Opinion
The Youth And Future Leadership
What does the future hold for the average Nigerian youth? Are the majority of the youths fully engaged? If the nation fails in empowering the youth, it is most certain that social conditions might make them occupy themselves with that which is not glorifying and dignifying.
Who are the youths? Let me take as illustration, from teenagers to those who are 49 years as the youths. What are people saying about them?
The society calls them promising nation builders, the socio-political system calls them future leaders; and the church leaders call them the pillars of the church.
The economists in their classification of the human life show how each era succeeds the other. A child at infancy to 18 years depends on the parents. The child later grows up and becomes father or mother with responsibilities. It is this stage that Prof. Tekena Tamuno of the Economics Department, University of Port Harcourt, calls the working class, which I will dwell on a little. It is clear that when parents are old and can not fend for themselves as a result of old age, the children who are the working class take care of them. Thus, parents depend on their children at their old age!
My concern, therefore, is that our youths (tomorrow’s leaders) must not be allowed to waste away. It is equally true that government cannot do everything, yet they can assist greatly in order to help our youths to be ganged in one activity or the other. I am not an economist or prophet of doom; but I still have my reservations or permutation that the workers in different ministries and parastatals far out-number the youths that are unemployed. Wherein lies the problem? We are not saying the problem is illiteracy; neither can we say it is incapacitation.
Government, in its own way, should create thousands of jobs yearly to meet up with the burden of today’s unemployment rate. My heart was troubled on Friday, 17th of June, when yet another set of thousands of NYSC members were participating in the passing out parade at Isaac Boro Park in Port Harcourt. Imagine the proportion or addition such number across the states will be for the 36 states of the federation. My guess is as good as yours.
This is not the time for government to fold hands. The Ministry of Economic Planning should put the youths in its yearly employment plans even if it will be hundreds or thousands of jobs. I know the private sector players are also doing their best. However, if the ministries of youths and economic planning take this into consideration religiously every year, the turn-over yearly will make government and the governed to have the last laugh.
It reminds me of a few weeks ago when the Rivers State Ministry of Employment Generation and Economic Empowerment was carrying out an employment scheme for youths. I went to see for myself but the crowd scared me. I have to beat a retreat after inquiring what was happening. In fact the number of youths who stormed the venue was startling.
I advise government to execute the plan, since the youths have confidence in the government. Employment must be on merit and should not be politicized. It is my prayer that majority of the youths will be employed while government sustains the scheme for the future growth of the nation.
Recently, governments disarmed the militants and engaged them meaningfully. However, the “Boko Haram” religious sect operating in our neighbouring states in the North is still threatening the existence of the federation as more killings, bombings, among others, are still being unleashed in broad day light by jobless youths.
Let’s look at it, if the government takes it as a policy to employ 2,000 to 5,000 youths every year in productive activities while also engaging the remaining ones in non-violent activities through skills training and inculcation of morals in them while awaiting their time of employment, this ugly situation will recede. I want to see Nigeria so strong like America operating the same federal system like us (even if there are some imperfections in the Nigerian system) to care for the youths, employ and empower them. Since wastage demands weeping, I believe the government, in each state, should compile names of those unemployed and those employed. Though the work is not easy but it is worth the effort.
Government has great responsibility, mostly here in Rivers State. The throngs of employable youths scattered here and there calls for weeping and mourning. The Chibuike Amaechi administration can help a little before the four-year tenure elapses. We expect to see sufficient investment in and employment of more youths of the state in productive and sustainable activities.
The future rests on the youths. They must not do anything evil or inimical to development. Government needs to urgently come to their aid. The Niger Delta states need not cry over poverty. Most youths have certificates but they also have aged parents. Truly, it calls for lamentation.
Frankly speaking, the only way Rivers youths can crush poverty is through meaningful employment, vocational and skills acquisition programme. These precious youths must not waste away. Their tears, aged parents, certificates, gifts and natural endowments must also not waste away. The youths are today’s seed planted for tomorrow’s leadership. Let’s not allow them to waste anymore.
Harry writes from Port Harcourt.
