The Pendulum By Dele Momodu, Email: Dele.momodu@thisdaylive.com
Fellow Nigerians, how was your week? I spent three full nights and half a day of mine exploring the legendary Garden City, otherwise known as Port Harcourt in real name. The last time I had such an opportunity was about ten years ago, when Dr Peter Odili was still Governor and Mr Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi was the Honourable Speaker of the Rivers State House of Assembly. A lot of water has since passed under the bridge and the baton of power has changed in a most dramatic fashion.
I’m quite familiar with the great city of Port Harcourt which like most
cities in Nigeria lost its old glory, glamour and colour to the
vagaries and vicissitudes of power in the hands of our politicians. The
battle for the jugular of the oil-rich state has culminated in the
cataclysmic collapse of its original glint and attraction. While I will
not apportion blame, I must say that it has become the unenviable plight
of most Governors in Nigeria today to carry the heavy burden of our
gross underdevelopment in every sphere of human existence.
My latest trip to Port Harcourt is about my fourth this year alone and
about my seventh in two years. I had sneaked in and out without ever
visiting the Governor on any of those occasions. The last time I did was
when I paid a courtesy call on Mr Rotimi Amaechi during the
Presidential campaign of 2011, in which I humbly but proudly
participated. Interestingly, life was still normal in those days as
Amaechi was busy campaigning for Dr Goodluck Ebele Jonathan and
everything seemed cordial between them. I will not bore you with tales
of their love gone sour. Theirs had always been a patch-patch marriage
of convenience which was bound to go bust at the slightest exposure to
pressure.
The immediate cause of my visit this time was my chance meeting with
Amaechi a few weeks ago in Abuja. An old friend, turned foe, of his had
reacted angrily to an article I wrote and sent in a right-of-reply
article to Thisday which we gladly published. In the said piece, the
gentleman had accused me of being a victim of Amaechi’s media
blitzkrieg. The writer said Amaechi had done nothing fantabulous to
warrant all the accolades being heaped on him by the Nigerian Press.
This was the background from which I ultimately aroused the Governor’s
reaction when I saw him in Abuja. It was like touching the tiger by the
tail. Amaechi instantly challenged me to visit Port Harcourt and go on a
personal tour of his pet projects with him. I promised to accept the
offer as soon as I returned from my marathon voyages abroad. That was
our deal.
Even as I left him that night, I wasn’t sure he would ever create the
chance or find the time to honour our proposed visitation. All that
changed after I sent him a message last week Friday that I was heading
back to Nigeria to commiserate with the family of my very dear friend
and Brother, Deji Falae, who died the day before in our latest orgy of
plane crashes. He promptly responded and told me to come over to Port
Harcourt on Monday. On the eve of our departure, I called his Chief
Press Secretary, Mr David Iyofor who told me they were in Abuja and
would be there for the better part of Monday. I thought the journey
would have to be cancelled or postponed but Governor Amaechi surprised
me. He said we should still proceed as agreed and thus I landed with my
crew of observers on Monday.
We met Amaechi eventually on Tuesday at the Government House but the
whole place was a picture of bedlam. The first shock we got was the
stupendous crowd we met at his main gate. I had hoped they were not some
militants demonstrating and creating a blockade like they did recently.
They turned out to be the 13,000 newly recruited teachers who had been
disallowed from receiving their letters of appointment at the earlier
arranged stadium for convenience of distribution. Also present in the
Government house were hordes of politicians including some members of
the embattled House of Assembly. I wondered how he was able to cope and
attend to all those who needed his attention. I suppose, that is why
he’s Governor. We barely managed to catch a breakfast as he got ready
for a long day. We fixed our own project tours for Wednesday morning.
We set out at the appointed time on Wednesday and the Governor jumped
on the bus to be with us rather than his official car. Give it to him,
Amaechi understands the effect of populism. That must account for the
reason he has become a walking brand and the most reported politician in
Nigeria today. His opponents must have underrated this truism when they
decided to try to bully him into submission. He has demonstrated an
uncommon courage and resilience, the secret of which I discovered on
this mission.
Our first port of call was the Kelsey Harrison Hospital equipped to
handle complex medical conditions. I must note that healthcare is
totally free in Rivers State to all residents. We went round the
high-tech facilities and could not believe what we saw. Amaechi has
engaged the services of accomplished personnel at home and abroad. We
also visited the Maxillofacial Hospital and the Governor freely
interacted with patients. Seeing is believing, I was awe-struck. We went
to Primary Health Centres built to handle simple cases before being
referred to bigger hospitals or in case of emergencies. All these
centres have apartments to cater for resident doctors. The attention to
the finest details in the Amaechi government beats my imagination.
