By S. Long Williams Esq
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Once a glorious, beautiful and serene state, known and referred to as the Garden City State of Nigeria, created in May 1967 and blessed with Alfred Papapreye Diete Spiff, a gentleman naval officer as its first Governor.
The state was immediately after it’s creation caught up in an internecine civil war and the loyalty of the indigenes split straight down the line between Nigeria and Biafra oscillating randomly as the war pendulum swings. The state became the toast of the Nigerian Forces and the Biafran Rebels haven been blessed with one of the reasons that triggered the war in the first place. By 1970 with the surrender of Biafra to the Nigerian Forces, Alfred Papapreye Diete Spiff went to work and erected some of the most enduring legacies we are enjoying today.
After Alfred Papapreye Diete Spiff, now Amayanabo of Twon Brass Kingdom in Bayelsa State, Rivers State has gone through the hands of various Governors both military and civilian, some were villains with a sense of responsibility, some honest and mild tempered but with nothing to offer, some with the mindset of dictators but with something to their credit and some absolutely brutal who rampaged and ravaged the state like a bull in a China shop howbeit with a scintilla of developmental efforts laced with insatiable personal aggrandisement. The state is now in the hands of the man with simplicity, with a gentle mien but with the heart of a Tiger.
His Excellency, Sir Siminalayi Fubara GSSRS is presently the governor of Rivers State. On his shoulders the growth, development, future and progress of Rivers State lies and he must put his hands to the plough and take Rivers State out of the woods.
As Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli Prime Minister said: “Leadership is not to do the easy thing, it is to do the right thing even if it is difficult.”
It is clear that while the Governor tackles the seemingly ageless but deeply important issues of Health, Security and Economy by strategic appointments, policies and execution, there are a plethora of issues in the front burner that must be dealt with by the Governor and pronto too. These are the issues of the environment, road traffic management and the state economy. For any state to begin to get it right in it’s quest to achieve a decent, disciplined, prosperous and orderly society, these issues must be taken seriously and dealt with frontally. Fortunately for the state, we have laws still subsisting that can be deployed to achieve this. We have the Rivers State Street Trading, illegal Market and Motor Parks Prohibition Law 1999 and the Rivers State Road Traffic Law of 2009.
As it stands today, there is almost a breakdown of law and order when it comes to sanitation and road traffic management in Rivers State. All manner of incivility is on display. Law breakers and social miscreants have taken over the streets and the law abiding indigenes are left moping helplessly. Traffic laws are observed and obeyed more in breach than in compliance. It’s as if there are no laws governing the use of the roads anymore. Aided by the Police for a pittance, traffic laws are abused and misused, broken down vehicles are parked sometimes in the middle of the road and the owners do not care a hoot if it’s causing inconvenience to other road users. Mechanics have turned the roads, nooks and crannies to workshops without caring about the negative impact on the environment. Roads are obstructed at will and places earmarked as Bus Stops have been overtaken by hoodlums and the destitutes.
Sanitation is one aspect that has become a thorny issue. What’s the use of the Rivers State Environmental Sanitation Authority in the state when they see nothing and do nothing. Will they say they are not funded when hundreds of millions of naira are budgeted for the authority per year, are they still in existence or they exist only on paper? Waste is still being dumped in the middle of the roads, drainages, streets and highways. Markets have sprung up at every turn. What is the enforcement unit of the authority doing, We have designated areas for the dumping of refuse, why is refuse still being dumped all over and wherever.
The Governor must get his team on track, political challenges cannot and should not be an excuse for any one appointed by the Governor to go to sleep. People appointed to head any agency, ministry or department must live up to their billings or be kicked out. We have adequate laws to tackle the areas I have highlighted, what we need is the political will to enforce these laws and the right men and women to be the enforcers. The Rivers State Traffic Law is still a subsisting Law, the law should be dusted and the necessary agency put in place to tackle the issue of traffic management and enforcement. In the days of His Excellency, Rt. Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, we had the Rivers State Traffic Management Agency (TIMARIV). It can be resuscitated, repackaged, remodelled with a human face and made to be manned by fit and proper officials to run it. It will also lead to a reduction in the level of unemployment in the state as Rivers Youths will be employed in their numbers to manage and enforce traffic laws in the state. Besides the employment benefits, huge revenue will be generated by the government through the payment of fines and other penalties by traffic offenders.
Ditto for sanitation, Sanitation Marshalls should be deployed in all the wards and local governments in the state. Sanitation levies should be enforced and recovered. Local Government Health Departments should deploy their staff for the necessary and usual inspections we knew back in the days. What has become of us! Why the gross complacency with our health and living? Anyone caught dumping refuse/waste in an unauthorized space should be made to pay appropriate fines and charged to court to face the wrath of the law. We cannot build beautiful roads and well paved boulevards only to allow lawless persons to carelessly dump refuse/waste on them. What manner of development is that. There should be a reorientation of the citizenry and the people made to know that you do not and cannot dump refuse on the streets and drainages.
I propose that we sit down and develop a business, signature project or cultural model for Rivers State, what can Rivers State be known or remembered for, what trademark do we have as a State. Akwa Ibom State has the Ibom Air, Cross River is known for tourism. Port Harcourt was once World Book Capital of the world, we excelled in education and infrastructure, today what are we known for but for political squabbles, mutual abuses and court cases. We must change the narrative. The Governor must put men to task to create a niche for the state. Rivers State must be known for something positive especially in the economic and business sphere. Something all Rivers people and Nigerians will be proud of. We used to have the Shongai Farms, the Banana Plantation, the Buguma Fish Farm etc, what are we making of them. Are we giving oxygen to them or are we are creating new enterprises. Rivers State can be made a hub of agricultural activities. Of all the states in the old Eastern Region of Nigeria, Rivers State can beat its chest for having maintained the Hotel Presidential which was a signature project of the Old Eastern Regional Government. Kudos to the state but we must add to it especially in the area of agriculture. We have the funds, we have the capacity, we have the land and we have the manpower. What we need is leadership, vision and the will.
Rivers State cannot and should not be a dumping ground for all manner of characters. Rivers State cannot and should not be a state of anything goes. Anyone that cannot obey it’s laws, rules and regulations must be ready to either do the time, pay the fine or get out of the kitchen. There are ground rules that must be enforced and obeyed. We must live in orderliness and in peace. We must live like humans and not like pigs. Even in the Animal Farm of George Orwell, there was order.
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