Amaechi’s Governance: An Appraisal
POLITICS; 1
Felix Okogbule
The present democratic dispensation in the state under the leadership of Governor Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi has significantly been described differently by people with equally varying degrees of opinion.
This is reflected in the popular hackneyed cliche of different strokes for different folks.
Notwithstanding the misconception about the government particularly by the opposition political parties, the Governor has continued to add more feathers to his cap, thanks to the federal government for recognizing the contributions of Governor Amaechi towards the development of Rivers State and indeed Nigeria by honouring him with the Commander of the Ortder of the Niger (CON).
Just recently, the governor left no one in doubt about his determination to make a difference in the leadership of the state. He probably must have taken some tutorials and wants to break away from the past to avoid been hunted by history for acts of Omission or commission while superintending over the affairs of the state.
The governor took a bold initiative when members of his cabinet, Permanent Secretaries and all heads of other model Songhai farm in Bunu, Tai local government area to take critical retrospective analysis of his administration’s first tenure and to design a road map for the last lap of the government to ensure a clean departure from the morass of abandoned projects upon leaving office.
The environment was serene, atmosphere pleasantly conducive for meaningful discussion and the event was the 2011 strategy Retreat organized by the State government for top functionaries of government to take stock of previous performances with a view to proffering workable perameters for achieving sutainable development and thereby fulfilling the electioneering campaign promises to Rivers people.
When the governor visited the state Songhai farm earlier in one of his inspection tours, and told newsmen that the farm settlement would be the venue for the State Strategy retreat for the egg heads in government, not many people believed that the pronouncement had a pinch of salt, including yours truly.
The reason for our unbelief were simply based on the antecedents of past government retreats or call it executive talk shows where new government officials get their baptism in the practice of protocols which involves all the attributes of those serving in government such as telling deliberate falsehood except for the mysterious God that is all-knowing.
To the dismay of many, the retreat gathered the long and mighty serving in the present administration at the Songhai farm as against the luxury of a five-Star hotel or its equivalent for one week that the programme lasted. While many criticized the decision for virtually shutting down government business during the period, others were of the view that the approach demonstrated the importance the governor attaches to the outcome of the brain storming session to aid in realizing the vision of the government.
Another underlying benefit is the improvement in facilities provided at the Songhai Farm which has been transformed into an agro-tourist centre for the state as over 60 retreat participants were accommodated at the farm including the state chief executive himself. This obviously had reinjected funds into the system rather than expending huge funds in a private hotel either in Port Harcourt or any other city like Calabar.
Addressing participants at the opening session, Governor Amaechi charged them to painstakingly pin-point flaws inherent in the government desire to serve Rivers people better. In his usual characteristics, he raised a number of mind bgoggling questions bordering on honesty, transparency and accountability as well as the perception of the people on the performance of the government after the first – tenure.
He prophetically opined that the popularity earned by his administration is diminishing faster than the evening shadow and warned political appointees to jettison the euphoria of being in office and guard their loins for service, noting that the retreat was designed at proffering solution to the leakages in government structure to meet the yearnings of the people by delivering dividends of democracy to them.
The governor provoked and challenged participants in these words, “have we achieved our objective in government? The answer is certainly no, therefore you must work out template that would drive the road map towards realizing the vision of the present administration”, and directed all the commissioners to itemize projects not completed in their various Ministries for proper funding, monitoring and eventual completion.
It is no longer news that the determination and focus of government is to consolidate on the progress made by the administration in providing social infrastructure for the people that would uplift the living standard but the despicable act of leaving government projects unmonitoried perverts the trite presage of delivering quality services to the people.
There is no gain saying the fact that only the visioner can propel his vision to frustration, although, inspite of the enthused criticism of some of the state government’s policies and programmes, credit must be given to the visible effort to reposition the state for a better tomorrow by the present administration.
The retreat which had resource papers from renowed experts in different fileds also witnessed presentation of progress reports by some ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) which were critically assessed in an attempt to arriving at potent threashold for “deliverables”.
In responding to the Palpable and Manifest distract, suspicion and lack of genuine interest to completing contractual obligation by government contractors, the participants resolved to identify plausible ways of averting delays in project execution while those found culpable of collecting money and fail to carry out such projects would face the full weight of the law.
