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Rivers Marks World Community Dev Day …Harps On Legislative, Executive Harmony
Rivers State Governor, Rt. Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, has said community participation is an integral part in providing sustainable development and “an engine of societal growth.”
Governor Amaechi made this remark, yesterday, during the 2012 World Community Development Day celebration with the theme: “Self-Help: Panacea to Underdevelopment in Communities”, held at the Community Development Training Centre, Aluu in Ikwerre Local Government Area.
Represented by his Deputy, Engr Tele Ikuru, Governor Amaechi said no investor would come to a community where people were confrontational in their approach, and making un-necessary demands, stating that “for our community to grow, the individual in the community must live to their responsibility and create an atmosphere devoid of violence and acrimony”.
The State Chief Executive called on community leaders to begin to look inwards because “every community has one resources or another deposited by God”, that needed to be harnessed for the development of the community, rather than engage in unproductive ventures and wait for government to do everything for the community.”
Speaking, the Chairman of the occasion and former Secretary to the State Government, Chief Sampson Agbaru, said there were abundant yet untapped resources in the rural areas, which if well developed would go a long way in creating jobs for the teeming youths in the state, and called on all hands to be on deck for the development of the community.
In his address, the organizer of the event, Commissioner for Chieftaincy and Community Affairs, Mr Charles Okaye, said the programme was aimed at rekindling the zeal and role of community leaders for people to come together at the community level towards achieving common goals of transforming their community through self help intervention.
In a paper titled, “Making Self Help A Reality,” chairman, Nigeria Institutie of Public Relations (NIPR), Rivers State, Barr Karibi George, stressed the need for communities to adopt the self-help approach, which “dates back to mythic times, when governments had not been structured as they are today,” urging government to come up with incentives, ranging from grants and awards to communities, which have the best self-help project, adding that “self-help remains the platform for protecting the establishment and sustenance of government projects in communities.”
Meanwhile, the Secretary to the Rivers State Government, George Feyii, says it is essential for the legislative and the executive arms of the government in the state to work together.
He spoke when the chairman, Hon. Ikuinyi Owaji Ibani and other members of the State House Committee on the Office of the Secretary to the State Government, Head of Service, Establishment and Pension visited him Tuesday in his office as part of their oversight functions.
The SSG said, “for the success of governance it should be seen and registered in any place in the state like ours that collaboration between the legislature and the executive is absolutely essential. There are no reasons why we should see it otherwise. Only those who cannot appreciate the complexity of governance will feel otherwise.
“All of the institutions of governance have been established to achieve specific purpose within the overall process of governance. If you are placed in charge of any particular duty and there is no need for somebody to ask you how have you done this, there are things that you will take for granted, there are things that you will do which otherwise you wouldn’t have done,” he added.
Continuing, the SSG said, “So, there is need for checks and balances at all times and the role that the legislature plays is crucial because it is the role the legislature plays that brings about order. You make laws with which business of governance is carried out. If those laws were not there, there would be no order in the way that things are done, so we quite appreciate the role that you play”.
Feyii also thanked the House Committee members for the visit.
Speaking earlier, the House Committee Chairman, Hon Ikuinyi Owaji Ibani said, “we are here for a simple reason that as legislators it behoves on us given the mandate as assigned to all State Assemblies to carry out or perform some oversight duties on other arms of government and I think that in democratic societies, if institutions are allowed to run on their own and do what they are supposed to do, you find out that governance becomes easier.
“Once an institution is so established and there is a system in place, it means the institution has grown beyond an individual in which case it will run and perform its duties and functions as assigned. So we are only vehicles through which such duties will be carried out and as a vehicle, as a means to achieving that if you don’t want to live up to your responsibility as assigned in some cases you find lapses and decay,” he said.
Hon Ibani said the State Assembly would not be confrontational with the executive. He said there would always be cordial relationship between the state’s legislature and the executive.
“So I think that if we actually need development for our people, we want our people to prosper, there should be that synergy between the executive arm and the legislative arm of government so that we should always be on the same pace of policies, programmes and implementation and I think principally that’s what we are doing,” he concluded.
Rivers State Head of Service, Dr (Mrs) Inyingi Brown, has called on rural communities in the State to embrace the Rural Access and Agricultural marketing project (RAAMP) with a view to improving their living conditions.
This follows the ongoing sensitization campaign by the State Project Implementation Unit (SPIU) visits to Degema, Abonnema, Afam headquarters of Degema, Akuku Toru and Oyigbo Etche and Omuma local government areas respectively.
