Leadership can be likened to an art. Whoever does a work of art is called an artist. Works of art definitely spring forth from the heart, it is intrinsic. However, when work is elevated to an artistic level for instance through exemplary leadership, the arrowhead of such a feat can be regarded as an artist. Governor Amaechi could be called an artist in this sense.

In Rivers State, the administration of Governor Amaechi has, in unmistakable terms elevated leadership to an artistic height. His creative ingenuity in crafting a change from what used to be, could be termed an escape from the ordinary and an art of sorts.

Before the emergence of Governor Amaechi, the ordinary man in Rivers State had harboured a negative feeling towards governance. To the citizenry, a feeling that change cannot take place was a familiar sentiment. Change from the old order of contract abandonment, carry go, and sharing of the common wealth of the state was a far-fetched possibility. It was unthinkabl. Infrastructure, to say the least, was at the decaying level.

The health industry, hospitals and clinics were elevated to a prescription center where the presiding doctors and health officials only referred patients to their own privately run hospitals. Security of lives and property was as uncertain and dangerously threatened, Cult boys masquerading as ethnic militias held the state by the jugular. The education sector did not fare better as private schools took the shine off public schools with exorbitant fees which the common man could hardly afford. Power generation begged for a touch. Of course, Water Corporation and its responsibility of giving the people good drinking water was non-existence. Road network in the city capital of Port Harcourt was a sorry issue. No wonder, inter – city and intra-city commuting was a horrendous experience.

However, Governor Amaechi happened to be on the driving seat in the State as Governor and not only made change a reality, he made possible a radical drift from the old order. The masses felt a new breeze caress them. This he did by revamping the infrastructural decadence in the State. For the first time after the departure of Alfred Diette Spiff from the Brick House, the oil wealth in the State was turned into the people’s wealth.

Before Governor Amaechi’s rise to power, the Rivers man never believed a contract could be executed to its end. They never believed that the several roads being constructed today or re-furbished could be done not to talk of finishing them.

But before one could step into the Governor’s massive infrastructural turn-around programmes, there is the important need to talk of his battles with the cult boys in the State which culminated in one way or another into both the insecurity in the State and amnesty saga subsequently.

Quite alright, the Governor was not the one that granted amnesty but his initial refusal to negotiate any deal with militants as his predecessors had one, brought the message of his aversion to them to the fore. This approach made the militants realise the enormity of the menace they constitute to the state and to the masses.

And when it was as if there was to be an impasse in the understanding between his administration and the militants who insisted he must regularly settles them, Joint Military Task Force (JTF) was brought into the State to restore order. After this development security gradually began to sip through the state. The militants got cowed to a reasonable extent. Finally, the amnesty came eventually to help stamp out the menace of the cult boys. Today, Rivers State is one of the safest cities in the country.

Coming away from security, the Governor rolled out a massive agenda of road construction and refurbishment. This agenda has seen such roads like Rumuola to Rumuokwuta, Rumuokwuta to Choba through NTA, Rumuomasi to Rumuobiakani, Ohiamini road starting from Psychiatric Road to Rumuola, Rumuola to Elekahia link Road and a host of others scattered all over the state and not only Port Harcourt metropolis. While some of these roads have been competed others are nearing completion. The Eleme fly – over bridge under this scheme have equally been completed while others are on the verge of completion.

Education is another prominent sector where the governor could thumb himself and his administration up for having done well so far.

First of all, in order to ease the financial burden of Primary School Teachers salaries in the State, the governor elected to take over the payment of primary schools teachers’ salaries thereby creating more funds for the Local Government Chairman to plough into other projects. This impacted positively on the primary education system.

