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- Category: Politics
- Written by Victor Edozie, PortHacourt
- Hits: 127
Governor of Rivers State, Rotimi Amaechi, in this interview with newsmen in PortHacourt, explains why he is opposed to the idea of granting autonomy to local governments. Excerpts:
A senator recently alleged that governors been frustrating the process as the process of cons-titution amendment. Is it true?
How will I know that? Just tell me one role that governors are playing in the process. Are we the legislative arm of government? That question does not require an answer because what he is saying is that there are no state and national Assemblies or that the governors have constituted themselves into state Assemblies and the National Assembly.
But the governors have influence on their Senators and House of Representative members and the state Assemblies too?
We have absolutely no influence. You can ask Senator Magnus Abbey who was here with me this morning. Did you watch the 2012 budget session of Rivers state? My Speaker blasted me and as he finished we sat here and ate food. Many people were shocked; no quarrel. But I said no he was playing his role as a Speaker. He challenged me saying ‘you are doing well, you have so many projects that you are doing but you are not completing them; you have to complete them and consolidate them and stop this expansion of project, we will not approve any further expansion but we will consolidate.’
I said thank you sir, I came home and rested. If I control the House, would he have said that?
Why are the governors oppo-sed to the Autonomy of local governments?
The governors are a pressure group. So if we succeed in putting the pressure on both National and State Assemblies…Look governors are one of the most patriotic elements in this country, I say to you. Look there is no country in the world that there are three federating units; there are only two all over the world. Why should you say that there must be a third federating unit in Nigeria.
In other words you are opposed to the autonomy of local government?
Of course yes! Let a state gover-nor or let the states create as many local governments as they want to create. Don’t put it there as a constitutional issue. Okay, you are accusing some governors of mismanaging resources, how? I have given example in Rivers state where not only do they collect their money directly; they collect my N2 billion monthly. Ask them. I pay the salaries of all their teachers and that is N2 billion per month. If you take away that one my wage bill will come down to six billion per month. I can’t beat that.
It appears you and your colleagues have lost the battle for the creation of state police…
No I don’t want to discuss that issue. Until the constitution is amended, how can you know what is lost and what is won?
Recently Professor Jibril Aminu described the governors’ forum as an oppressive body…
No response to Jibril Aminu. I say leave governors forum alone. You can’t respond to everything.
You are building 24 model boarding secondary schools in each of the 24 local governments areas which will admit 1,050 students, how can you sustain the manpower?
This January we are employing 13,000 teachers. Again if you say we are in control of the Assembly, how? We would have done this since October but the Assembly stopped it by resolution and we obeyed the resolution. Up to now we have not resolved the issue. If you watch my town hall meeting at Buguma, there was altercation between me and my Speaker live on a platform. I was trying to incite Buguma people against him, because he is from Buguma, when I said by now we would have finished employing teachers and some of your students would have been in school but your son stopped us, please beg your son ooh!
He came up and took the microphone from me and said the governor didn’t go through the proper process so we stopped him. I took over the microphone from him and said yes we did not but your son didn’t remember from the beginning until when we were about issuing letters of employment and he said we should stop. So beg him to hurry because we want to give the letters by January.
And people started shouting and he said okay we will allow you give the letters, and I said we have won. But he stopped us from October. If we were in control of the House, would he have stopped us?
You have planned free education and healthcare for all citizens; how do you ensure the sustainability of these projects after you leave office?
Within my period in office they will be sustainable. I will continue to manage my resources in such a way that people will benefit free education and healthcare services because the consequences of not paying is that the children of the poor won’t have access to education and good healthcare. In planning for good education and healthcare you must know that affordability goes together with accessibility. If it is not affordable you will lose more lives; if you don’t educate people you will run into more crises. So if you want to educate the people and have a society that is properly developed then you must make education both affordable and accessible.
If you build schools everywhere and nobody can afford, nobody will go to the schools. 80 percent of all those criminals claiming to be Niger Delta fighters did not go to primary schools because they could not afford it. I met some children who were arrested that period, and they were weeping before us that their parents could not afford school fees, house rents and they saw their age mates coming back with jeeps and flashy cars.
I now said to myself that government has a responsibility to take care of these children up to secondary school level. I just had meeting in the morning on establishing an educational training centre with the Isrealis; they are coming and Germans will also be coming this January to sign agreement with us. The Isrealis we have just started. So we train at that level. At the University level you pay because that is a choice but we have to give free education up to secondary school level that will liberate your mind and make your mental capacity to be able to make decisions that will better your future.