It is imperative to mention that the enactment of the law and the establishment of a Bureau on Public Procurement (BoPP) otherwise called Due Process was not to cause delay in the execution of government projects but to ensure compliance with best practices in award of contracts to check manipulation associated with the exercise in the past.
However, they are to function to save funds and to realise that government needs to fulfill its promises of better services to the people within the short time available.
To that effect, it has become necessary to strengthen institutions of government through energy within the system to have an integrated coordination of executing programmes and policies of government to avoid duplication. The road map to 2015 had been streamlined by inputting methods of measuring and evaluating performance by giving time lag to the completion of projects as the monitoring and supervision inter ministerial committee under the office of the Secretary to the state government would ensure strict adherence.
According to the governor, government did not feign ignorance of the suffering of residents of Port Harcourt and its environs especially during the rainy period but had consistently appealed for patience and ancillary understanding. No wonder that remedical work are being carried out in some bad portions of the road while road contractors have equally been mobilized to site to capitalize on the dry season and complete their jobs.
The Secretary to State Government Mr. George Feyii, said the retreat was to come together, chart a news course on the direction of government by looking critically at the present situation and come up with a strategy that would take the administration to where it is expected to be in the next four years.
In seeking for greater productivity that would generate economic growth, lawlessness display on the roads which result in loss of man-hours will be curtiailed if traffic laws are obeyed. Thereore TIMA-RIV should be encouraged to step up the good work to ensure sanity on the roads.
Similarly, the much anticipated influx of investors into the state as the hub of oil and gas business in Nigeria as evident in the interest shown at the just concluded Rivers State Investors’ Forum 2011, would amount to a nullity if security of lives and property cannot be guaranteed. To cash in on the enthusiasm of foreign investors that would ultimately create employment opportunities for the teeming youths, residents of the State must cooperate with security agencies by giving information of surreptitious movements of men of the under world around their vicinity.
A common parable says that a good dance begins with the first step, it is hoped that the step taken by Governor Amaechi in the selection of his team and the zeal to actualize the target of bequeathing a legacy in the governance of the state would be pursued with greater vigour we match towards the terminal date of the government. History will tell.
Tamunoemi Harry
The Federal Government’s approval of a N70,000 monthly transport intervention for public service workers for six months, beginning in November 2026, offers hope to employees struggling with the rising cost of living. The agreement with the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), reached at a conciliation meeting in Abuja on October 27, is intended to cushion transport costs and ease pressure on workers’ incomes. But for public servants in Rivers State, it raises a familiar question: will the State Government key into the intervention and ensure that its workers benefit? The agreement provides for N70,000 monthly across all levels, for six months. The Federal Government also approved peculiar allowance arrears effective from May 1, 2026, to be paid in three equal instalments beginning in November.
The parties agreed to reconvene after one month to assess implementation. Ultimately, the value of these resolutions will be measured not by announcements but by whether eligible workers receive the money. Transport costs consume a substantial share of many civil servants’ earnings before they can meet household needs. Support for commuting is therefore not a luxury or political favour; it is temporary assistance to help workers remain at their jobs without sinking further into hardship. For lower-paid employees, transport costs can turn modest salaries into a daily exercise in difficult choices and sacrifice.
The agreement also urges State and Local Governments to participate and unions to press for implementation. The federal agreement does not automatically guarantee that every State and Local Government employee will receive the support. State authorities must clarify how it will apply to their workforce, make the necessary arrangements and publish a payment timetable. Rivers State must approach the arrangement with urgency and transparency. The Government should State whether it will implement the intervention and when payments will begin. Any administrative or financial question should be addressed promptly with organised labour, not allowed to become excuses for delay.
The concern is sharpened by the earlier N35,000 monthly wage award introduced by the Federal Government in 2023 after petrol subsidy removal. It was intended as temporary relief pending a new national minimum wage. While several States negotiated and paid wage awards or related sums, implementation nationwide was uneven. Reports in 2024 indicated that many States had failed to pay the federal award, while others provided different amounts. In Rivers, labour and media reports raised concerns about implementation of the N35,000 award for State workers, amid separate announcements and arrangements concerning Local Government employees.