Again, Government further saw the need to inject new life into the primary schools sector and so a total of 350 model primary schools went under a new programme of construction. As at today, 70 to 80% of these schools have been completed. The Governor did not stop there. He followed the primary school style by initiating the construction of 24 new model boarding Secondary Schools all over the 23 local government areas of the state. This new determination to turn around the slide and the drift in education compelled the governor to personally supervise the construction works going on in these Secondary Schools. At the tertiary level, he initiated a bill in the Rivers State House of Assembly (RSHA) that gage birth to the establishment of a law elevating the Rivers State College of Education to University status.

Every sector of the economy under Amaechi’s administration has one reason or the other to blossom. Thus, in the health industry, 160 health centers have been constructed around the state. These have also been properly equipped with modern health apparatus to properly handle issues of primary health delivery. In the same vein, the secondary and tertiary health needs of the state got a boost through the upgrading of some existing hospitals, such as Niger Hospital Emenike street Port Harcourt.

Interestingly, in the health sector, the governor being aware that infrastructure alone cannot do the work has made the training and retraining of personnel to man state hospitals a cardinal programme of his administration through the recruitment of qualified medical personnels.

Unemployment which was one  of the reasons why all manner of vices reared their ugly heads in the metropolis and the state generally got a serious consideration with the establishment of the Ministry of Employment and Youth Empowerment. Sustainable development which was  to have a direct impact in the state through series of programmes geared towards emancipating the citizenry from the clutches of hunger and starvation had an agency of its own. Rivers State Sustainable Development Agency (RSSDA), an autonomous agency set up as multi-sector intervention agency under the office of the Governor to whom the RSSDA Directors report regularly. This statutory establishment with its enabling laws is empowered to undertake projects in a wide variety of areas including youth development and re-orientation, SMES, Education, health, Skills Acquisition, Employment, Local Government, etc.

Principally, the agency tackle rural poverty, build effective community institutions and viable local economies across the rural areas including urban slums but emphasis however here is on youth development.

Within its short period of existence, RSSDA has established scholarship schemes for indigent students both abroad and internally. Under this scheme, over 1,500 students are already studying aboard in different universities. The countries working in liason with RSSDA include UK, Singapore, Canada and Benin Republic, locally too, students are sponsored under this programme.

In agriculture, the agency has set a record in aquaculture and related sectors in the state. Basically, the agency has rigorously supported the production of catfish and fingerlings in the State where  millions fingerlings are produced every six weeks for fish multiplication. Cassava production is also supported while enhanced poultry primary is encourage with the stocking of over 45,000 layers which produce enormous quantity of eggs regularly.

To make sure that its programmes are sustained, the Rivers State Government works in concert with the World Bank, USAID, DFID, NNPC, SPDC, NDDC and other agencies of the Federal and Rivers State Government. According to the Director of the Agency, ‘sustainable development is holistic socio-economic transformation of the rural areas of Rivers State with a long term horizon which ensures that the needs of the rural dwellers are met. “This, “ he continued “could only be realised through results – oriented and professionally supported programmes and projects”

There is bountiful evidence to believe that the present Governor of Rivers State, Rt. Hon. Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi has no hidden agenda other than to beaqueath a profound legacy of enhanced development whenever he leaves office. However with the sustained and determined drive by the opposition to unseal him, one begins to wonder what the Governor is doing wrong. Is it his determination to revolutionise democracy with his open-door policy, grassroots development, Youth Empowerment, Education for all as is being planned, sustainable development, the construction of a greater Port Harcourt City, development, emancipation of the poor and the needy or what?

Whatever be his sins, the masses in the state are prepared to do any thing to have the hard working Governor come back, if not for any thing for the continuity of the numerous projects that dot the land most of which he either has completed or are between 60-70% in completion. He remains a pace setter.

We at the Center for Good Governance will believe that the people of Rivers State, having suffered so much deprivation should therefore have the best in terms of good leadership which Governor Amaechi exemplifies. Nevertheless should they allow partisan opposition intimidate his administration into capitulation we collectively have ourselves to blame. Continuity is essential in this time.

Nnamdiwrote in from Port Harcourt.

Engr. Chukwu Nnamdi