has nothing to do with party politics. It is because he has wiped away the tears of our people.
“Governor Wike must accept our call on him to contest the 2019 General Election. We will contribute to buy the governorship form for him. Our people will deliver the votes”, Sekibo said.
He said though he served at different levels of government, he was unable to attract projects of this nature.
Sekibo, however, said that with his relationship with the Wike administration, he has been able to attract major road projects for his people.
“I can now look my people in the face and say that my relationship with government brought meaningful projects. For us, Okrika people, we have no choice but to stand with Governor Wike in 2019”, he said.
The Rivers State Works Commissioner, Hon Dumnamene Dekor said no roads existed in the area before Wike embarked on the construction of the internal roads.
In his remarks, Chairman of Okrika Local Government Area, Mr Philemon Iwoloma said that the roll out of the internal roads shows Wike’s love for grassroots development.
The occasion was attended by traditional rulers, youth and women groups.
The Amayanabo of Okochiri Kingdom, King Ateke Tom, in a speech read on his behalf, said Wike has made history by constructing and commissioning projects in the area.
Letters
Ban On Christians Fellowship In Universities
If the story making the rounds on two Nigerian universities being sued for allegation of their ban on Christian fellowship in the campus is anything to go by, then Nigeria is in for another trouble.
According to the story, the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Katsina State branch, in conjunction with an American conservative Christian legal advocacy group, Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF International), has instituted an action against two universities in Katsina State for indefinitely banning Christian groups from holding fellowship meetings and worship on campuses.
The suit was said to have been filed against the two universities for violating the right to religious freedom by “indefinitely prohibiting” Christian groups from holding fellowship meetings and worship on campus.
The Christian legal advocacy group further alleged that one of the universities enforced the ban by locking all worship and fellowship centre on university grounds, preventing Christian students and groups from accessing the facilities and banning them from meeting for worship and fellowship elsewhere on campus while their Muslim counterparts at both universities have been permitted to hold worship and fellowship meetings in university-constructed worship and meeting spaces.
Recall that in 2017, there was a news report on the outlaw of any other religious or tribal association on campus besides the Muslim Students Society of Nigeria by the authorities of the Umar Musa Yar’Adua University, Katsina, Katsina State. A circular credited to the institution’s acting Dean of Student Affairs, Dr. Sulaiman Kankara, which was later disowned by the university, contained the directive.
The last time I checked, Nigeria is a democratic, circular state where every individual is free to practise any religion of her choice. Section 38 of the Nigerian constitution provides: “Every person shall be entitled to freedom of thought, conscience and religion, including freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom (either alone or in community with others, and in public or in private) to manifest and propagate his religion or belief in worship, teaching, practice and observance.”
It is therefore wrong for a public university to indulge in this discriminatory act. A university is supposed to be an intellectual environment where people should be allowed some level of freedom. There must be robust fellowship and inter-faith relationship. People must be able to relate with each other without any discrimination or stigmatisation.
Knowing how delicate issues on religion are in Nigeria, one hopes that the authorities of the institutions concerned should swiftly look into the report and retrace their steps. The court should be objective in deciding the case and give students of other religions some leverage of freedom. It must be stated that the judgment on this case should not be delayed to avoid any retaliation in other parts of the country.
We already have a lot of issues to deal with in the country. Adding a religious crisis to it could be disastrous. Any university established and funded by either the federal, state or local government, should have freedom of religion. Let there be no more trouble in the country, please.
Waheed Abiodun,
Victoria Street,
Port Harcourt Township.
The NIMC, NCC Partnership
Reports have it that the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) and Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) disclosed that they have partnered to enhance seamless linkage of National Identification Number-SIM across the federation.
Both Commissions said that in recognising the significance of this initiative in enhancing security and improving service delivery, they were committed to improving processes and enhancing efficiency.
This is a welcome development. It has been worrisome why Nigerians should be made to go through the rigorous process of linking their National Identification Number (NIN) with their phone numbers every now and then. Some people who engage in online transactions have recorded some losses over the past few weeks as some internet providers barred their lines due to their inability to successfully do the linkage.
Two weeks ago, I went to a High Court for an official engagement and was shocked to see the number of people seeking to get court affidavits for the linkage of the NIN with the phone numbers so that their line will be unbarred.
It is therefore hoped that the NIMC, NCC partnership will remove all the bottlenecks surrounding the Nin, SIM linkage and make the process very seamless. It is also hoped that this will be the beginning of the process of proper identity management in the country and gradual collapse of all the various forms of identification – Drivers Licence, Voters Card, NIMC card. Bank cards etc into one identity card so that one would not have to be moving around with loads of identity cards.
