Politics
Opposition In Rivers, On Terminal Decline – Hon. Herbert-Miller
Hon. Herbert-Miller
Honourable
Damiete Herbert-Miller is the Rivers State Commissioner for Social Welfare and Rehabilitation. Speaking with Opaka Dokubo in his office in Port Harcourt, he bared his mind on sundry issues in the polity including the withheld State Constituency results of DELGA and the ongoing restructuring effort of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) at the National level. Excerpts:
How do the people of Degema Local Govt. Area feel about the withholding of their house of Assembly Constituency Result by INEC?
Terribly disappointed, Degema people are terribly disappointed in INEC and the reason is obvious. The election was very peaceful, collations were made and declaration also made by one Mrs Ihuoma Ibekwe, I won’t forget her name, as the AEO, Degema. I do not know where it is written that after declaration the REC in the State will choose to withhold or confirm the declaration.
I think that the law is very clear in that anyone who has any issues with the declaration should head to the tribunal. So, Degema people are indeed disappoint in INEC on their handling of this matter.
Even though the candidate has gone to Court, are the people of Degema contemplating any other means of expressing their grievances?
Of course you know that the court is where anyone not satisfied with any process heads to. As it stands, any other measure outside going to the court to seek redress could amount to taking the law into your hands and Degema people know this too well as law abiding people. No Degema person would want this injustice redressed outside the ambit of the law. I think the candidate has done the most appropriate thing.
However, what is most surprising is that even as the candidate has taken INEC to court to release his certificate of return, APC and their candidate have also gone to court asking the court to prevail on INEC not to uphold his (the candidate of the PDP) victory but to issue the certificate of return instead. Logically, the APC and their candidate have also acknowledged that the candidate of the PDP, Hon. Doctor Farah Dagogo won the election.
Our contention is that INEC should issue Hon. Farah Dagogo his certificate of return and let the APC proceed to the tribunal to argue their case.
How does this absence of a representative in the State House of Assembly affect your people?
How can we go on without a representative? It is affecting us very badly because beyond the issue of representation, if anyone needs a letter of recommendation, that is the simplest service any representative renders to his constituents. As it stands now, the people of Degema Local Government Area have no one to render them that service.
Secondly, should anyone have something to bring to the notice of the government like communal issues, who will speak for the people? I am a commissioner but I can’t speak because my service area is the entire Rivers State. But the member representing the constituency is responsible to the constituency primarily because he was elected to do just that. So, it is an understatement to say that the absence of a representative for the people of Degema Local Government Area is affecting the people very badly.
How would you assess the performance of the Governor so far?
Sometime in February I went on tour to out stations under my ministry and of course you know that we’re the ones in charge of the deaf, the dumb and the blind. At the end of that tour I said something. I said that when I went to the Special School, the deaf have heard, the blind have seen and even the dumb have spoken that Governor Wike is working. It is as simple as that.
You don’t need to be told, go round Port Harcourt. Recall that on the 27th of May when the former governor was celebrating this birthday, he said that he would see where Governor Wike will get money to pay salaries, not to talk of money to do projects. Has he not been paying salaries? Is he not carrying out projects everywhere? Even Federal projects are not left out. Go and see what is happening to the Eleme Junction to Onne axis of the East/West Road. He has done it with Rivers’ money. Wike in short is a miracle worker.
How prepared is your Ministry to accommodate repentant cultists vis a vis the amnesty office established by the Governor?
This ministry actually has three rehabilitation centre. We have one at Iriebe where we accommodate the mentally challenged. We also have a rehabilitation centre at Borokiri where we have shut down at the moment for safety reasons. And then we have a modern, state-of-the-art rehabilitation camp at Okehi, so it’s not something we will have to task our heads on how to do.
Of course, you know that in this ministry, 90% of our staff are social workers and they are well equipped to handle rehabilitation cases. We’re fully prepared should we be required to shoulder that responsibility.
What is your task as a Ministry and How do you assess that task?
My ministry’s functions are spelt out and we operate within the law. Essentially, we provide social services to persons living with disability and to the needy generally. We take care of returnees and deportees. Beyond that we also take care of and rehabilitate repentant militants, rape victims, etc.
Recently we met with FIDA. Before FIDA we met with the Doctors Without Borders whose programme is centred on rape victims at the moment and we are partnering with them to set up a safe home for women and children who are affected.
