Despite warning signals that the masses of Ekiti State, though saw massive developments of the All Progressives Congress (APC), still voted out the governor for not sharing money to the masses, Governor Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State has vowed to stick to his policy of devoting all the funds to development projects.
Arriving through the Port Harcourt International Airport at Omagwa weekend, the governor, however, seemed to waver a bit when he said his administration may also begin to listen to those with complaints. He may be referring to the previous practice whereby people of the state used to line to the seat of power with all manner of requests for personal problems such as burials, marriages, house rent, foreign medical trips, school fees of their children, book launch, church projects, community projects, etc.
Militants and cult leaders also freely solicited for attention to make things easy. Godfathers demanded for and allegedly got shares of the monthly allocation and had quotas of the internally generated revenue (IGR) at source especially by ceding sections of the state capital to different godfathers for revenue collection.
Amaechi stopped most of that and said he devoted all funds to provision of infrastructural facilities such as 500 new primary schools, 160 new healthcare centres, over 1300 km of roads, 35 flyovers and bridges, over 1200 foreign scholarships each year, an agricultural revolution topped by the almost N4 billion Songhai farm complex, the monorail transport system under construction, new power stations, etc. But like his Ekiti State counterpart, his opponents especially the ex-militant groups have accused him of neglecting their personal welfare and empowerment known in Nigerian parlance as ‘stomach infrastructure’.
This has fuelled a new confidence in the opposition (the People’s Democratic Party) in the state to the extent of rejoicing, telling others to join because like Ekiti, Rivers would also revolt against absence of ‘stomach infrastructure’.
Reacting, however, the governor flew into Port Harcourt and reaffirmed his commitment to politics of development, and providing dividends of democracy to the people of the state.
Amaechi said numerous projects executed by his administration across the state were rather geared toward meeting the needs of the people particularly in education and health care.
He noted that the people of the state did not require paying for healthcare services or educational opportunities as far as his administration was concerned.
“We will continue to champion the cause of all Rivers people by fulfilling their needs through projects implementation,” he said.
The governor regretted that the security agencies, including the army, were deployed to guard PDP chieftains that were allegedly sharing money on voting day, while barring the APC lords. Many since believe that same would happen in Rivers State in 2015 because anybody wishing to force the eyes of the masses from the “change the eye can see” must show them something stronger, cash.
Amaechi, however, tried to allay the fears, saying: “Why not wait until 2015? You see, there are basic differences. The differences are, first, Ekiti is mostly a civil service town, so if the civil servants decide on one way then you have to go along that way. The second thing is the fact that we’ve been oppressed enough in Rivers State. You virtually can see, we are in the airport, why not video the airport there to show its state? We have a situation where we don’t have development in Rivers State. Eighty percent of development you have in Rivers State was done by me as governor of Rivers State and the fact that the Rivers man is trying to liberate himself. Now you have to be present in politics at the national level before you emasculate the Rivers man, coupled with the fact that the voters here have two clear choices to make. You either identify with God and His people or you identify with Satan and his people. And I think we are godly to the extent that we’ve built schools that impact directly on the lives of the people”.
He went on: “Education is free of charge. The university school fee is at its lowest level and we are providing free healthcare. This is what the people call partially ‘stomach infrastructure,’ then we will probably increase the stomach infrastructure which means we should be listening to what the people are saying”.
The governor argued that the Ekiti masses may have taken out their anger on the wrong person, “because when you say ‘stomach infrastructure’, the Federal Government takes 56 percent of the national revenue, what have they done with it? That is where they should be asking for ‘stomach infrastructure’, but because they relate directly with the governor, that is why they took out this thing on the governor”.
“But you see, it discourages governors and you have to ask, ‘are we going to play development politics or we are going to play stomach politics?’ For me, I will continue with development politics,” he declared.
Just as the governor said, that question would be answered in 2015 so the next governor would know what exactly the people of the state want: Physical infrastructure or ‘stomach infrastructure’, or both.
Ignatius Chukwu