About the medical equipments, these are hi-tech equipment that people need to value and the system in Nigeria is that if something is totally free people will say it does not have value…
No matter what they say it will be free. An American firm will manage those two centres. For the third one we are talking to an Indian group but I don’t know who will manage it yet. However, if it doesn’t work with them we give it back to the Americans. Their job is to take care of all the patients while ours is to pay for all the patients. So it does not matter whether they say it is this or that. Now, when I leave in 2015, it is left for the next governor to introduce fees or not.
Can’t you back them up with a law so that nobody can change it overnight when you leave in 2015?
No. Let the governor make a choice as to what he wants to do. I tell people that by the time the next governor comes, he won’t be facing primary schools because I would have gone far. Yes he will be facing the primary schools to the extent that the more children are coming the more the schools he builds.
But it won’t be as tough as me who is starting from the beginning.
How much does it cost you to build one of those primary schools?
It cost us N112 million to build each primary school, without furnishing.
What about the secondary schools?
For the secondary schools, it is N4.5 billion Naira without furnishing.
Do you have fears for 2015?
I have no fears at all.
Who are you bringing to take over from you?
There is nothing like that in my agenda.
Can you sum up your vision for Rivers state?
It is education, health, power and transportation. You see I don’t emphasize roads. There is just one road we are building now, the Trans-Amadi road. It is going to take about three flyovers, one at Garrison; one at Slaughter and another at Nbwo junction. It is going to cost N47 billion. It is 10 kilometres long. We are going to build a new road to the airport to decongest Aba road; it is going to cost N200 billion and 50 percent of that will be spent on bridges with about four flyovers and inter-changes.
So the planning tells you that we have a design that we call the Greater Port Harcourt Master Plan which takes care of old and the new city. It was designed in South Africa. And they said if you don’t build those roads they have designed for you in small time Port Harcourt will implode. All these roads are being done according to the master plan. We have the mono-rail, it is 25 kilometres long.
For the sake of sustaining what you are putting on ground, are you considering who will take over for you in 2015?
Leave that to God.
Category: Politics Written by Victor Edozie, PortHacourt Hits: 127
Governor of Rivers State, Rotimi Amaechi, in this interview with newsmen in PortHacourt, explains why he is opposed to the idea of granting autonomy to local governments. Excerpts:
A senator recently alleged that governors been frustrating the process as the process of cons-titution amendment. Is it true?
How will I know that? Just tell me one role that governors are playing in the process. Are we the legislative arm of government? That question does not require an answer because what he is saying is that there are no state and national Assemblies or that the governors have constituted themselves into state Assemblies and the National Assembly.
But the governors have influence on their Senators and House of Representative members and the state Assemblies too?
We have absolutely no influence. You can ask Senator Magnus Abbey who was here with me this morning. Did you watch the 2012 budget session of Rivers state? My Speaker blasted me and as he finished we sat here and ate food. Many people were shocked; no quarrel. But I said no he was playing his role as a Speaker. He challenged me saying ‘you are doing well, you have so many projects that you are doing but you are not completing them; you have to complete them and consolidate them and stop this expansion of project, we will not approve any further expansion but we will consolidate.’
I said thank you sir, I came home and rested. If I control the House, would he have said that?
Why are the governors oppo-sed to the Autonomy of local governments?
The governors are a pressure group. So if we succeed in putting the pressure on both National and State Assemblies…Look governors are one of the most patriotic elements in this country, I say to you. Look there is no country in the world that there are three federating units; there are only two all over the world. Why should you say that there must be a third federating unit in Nigeria.
In other words you are opposed to the autonomy of local government?
Of course yes! Let a state gover-nor or let the states create as many local governments as they want to create. Don’t put it there as a constitutional issue. Okay, you are accusing some governors of mismanaging resources, how? I have given example in Rivers state where not only do they collect their money directly; they collect my N2 billion monthly. Ask them. I pay the salaries of all their teachers and that is N2 billion per month. If you take away that one my wage bill will come down to six billion per month. I can’t beat that.
It appears you and your colleagues have lost the battle for the creation of state police…
No I don’t want to discuss that issue. Until the constitution is amended, how can you know what is lost and what is won?