Ebele Ubani,
Jabi, Abuja.
The Unwanted Strike
Just when the students of Nigeria public universities are rejoicing that there had been a no interruption in the universities’ academic calendar for sometiime, the news about the warning strike by the Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational and Associated Institutions (NASU) and the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities, (SSANU), broke.
The Joint Action Committee of the two organisations had directed members to commence a seven day warning strike last week, following the federal government’s inability to pay their four months’ withheld salary.
I do not even understand why the government should allow labour unions to down tools before acting on their demands. Did President Bola Tinubu not direct that university workers that were on prolonged strike in 2022 and their salaries stopped by the Muhammadu Buhari’s administration after the invocation of “No Work, No Pay” policy, should be paid four months of the withheld salaries?
Have members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) not been paid in line with the president’s directive? Why were SSANU, NASU and unions concerned not paid? These bodies issued an ultimatum to the federal government. Why was there no effort to address their grievances within the window period?
It is said that what is good for the goose is also good for the gander. So, the government, having paid ASUU, should also endeavour to settle SSANU and NASU so that there shall be no interruption in our academic calendar. We did no wrong by choosing public universities. Government, ASUU, SSANU, NASU and what have you should let us learn in peace and graduate at the record time like our colleagues in private universities, please.
IB Michael,
University of Port Harcourt,
Port Harcourt.
Letters
Obi Should Do More, Discordant Tunes On Minimum Wage, Akpabio’s Unguarded Comment
Obi Should Do More
The Presidential Candidate of the Labour Party (LP) in the 2023 election, Mr Peter Obi, has continued to voice out his opinion on the happenings in the country. On the budget padding scandal currently rocking the upper chamber of the National Assembly, he has told the Senate to provide Nigerians with some explanations on the matter.
He said the claims and counter-claims over the alleged N3 Trillion which was alleged by Senator Abdul Ningi to have been padded into the 2024 budget, requires proper explanation as to what Nigerians must need to know regarding management of the nation’s, insisting that the suspension of Senator Ningi for three months does not address the issue.
The Labour party chieftain had also expressed his concern over the hunger in the country a few days ago. He raised the alarm that Nigerians were spending all their money on food.
It is commendable of Obi to have stood with the masses at this critical time in the nation’s history and be critical of negative happenings in the country and bad government policies. However, Obi should do more than just criticising. It is said that “a tree cannot make a forest”. Therefore, Obi should galvanise all the law makers both on the national and state levels to tow the same line with him, which should be seen as the position of the Labour Party.
In 2023, there was a revolution in the country. People of all walks of life, of various religions and tribes trouped out in support of the labour party because they believed in Mr Peter Obi. People saw the Labour Party as a needed alternative to the two most populous political parties, PDP and APC. Based on Obi’s personality and popularity, some people who ordinarily would not have won councillorship positions in their communities were elected into state and national assemblies. Many of them won the elections for free, spending no shi shi.
Painfully, after assuming the exalted positions, many of them, especially those in the national assembly seem to have forgotten the masses. It is now business as usual. Among the seven senators and 36 House of Representative members of the Labour Party in the National Assembly, which one of them has moved a strong motion about the hardship currently being faced by the masses and how to address it? How many of them stood by Senator Ningi on the budget padding revelation? What out the exotic cars distributed to them, how many of them advised that they should go for less expensive cars and the excess money channelled into developmental projects? It has become a case of one not talking while on the dining table, right?
Obi should be able to organise his party to form a formidable opposition and a party that does things differently, a party that stands with the people. If the labour party elected political office holders carry on the way they have done since they came into office, they will keep de-marketing their party, forgetting that 2027 is just around the corner.
Ngozi Omeje,
Umuahia, Abia State.
Discordant Tunes On Minimum Wage
I have followed the discussion on the proposed new minimum wage with keen interest and I just hope the leadership of the organised labour will be firm enough to represent the workers and refuse to fall prey to the ploy to disunite them.
It is disheartening seeing workers come up with different amounts as the proposed minimum wage. While the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, demanded that South-West states should pay N794,000 the Trade Union Congress, TUC, asked for N447,000. Similarly, workers in the Federal Capital Territory demanded N709,000, while their counterparts in the North-West clamoured for N485,000.
This idea of singing in discordant tunes is not good for strong unionism. I recall my days as a civil servant in Ibadan, Oyo state. That was during the time of Adams Oshiomhole as the National President of the NLC. The labour union was a force to be reckoned with and whenever the workers barked, the government caught cold. The increase in workers’ wages was fought for as body. There was nothing like federal workers going to the left and the state workers going to the right. Of course then, in 2000, the TUC did not exist as a separate body. The entire workers spoke in unison.