At the moment we have the case of a little girl who was raped by her father and who eventually got pregnant and has a baby. We have just taken her and her baby in at the Children’s home, Borokiri.
It has to be understood that our ministry is a service ministry where you don’t see physical projects. The projects we carry out are mainly on human beings. That’s why many people fail to appreciate what we are doing. For instance, about two days ago I saw a youngman rolling on improvised means of mobility and I asked him to follow me. We got to the office and I handed him a wheel chair.
He could hardly contain himself with joy. If you go to the prison now, you will see a lot of juvenile inmates. They are our responsibility and where we accommodate them is the Remand Home.
If you go to our family Welfare unit, we handle more than 20 cases on a daily basis. We also take the responsibility of not only rehabilitating the mentally challenged but we also take the task of reuniting them with their families, sometimes outside the state, after a successful programme. Only a few months ago, we took somebody to Ogun State. At the moment we’re considering repatriating 10 young people to Cross River State to reunite with their families.
We need a lot of money to successfully run our programmes that includes giving assistance to the physically challenged as well we’re presently seeing one physically challenged through the University of Calabar. Of course government cannot carry this responsibility alone and that’s why we expect support and partnership from public spirited individuals and Corporate bodies.
Do you have confidence in the ongoing restructuring effort in the Peoples Democratic Party?
From 1998 when I joined the PDP until now, I have never lost confidence in the party. My confidence in the PDP can never be shaken. In a manner of speaking and at the risk of being misrepresented, I wish to say that it is after all blessing in disguise that the PDP allowed the APC to take poltical power at the federal level because today the emptiness of the APC has been exposed to the world.
Of course, Nigerians are wiser now and 2019 is as sure as the morning sun for the PDP to take back power in Nigeria. In terms of the economy, in what ways have they fared better? Everything they promised, has it not failed? Is the pump price of fuel now N40 as they said? Is the Naira now exchanging for one Naira to the US dollar? What is it they promised that they have delivered?
Of course, for as many as have left the PDP will come back because we will get stronger and stronger. Indeed, the results of the last elections in Rivers State is a testimony to the fact. In my particular village and ward, the leaders of the APC refused to show up during the elections because they know they were not on ground. Who will vote for them when all that they promised are collapsed? Their minister has nothing to lie about any more. They are on a terminal decline.
A senator who represented Taraba Central, Mr Abubakar Yusuf, has declared that the economic policies of President Bola Tinubu are not yielding the expected results.
His comment is one of the strongest internal critiques yet from within the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
The comment underscores the growing dissatisfaction within sections of the ruling party over the direction and impact of the administration’s economic reforms amid rising living costs and fiscal pressures across the country.
Mr Yusuf, who served in the Senate between 2015 and 2023 under the platform of the APC, made the remarks during an appearance on national television.
Responding to a question on whether the administration’s economic direction, often referred to as Tinubunomics, was working, Mr Yusuf answered in the contrary.
“For me, it is not working. I am a member of the APC. I would be the last person to hide the facts”, he said.
He said while the government might be operating diligently within its policy structure, the framework itself is ill-suited to Nigeria’s current realities
“Within the policy framework, yes, they are doing their best, but it is not the framework that is suitable for Nigeria at the point in time that President Asiwaju came into power,” he said.
Mr Yusuf criticised the immediate removal of fuel subsidy on the day the president was sworn in, arguing that the decision lacked sufficient consultation and planning.
“I am one of those who say President Asiwaju ought to have waited. Not on the day he was sworn in to say subsidy is gone. On what basis?”, he asked.
He urged broader engagement before major fiscal decisions are taken.
“Sit down with your cabinet, sit down with your ministers, sit down with your advisers,” he said, dismissing the argument that subsidy removal was justified solely on grounds of corruption.
The former lawmaker identified “structural flaws” in the country’s budgeting system, particularly the envelope budgeting model.
“One of the basic problems is that before you budget, you should have a plan. The envelope system we have been operating has been you budget before you plan. That has been a major issue”, he said.
He argued that allocating spending ceilings without aligning them to concrete development strategies inevitably weakens implementation and delivery.
