On Ugly State Of Elioparanwo Road

Government is all about managing the resources and common wealth of the people in other that no co-operate entity or strata of the area under governance should fall short or suffer deficiency in profiting from the accruement. And according to John Caldwell Calhoun, the essence of a free government consists in considering officers as public trust, bestowed for the good of the country, and not for the benefit of individual or party. An every  distribution of resources, amenities and infrastructure brings about the needed all-round development of a state, local or federal which is the bane of a true democracy – immeasurable dividend that has no bound! It is not all about watery speeches of propaganda that do not produce any result. And it is not all about media amplification, exaggeration or trumpeting of every little project executed as if been done out of personal aggrandizement, effort and charity.

For an area to be in the enclave of the famous Garden City Port Harcourt and stay for over ten years now without light and access road is suicidal. This is the true situation of Elioparanwo axis of Obio/Akpor L.G.A. of Rivers State. It is a very pathetic and pitiable condition that this very important ancestral Ikwerre community is cut up completely from Port Harcourt even when a son-of-the-soil is at the helm of the affairs of the state. How can this peaceful community with its high density population, law abiding citizens who pay their taxes and levies to the respective state and local government, live for over ten years now without enjoying the dividend of their taxes, if not even democracy? What is their guilt that cannot be forgiven by the governments? It is absolutely beyond description and mentioning that no part of Elioparanwo is accessible by road. The entire place is locked-up and surrounded by rivers or pools of water that could be swam or canoed during the raining season. And in the dry season, the forged style up and down, nature of the uncared road is capable of causing miscarriage and premature labour. The inlet and outlet into their area is more or less a death-trap.

The consequences of the absence of this basic and important infrastructures are very enormous and can never be overemphasized. The cost of running generator, environmental hazard, increase in social vices, high mortality and morbidity rate, menace of endemic diseases occurrence and many more risk factors are associated and on the increase geometrically everyday in the area. This is very sad.

But we have a government that seems to be working and delivering. Then, why should Elioparanwo be forgotten, abandoned and relegated to the background of underdevelopment? We also discovered in our analysis and finding that Elioparanwo is not alone in this saga. Places like Eneka, Rukpukwu, Oro-Igwe Elimgbu, Eliozu and many more are also singing the same song. In another words, who are we holding responsible, is it the local government of Obio/Akpor or the Rivers State Government?

This call to save the soul of people living in Elioparanwo community especially and other suffering similar fits has become imperative because I strongly agreed with the word of Edmund Burke that “Government is a contrivance of human wisdom to provide for human wants. Men have a right that these want should be provided for by this wisdom.” So every representative in government, from the lowest councillor to the biggest man owes the people not his industry only but his judgement (good sense) and he betrays the people instead of serving them when he sacrifices it to their opinion.

It is not all about embarking on elephant projects that might not be completed within the limit of tenureship and become abandoned by successive administration. And it is not also all about construction, demolishing and reconstructing the same project of the same purposes over and over again. It is all about providing something tangible that is of an immediate need that could touch on the life of the scripturally advised to seek first the Kingdom of God and every other thing shall be added unto you. This implies that priority should be the key to goal and achievement. Government should be able to give the people the basic and golden amenities and other associated, supplementary gains shall come as corresponding factors and subsidiaries of such an enabling environment.

Let our listening and dynamic governor, Rt. Hon. Chubuike Rotimi Amawechi (CON) with his amiable team think twice and come to the aid of million of people living in Elioparanwo area of Rivers State. Long live Rivers State.

Tordee a public affairs analysts reside in Port Harcourt.

Manson Tordee