Dr Brown who was represented by the Deputy Director, Special Duties in her office, Mrs Dein Akpanah, said RAAMP was initiated by the Federal Government and World Bank to economically empower rural dwellers.s
She said the World Bank understands the plights of rural farmers and traders in the State, and therefore came up with the programme to address them.
According to her, RAAMP will improve the conditions of farmers, traders and fishermen, and therefore, behoves on every rural communities in the State to embrace the programme.
The Head of Service also said the programme would support the youths to be gainfully employed while bridges and roads will be built to link farms and fishing settlements.
Also speaking, the State project coordinator, Mr Joshua Kpakol, said the programme has the potential of creating millionaires among farmers and fishermen in the State.
Kpakol who was represented by Engr. Sam Tombari, said RAAMP would help farmers and fishermen to preserve their produce.
According to him, the project will build cold rooms and Silos for preservation of crops and fishes while access roads will also be created to link farmers and fishermen to the market.
He, however, warned them against any act that will lead to the suspension of the projects by the World Bank.
Kpakol particularly warned against acts such as kidnapping, marching ground, gender based violence and child labour, adding that such acts if they occur may lead to the cancellation of the project by the World Bank.
During the visit to Oyigbo local government area, Mr Joshua Kpakol, said the team was there to let them know how they will benefit from the Raamp.
The coordinator who was personally at Oyigbo said the World Bank introduced the project to check food insecurity in the State.
He said already 19 states in Nigeria are already benefitting from the project and called on them to embrace the project.
Meanwhile, stakeholders in the three local government areas have commended the World Bank for including their areas in the project.
They, however, complained over the incessant attacks by pirates on their waterways.
At Degema, King Agolia of Ke kingdom said land was a major problem in the kingdom.
King Agolia represented by High Chief Alpheus Damiebi said many indigenes of the kingdom are willing to go into farming but are handicapped by lack of land.
Also at Degema, the representative of the Omu Onyam Ekeim of Usokun Degema kingdom, Osoabo Isaac, said Degema has embraced the programme but needed more information on the implementation of the programme.
Similarly, while High Chief Precious Abadi advised that the project should not be narrowed to only crop farming, a community women leader, Mrs Orikinge Eremabo Otto, called for the construction of cold rooms in all fishing settlements in the area.
At Abonnema, Mr Diamond Kio linked the problem of the area to incessant piracy along waterways.
He also expressed fears over the possibility of the project being hijacked by politicians.
Also at Abonnema, a stakeholder, Ikiriko Kelvin, called on the World Bank to design an agricultural project that will suit the riverine environment, while at Oyigbo, HRH Eze Boniface Akawo expressed satisfaction with the project.
John Bibor
The political mudslinging between the Senate leadership and Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan continued yesterday as the Senate named Senator Aniekan Bassey as the new Chairman of the Committee on Diaspora and Non-Governmental Organisations.
Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, announced the appointment during yesterday’s plenary, confirming Bassey’s replacement of Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, who is currently on suspension.
Akpoti-Uduaghan was reassigned to the Diaspora and NGOs Committee in February after she was removed as Chair of the Senate Committee on Local Content during a minor reshuffle.
Bassey is the senator representing Akwa Ibom North-East Senatorial District.
Although no reason was given for her removal yesterday, the change is believed to be connected to her unresolved suspension.
In May, Justice Binta Nyako of the Federal High Court ordered her reinstatement and directed her to tender an apology to the Senate.
However, the Senate has insisted it has not received a certified true copy of the court judgment.
Akpoti-Uduaghan who represents Kogi Central, has yet to resume her legislative duties despite a recent court ruling that voided her suspension.
In a televised interview on Tuesday, Akpoti-Uduaghan said she was awaiting the Certified True Copy of the judgment before officially returning to plenary, citing legal advice and respect for institutional process.
Although the Federal High Court described her suspension as “excessive and unconstitutional”, a legal opinion dated July 5 and attributed to the Senate’s counsel, Paul Daudu (SAN), argued that the ruling lacked any binding directive to enforce her reinstatement.
Akpoti-Uduaghan, one of only three female senators in the current assembly, said the continued delay in allowing her return was not only a denial of her mandate but also a blow to democratic representation.
“By keeping me out of the chambers, the Senate is not just silencing Kogi Central, it’s denying Nigerian women and children representation. We are only three female senators now, down from eight,” she said.