Counting Rewards Of State Creation The Rivers Example

It is difficult to appreciate what May 27, really means to the average Rivers man without a background information about the issues that engineered the clamour for a distinct political, socio-cultural and geographical entity and identity.

For the records, one of the reasons for that studied agitation for self-actualisation was the pressing need for a friendly political space that could guarantee the integration of the people who, being a collection of minority tribes within, not just the Nigerian State but also in the then Eastern Nigeria Regional  government, into whose hands laid, the hopes, needs and fears of the minorities.

Those were days when, the Enugu administration considered basic needs of the larger Igbo tribe as priority in comparism to those of the minorities in the siting of projects, appointments into regional and national offices, job placements, political integration, socio-economic emancipation and more projection of a cultural identity that was subsumed under the whims of Igbo values, as imposed by the powers that be.

Although various attempts were made in pre-independence years to address the peculiar deltaic challenges of what is today Rivers State, the efforts, though germaine could not sufficiently tackle the fluctuating fortunes of the peoples on one hand, and also the need for them to properly articulate their fears on the other.

That scenario indeed powered the struggle for a distinct political space, the granting of which in 1967, exactly 23 years ago yesterday, guaranteed the pivotal role both the people and government of Rivers State have continued to play in the affairs of the nation.

Forty years after, the harvest of that political space is indeed bountiful. Apart from countless ministerial appointments, leadership positions in the National Assembly, Ambassadorial postings and most importantly the new motivation to aspire to even the highest political positions in the land, a freedom which the pre-creation era denied the Rivers people, who were spitefully categorised as Igbos, the majority tribe within the then Eastern Region the Rivers State and its peoples are today a force to reckon with.

Instructively, the General Yakubu Gowon Federal government’s resolve to carve the old Rivers State out of the Eastern region, provided that required impetus, which the people and their leaders needed to define their own destiny, lay the necessary foundation for speedy infrastructural development, manpower building, political cohesion, ‘quasi-economic independence and also project the people’s varied rich and enviable culture.

Forty years after yesterday, Rivers people indeed have a reason to celebrate the creation of their state, in view of the preponderance of blessings, of visible examples of growth, development, empowerment and of an even stronger hope for a brighter future.

The Tide salutes the foresight of the founding fathers, the commitment of various Nigerians who had been part of the development process, be they non-indigenous military administrators or indigenous elected governors, the doggedness of the many elected representatives into both the state and National Assemblies, traditional rulers, the judiciary, the various ethnic groups and indeed all Rivers people , for making real meaning out of the creation of the state.

Coincidentally, both the first Military Administrator, then Navy lieutenant, Alfred Diete-Spiff and incumbent Governor Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi deserve Special eulogies for their amazingly ambitious, capital intensive but highly bold plausible and futuristic application of resources in vital areas of the state and with extra attention to education and health.

We salute Diete-Spiff for mooting the idea and eventual execution of projects like the state secretariat, the Point block; the Civic Centre, all in Port Harcourt,  countless industrial concerns to meet the state manpower needs many of which are today moribond; overseas scholarships to deserving indigenes of the state; construction of roads and establishment of the State College of Science and technology (CST) which later became the Rivers State University of Science and technology (RSUST). And the School of Basic Studies, now College of Arts and Science, Port Harcourt, not forgeting the building and equipping of general hospitals in several local government areas of the state, among many others.

In like manner, apparently appreciative of the fact that “next in importance to freedom and justice is functional education, without which neither freedom nor justice can be permanently maintained”, the incumbent state government has continued to pursue commendable reforms in the education, health and infrastructural development sectors of the state.

With more than 250 Model Primary Schools, a prototype Modern Secondary School in each of the 23 local government areas; 160 primary health centres, and construction of more than 506 kilometres of roads and many minor and major bridges among other empowerment efforts, Governor Amaechi’s government has not merely given Rivers people a reason to celebrate, it has given our children renewed hope for a better future.

As we count our blessings however, we must resolve to build stronger and more enduring bridges of love, unity and cohesion as a people bonded by same destiny and not see ourselves as a collection of rival ethnic nationalities mistakenly lumped together to eternally remain in competition with each other.

Instead, we must see our linguistic and cultural diversity as a source of strength, our various tongues as a beauty in variety and our Kaleidoscope of cultures, a joint heritage to be proud of.

That is how to sustain the harvest of blessings which 43 years of statehood has bestowed on us.

Congratulations, Rivers people.