The wage award was meant to ease the immediate effects of subsidy removal, yet workers faced uncertainty over whether the promised relief would reach them. In February 2024, the Rivers State Government announced approval of the N35,000 award for local government workers, but subsequent reports showed that implementation across worker categories remained a concern. The lesson is clear: approval and implementation are not the same. A declaration at a meeting offers little comfort to a worker whose account does not reflect the promised payment. For workers who travel to their offices daily, the implications of delayed support are significant. Transportation expenses compete with food, rent, school fees, healthcare and other essential household needs.
As fares rise, employees may be forced to reduce spending on necessities or borrow to sustain their families. A timely transport intervention would therefore provide practical relief and demonstrate that government understands the economic pressures confronting its workforce. Its temporary nature makes prompt implementation even more important. It is fair to acknowledge that this transport intervention is a new agreement and that its administrative details may require clarification. Rivers State should not be condemned in advance for a failure that has not occurred. Nevertheless, the earlier experience gives workers legitimate grounds to seek assurances before the November commencement date. The State should avoid allowing uncertainty to persist until workers begin asking why the promised assistance has not arrived.
The NLC and unions in Rivers State should engage the State Government immediately and seek a written commitment, an implementation plan and a process for reporting missed payments. If clarification from the Federal Government is needed, the State should seek it without abandoning the goal of providing relief. Labour leaders must also keep members informed about progress and insist that any agreed arrangements are applied fairly and transparently. The Rivers State Government should treat this intervention as an opportunity to rebuild confidence. Timely support would show that workers’ welfare is more than a talking point and that the State recognises the economic realities confronting its employees.
Silence, delay or selective implementation, by contrast, would revive frustration over earlier relief measures and weaken trust between government and labour. Every month lost to administrative delay leaves workers facing the same transport burden without the intended assistance. The State should consult labour, publish arrangements and pay eligible workers on time. Rivers workers should not have to wonder whether federal relief will reach them. The Federal Government has announced the support; now the State must make its position clear. We hope the N70,000 monthly transport intervention will not follow the troubling path of the earlier wage award. Rivers State should learn from that experience and ensure that this time, relief is not merely promised but delivered.
Sylvia ThankGod-Amadi
Everyday, Christians call on Abraham, Isaac and Jacob as they pray to God in the privacy of their homes across our multicultural, multiracial and multiethnic world. On Sundays and almost everyday of the week in the new-found full freaking fanaticism in Pentecostalism, they gather in the more than four million churches or congregations in the world to worship God, invoking the spirits of the ancestors of Jews. Meanwhile, in the scaremongering antics of institutional religion, the African has allowed himself to be hoodwinked into believing that invoking the spirit of his ancestors in prayers is idolatry and patently evil. He is mind-controlled into believing that indulgence in what the Christian clergy calls ”Satanic Act” is a sure ticket to Hell, where the individual is tormented, burnt and charred till eternity on the orders of a loving Father; what a laughable irony.
Come with me on my experience of what the Christian clergy contemptuously calls ancestorial worship. One Monday in September 1988, I drove from Port Harcourt to Owerri, accompanied by Chief AM Abasi who was the general manager of Delta Holdings Ltd, a company owned by Chief Ranami Abah, (Abadifeni III). Our mission was a meeting with Mr. Nwaorgu, the marketing manager of 33 Breweries Ltd for a dealership for Mrs. Alice Abah, whose husband, Chief Ranami Abah, had substantial equity shareholding in 33 Breweries Ltd. At the end of the meeting, we agreed to return on Wednesday with Mrs Alice to sign a contract for the dealership. When Chief Abasi and I stepped out to the parking lot, it hit me that I could not recollect how I drove from Port Harcourt through Igwuruta, Isiokpo and Elele to Owerri.