Yes, the states did reserve the right to say whether they can pay the national minimum wage or not but the national body of the NLC was carried along in the negotiation. Please, the NLC and TUC should come together and present a common front in the new minimum wage quest and ensure that workers in the states also get a fair deal. If not, some of the greedy governors will continue to subject the workers to hardship.
Pa Micheal Adeniran,
Rumuogba Housing Estate, Port Harcourt.
Akpabio’s Unguarded Comment
“Today, he’s responding to a remark by the Governor that has nothing to do with him. The opposition is urging the Senate president to be mindful of his utterances. How can he turn the burial of late Access Bank CEO, Herbert Wigwe, wife and first son, such a sad moment, to a political attack?. It’s disappointing. That’s political recklessness taken too far. We, the opposition parties, won’t tolerate such utterances anymore if it continues.”
Above was the response of a member of the House of Representatives and Chairman, House Committee on Petroleum (Downstream), Hon. Ikenga Ugochinyere, to the Senate President, Senator Godswill Akpabio, unguarded remark on Gov. Siminalayi Fubara’s comment during the burial of the late Access Holdings Plc GCEO, Herbert Wigwe, wife and first son last weekend.
It is hoped that Akpabio will heed to the advice and learn how to talk in public. Tracing his character as a public servant and political office holder in various capacities over the years, one would notice that the senate president lacks the act of public speaking and carriage.
Was it not recently that he announced that the clerk of the house had sent money to each of the senators’ personal account for their holiday enjoyment only to be called to other and he changed it to ”In order to allow you to enjoy your holiday, the senate president has sent prayers to your mailboxes to assist you to go on a safe journey and return.” What about the “honourable minister off your mic” shameful display.
Whoever wants to die seeking public/political office should go ahead but leave our dear governor alone.
Loveth Opusunju
Minima, Opobo, Rivers State.
Featured
Fubara Promises Rivers Support For Wigwe Varsity …Cautions Political Class On Power Tussle
Rivers State Governor, Siminalayi Fubara, has promised the state government’s commitment to supporting Wigwe University.
Fubara disclosed this on Saturday after the funeral service of the late Chief Executive Officer of Access Holdings Plc, Herbert Wigwe, in Isiokpo, Ikwerre Local Government Area of Rivers State.
Wigwe, alongside his wife, Doreen, and son, Chizzy, died in a helicopter crash in California near the Nevada border, United States of America.
Also involved in the crash was the Chairman of Nigerian Exchange Group Plc, Abimbola Ogunbanjo.
The governor said, “I want to say our brother has finished his work, though short. We, as a government, will do everything with the Wigwe Foundation to immortalise one thing.
“It is not the bank, the bank might have a new identity, a new boss to run it, other ventures will also have their names; but one thing that has his name is Wigwe University.
“We will do everything within our power to make sure the dream will continue to live just as he has planned it.”
Fubara questioned the mourners as to why they kept chasing worldly desires, stressing the significance of impacting lives rather than struggling for power.
“This one has to do with the political class, what is all these struggle all about? You want to kill, you want to bury, what is it all about?
“This is a man who was not a politician, he made his money through our investments, he had the world in his palm financially, he controlled even the political classes; but today, with all the power financially couldn’t control life. Is it not enough to ask ourselves why are we struggling? Why are we not making an impact on the lives of our people?” he queried.
Dignitaries present at the funeral service include the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio; Chairman, Dangote Group, Alhaji Aliko Dangote; former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria , Sanusi Lamido; Governors Alex Otti (Abia) Dapo Abiodun (Ogun), and Babajide Sawwo-Olu (Lagos).
Other dignitaries are former governors Kayode Fayemi (Ekiti), Peter Obi (Anambra), Rotimi Amaechi (Rivers), Bukola Saraki (Kwarra), and James Ibori (Delta), among others.
-
Business4 days ago
NCS Signs MOU With Tax Board For Effective Management
-
News3 days ago
NiMet Forecasts Three-Day Sunshine, Haziness From Today
-
Niger Delta3 days ago
Gunmen Kidnap 10 In Edo
-
Nation2 days ago
Gombe Opens Bid For Construction Of Three-Arm Zone Project
-
Education4 days ago
Hardwork, Unwavering Focus Key To Success -VC
-
News3 days ago
How Kuriga School Students Were Rescued -DHQ
-
Niger Delta2 days ago
Cross River Commissioner Threatens School Principals With Sack Over Illegal Levies
-
Front Pix1 day ago
Our Legacy’ll Leave Lasting Impression On Rivers People -Fubara