Recently Professor Jibril Aminu described the governors’ forum as an oppressive body…
No response to Jibril Aminu. I say leave governors forum alone. You can’t respond to everything.
You are building 24 model boarding secondary schools in each of the 24 local governments areas which will admit 1,050 students, how can you sustain the manpower?
This January we are employing 13,000 teachers. Again if you say we are in control of the Assembly, how? We would have done this since October but the Assembly stopped it by resolution and we obeyed the resolution. Up to now we have not resolved the issue. If you watch my town hall meeting at Buguma, there was altercation between me and my Speaker live on a platform. I was trying to incite Buguma people against him, because he is from Buguma, when I said by now we would have finished employing teachers and some of your students would have been in school but your son stopped us, please beg your son ooh!
He came up and took the microphone from me and said the governor didn’t go through the proper process so we stopped him. I took over the microphone from him and said yes we did not but your son didn’t remember from the beginning until when we were about issuing letters of employment and he said we should stop. So beg him to hurry because we want to give the letters by January.
And people started shouting and he said okay we will allow you give the letters, and I said we have won. But he stopped us from October. If we were in control of the House, would he have stopped us?
You have planned free education and healthcare for all citizens; how do you ensure the sustainability of these projects after you leave office?
Within my period in office they will be sustainable. I will continue to manage my resources in such a way that people will benefit free education and healthcare services because the consequences of not paying is that the children of the poor won’t have access to education and good healthcare. In planning for good education and healthcare you must know that affordability goes together with accessibility. If it is not affordable you will lose more lives; if you don’t educate people you will run into more crises. So if you want to educate the people and have a society that is properly developed then you must make education both affordable and accessible.
If you build schools everywhere and nobody can afford, nobody will go to the schools. 80 percent of all those criminals claiming to be Niger Delta fighters did not go to primary schools because they could not afford it. I met some children who were arrested that period, and they were weeping before us that their parents could not afford school fees, house rents and they saw their age mates coming back with jeeps and flashy cars.
I now said to myself that government has a responsibility to take care of these children up to secondary school level. I just had meeting in the morning on establishing an educational training centre with the Isrealis; they are coming and Germans will also be coming this January to sign agreement with us. The Isrealis we have just started. So we train at that level. At the University level you pay because that is a choice but we have to give free education up to secondary school level that will liberate your mind and make your mental capacity to be able to make decisions that will better your future.
About the medical equipments, these are hi-tech equipment that people need to value and the system in Nigeria is that if something is totally free people will say it does not have value…
No matter what they say it will be free. An American firm will manage those two centres. For the third one we are talking to an Indian group but I don’t know who will manage it yet. However, if it doesn’t work with them we give it back to the Americans. Their job is to take care of all the patients while ours is to pay for all the patients. So it does not matter whether they say it is this or that. Now, when I leave in 2015, it is left for the next governor to introduce fees or not.
Can’t you back them up with a law so that nobody can change it overnight when you leave in 2015?
No. Let the governor make a choice as to what he wants to do. I tell people that by the time the next governor comes, he won’t be facing primary schools because I would have gone far. Yes he will be facing the primary schools to the extent that the more children are coming the more the schools he builds.
But it won’t be as tough as me who is starting from the beginning.
How much does it cost you to build one of those primary schools?
It cost us N112 million to build each primary school, without furnishing.
What about the secondary schools?
For the secondary schools, it is N4.5 billion Naira without furnishing.
Do you have fears for 2015?
I have no fears at all.
Who are you bringing to take over from you?
There is nothing like that in my agenda.
Can you sum up your vision for Rivers state?
It is education, health, power and transportation. You see I don’t emphasize roads. There is just one road we are building now, the Trans-Amadi road. It is going to take about three flyovers, one at Garrison; one at Slaughter and another at Nbwo junction. It is going to cost N47 billion. It is 10 kilometres long. We are going to build a new road to the airport to decongest Aba road; it is going to cost N200 billion and 50 percent of that will be spent on bridges with about four flyovers and inter-changes.
So the planning tells you that we have a design that we call the Greater Port Harcourt Master Plan which takes care of old and the new city. It was designed in South Africa. And they said if you don’t build those roads they have designed for you in small time Port Harcourt will implode. All these roads are being done according to the master plan. We have the mono-rail, it is 25 kilometres long.
For the sake of sustaining what you are putting on ground, are you considering who will take over for you in 2015?
Leave that to God.