First, I waved the feeling off, ascribing it to the aerodynamic and slippery nature of the super slick German machine, a Mercedes-Benz 280 SLC convertible owned by Chief Ranami Abah. But on a second thought, I sensed a premonition; an ominous feeling. Then a sense of foreboding hit me, leaving me with the chilly feeling that something wrong was in the air. For a person who does not know fear as a result of having had out-of-body experience (OBE) in 1975 and considering the threshold of death the most beautiful experience in my life, it was a very worrisome feeling, to say the least. I quickly shook those thoughts out of my head, engaged the gear of the ever-ready German machine and zapped through Owerri traffic, attracting the same attention that trailed us all the way from Port Harcourt.
At Control Post, an inner voice instructed me not to return to Port Harcourt through the route we came. In reflexive obedience to the mysterious inaudible voice, I turned right (northwards) and stepped heavily on the gas. The straight six-cylinder engine roared in dutiful obedience; the automatic transmission immediately dropped into a lower gear, thereby giving the engine a very powerful pull that enabled the small-bodied car to dust every other vehicle on the road. Through the rear view mirror, I saw the vehicles we overtook recede speedily and virtually disappear behind us. In almost a whisper, Chief Abasi asked if I wanted to visit the 33 Brewery factory at Awo Omamma; I said ”no” without explaining the movement in the opposite direction of our journey.
Strangely, Chief Abasi did not pry further. We raced on, northwards; in thunderous silence. At Ogbaku junction, I turned left, drove westwards past Ejemekwuru and Izombe, turned left at Oguta and headed southwards on the Oguta Lake–Egbema–Omoku–Ahoada Federal Road. Carefully navigating the potholes that generously punctuated the road vis-a-vis the very low clearing of the car, I entered Egbema territory at Opuoma, drove through Mmahu, Abacheke, Okwuzi and turned eastwards to Mgbede, my home town. There, I quickly introduced Chief Abasi to my parents, left him with them and briskly walked a few metre to the grave of Osai, my grandfather. At the graveside, I solemnly told Osai that I sense something wrong in the air.
Then, in furious rage, I threatened him and my uncle, Lazarus, who lay beside him, that if they remained sleepy-eyed in that dimension and I am forced out of this world, that I will scatter their ribcage with penknife. My cousin and age mate, Luke Ofere, came out of his house and asked what was wrong and why I was in tears. With hot tears running down my cheeks, I turned around and left the graveside without a word to him; shock, surprise and confusion were boldly written on his face. On my way back to my father’s house, Nze Romanus Ogboh caught up with my brisk strides and, viciously pulling his right ear, he warned me to be careful on the road; that he dreamt that I died in a motor accident but that he administered a potion on me and I came back alive.
He was completely confused when I replied ”I know” and continued walking in tears towards my father’s house without a further word. Still in the holy rage, I called out Chief Abasi to join me in the car. Back to Port Harcourt through Omoku, Ahoada, Elele Alimini and Emohua, I told my spouse that something wrong is certainly around the corner. As we planned, Chief Abasi travelled to Calabar on Tuesday to inform Auntie Alice of the development and request her to come to Port Harcourt on Wednesday for onward journey to Owerri to effect the dealership contract. On Wednesday, I waited for them but they did not show up. I called Chief Abah and complained about the development. Thursday morning, they pulled up in front of my apartment in a blue Peugeot 504.
To be continued in our next edition.
Jason Osai
Osai lectures in Rivers State University.
-
Opinion2 days ago
Ancestorial Worship: My Take (1)
-
News2 days agoFG Must Address Nigerians’ Concerns On Reforms -Shettima …Warns Against Misuse of AI, Social Media
-
Featured2 days agoTinubu Jets To S’Arabia For Lesser Hajj …Unveils Free Healthcare For Pensioners
-
News2 days ago
Lawmaker Sets Sights On Assembly Return …As Mammoth Crowd Grace Flag Handover Rally
-
Niger Delta2 days ago
Police Rescue Woman, 24, From Online Dating Kidnappers … Arrest Five Suspects
-
Politics2 days ago
My Administration’ll End Political Acrimony In Rivers – Chinda
-
Politics2 days ago
2027: Support Groups Pledge Grassroots Mobilisation For Tinubu, Rainbow Coalition Candidates
-
Business2 days agoWigwe’s Luxury Yacht Goes For N8.74 Billion After Legal Proceedings