“If you give me an envelope which is contrary to my plan, whether it is plus or minus, there is no way I am going to implement my plan. It is bound to fail,” he said.
Mr Yusuf called for the scrapping of the envelope budgeting system, noting that he had consistently opposed it even during his years in the National Assembly.
“It is not good for us. It is not going to work well for us,” he said.
He further blamed poor capital releases and persistent deficit financing for undermining budget performance over the years.
“We could not meet 60 percent of our capital budget in all these years. No releases. If you make a budget and the release is very poor, there is no way the budget will be executed”, he stated.
According to him, weak fund disbursement mechanisms and reliance on deficit financing have entrenched a cycle of underperformance.
“Our budget ought to have been a surplus budget, but all our budgets have always been deficit financing budgets,” Mr Yusuf added.
The Nigerian House of Representatives has resolved to reconvene for an emergency session tomorrow February 17, 2026, to deliberate on issues arising from the Independent National Electoral Commission’s (INEC) release of the timetable for the 2027 general elections.
The decision was disclosed in a statement issued by the House Spokesman, Rep. Akin Rotimi, who described the electoral body’s announcement as one of “constitutional and national significance.”
INEC had fixed February 20, 2027, for the Presidential and National Assembly elections.
According to the statement, members of the Green Chamber were notified of the emergency sitting through an internal memorandum from the Speaker’s office.
The session is expected to focus on legislative matters connected to the newly released timetable, reflecting the House’s resolve to act promptly on issues affecting the nation’s democratic process.
Rep. Rotimi noted that all related businesses would be treated with urgency and urged lawmakers to prioritise attendance in view of the importance of the deliberations.
INEC had on Friday formally unveiled the comprehensive schedule for the 2027 polls, including timelines for party primaries slated for July to September 2026, as well as the commencement of Continuous Voter Registration in April 2026.
The development comes amid ongoing consultations and proposed amendments to the Electoral Act ahead of the 2027 general elections.
As the controversy over the transmission of election results continues across the country, the Defence For Human Rights And Democracy (DHRD), a pro democracy organisation in the country, has criticised the National Assembly for not giving express approval to real time transmission of elections results.
To this end, the group is calling on all civil society organisations in the country to mobilise and push for a better Electoral Reform in the country.
This was contained in a press statement titled, “Defence For Human Rights and Democracy Demands Real Time Election Transmission of Result”, a copy of which was made available to newsmen in Port Harcourt.
The group described the refusal of compulsory real time transmission of result results by the Senate as undemocratic, adding that the situation will give room for election manipulation, rigging and voters apathy.
It said that the provision of mandatory real time transmission of election results would have significant improvement on the nation’s democracy.
According to the statement, “Since the return of democracy in 1999 to date, it is 27 years, so our Democracy has metamorphosed from being nascent and as such significant improvement should have been recorded.
“Defence For Human Rights And Democracy (DHRD), is really disappointed at the National Assembly, especially the upper chamber (Senate) for not approving ‘Real Time Electronic Transmission of Election Result’.
“This undemocratic act of theirs, if not tamed, will give room for election manipulation and rigging’”.
Signed by Comrade Clifford Christopher Solomon on behalf of the organisation, the statement further said, “The Defence For Human Rights and Democracy unequivocally supports real time transmission of election result”, stressing that his group will resist any act by the National Assembly to undermine the nation’s democracy.
“DHRD,unequivocally supports ‘True Democracy’, which is Government of the people, by the people and for the people.
“Therefore, anything that will crash the hope of Nigerians to Freely, Fairly and Transparently elect candidates of their choice in any given election should and will be vehemently resisted because good governance begins with leaders elected through credible process. By so doing, leaders have entered a social contract with the citizens to equitably manage their affairs and abundant resources”, the statement added.
It urged the National Assembly to revisit the issue in order to avoid civil unrest.
According to the DHRD, “To avoid civil unrest,voters apathy, election rigging and manipulation, rather to promote citizens participation, advancing our Democracy and entrenching free, fair, credible and acceptable electoral outcome, the National Assembly should amend the electoral act in a manner that will deepen our democracy and boost citizens confidence.
“On this note, The Defence For Human Rights And Democracy (DHRD), is calling on all other civil society organisations (CSOs) to mobilise, organise and push for a better electoral act amendment by the National Assembly”.
By: John Bibor