Nothing is left to chance. What struck me was that Amaechi designed the
health facilities to uniform standards. It did not matter if they were
in the main city or in far-flung villages. Not just that, he has
quadrupled the number of doctors he met when he assumed power in the
State. Amaechi’s humongous spending on health is a testimonial of his
belief in the adage that “health is wealth.”
We got a similar feeling when we arrived at the Primary schools. It
won’t be an exaggeration to describe these schools as some of the best I
have seen at home and abroad. I can safely declare that I have never
seen anything as good even in schools where parents cough out millions
of Naira per annum. Not only is education completely free, students are
entitled to free uniforms, sandals, feeding and so on. A lot has been
invested in creating a modern and aesthetically attractive as well as
conducive environment in these amazing structures. All the schools have
well-stocked libraries, computer centres, colourful play-areas, massive
sports complexes, elaborate Assembly halls, sick bays, and so on. Only
30 pupils are allowed per teacher in Primary schools and 25 in secondary
schools. There was no difference in the ones we found when we drove
through the famous Ogoniland. I’m reasonably assured that these
students are exposed to superior conditions of learning than most of
university students do anywhere in Nigeria.
The model secondary schools are even more ambitious. We visted a school
where all the nearly 1,000 students live on campus and teachers have
their own apartments, 24-hour electricity, feeding and so on,
unbelievably free. These schools are powerfully equipped with separate
state-of-the-art laboratories in various disciplines including Physics,
Chemistry, Biology and Agric-Econs. I never saw anything that
grandiloquent in my entire schooling career. No one but a vicious soul
would suggest Amaechi has not surpassed himself in the provision of
excellent services in education. I would be delighted to see the Federal
Ministry of education replicate Amaechi’s vision nationwide.
Amaechi’s determination to get electricity to every nook and cranny of
Rivers is legendary. He has taken the power projects that were started
by his former boss, Dr Peter Odili, to a higher level and different
stages of completion. The state is lucky to have a Governor who’s not
noted and notorious for abandoning projects. Our visit to Afam Power
Station was an eye-opener on how the power of determination can achieve
wonders. By the time all the power plants come into operation by the end
of 2014, as envisioned by the Governor, Rivers alone would have access
to over 700 megawatts, much more than it would require for many years to
come. The State is already generating and supplying its own power and
should be self-sufficient in due course.
Amaechi is obsessed with job creation and poverty alleviation.
Everywhere we went, he emphasised that all his pet projects have one
intended purpose, how to keep the restive youths busy and away from
trouble. This was amply demonstrated at the Songhai Farms and the Banana
plantations in Tai Local Government area, where the target is to employ
at least 4,000 youths. At Songhai Farms, I saw a resort that was still
in its pristine state but being tendered with care like the Garden of
Eden. The fish tanks were enormous with Tilapia and catfish in
abundance. We saw the bush-meat called grass-cutter living and
procreating in utter majesty. There were different sections for rice,
okra, pineapple, pawpaw, cows, and so on. It was gratifying drinking the
various fresh juices produced on the farm. From here, we went to the
Banana farm. But we encountered a little mishap in Ogoniland where we
saw many people with buckets going to have a free scoop at the
overflowing crude oil from a suspected pipe cannibalisation. We had to
make a quick detour for both security and safety reasons. It was my
first ever experience of oil theft even if this was on a much smaller
scale to that of the real buccaneers.
On our way back to Port Harcourt, I could not believe the terrible
state of the East-West Road as we approached the city. Amaechi noted
that it was the innocuous request he first made to the Federal
Government to repair the road that pitted him against the powers-that-be
in Abuja. He said he had had to fix some roads that were under the
jurisdiction of the Federal just to make life less tedious for his
people. A lot of the State roads have been earmarked for comprehensive
repairs or total overhaul to prevent being washed away effortlessly by
erosion. We came down to see the level of work currently going on in
Woji. It is a very ambitious project that would gulp a lot of money to
complete. One of the road construction projects was actually awarded to
the same man who wrote that Amaechi had done nothing in the State. The
names of those who had benefited in various contracts read like that of
who is who in the State but it seems their insatiable appetite for more
largesse is the major source of friction between him and these
privileged elites who see him as being too radical and standoffish.
At the end of the day, Rotimi might not be a Saint but he can’t be
called a non-performer either. His work speaks volume about a man whose
name Rotimi confers on him some toga of mysticism. Rotimi, according to
Yoruba cosmogony is an unusual child who is capable of all manner of
stunts. It is usually given to an Abiku or Ogbanje. Anyone who’s
familiar with Yoruba and Igbo folktales would remember how this type of
child would die several times and return to the same parents over and
over again. This child puts the efficacy of the herbalist and his charms
to waste and shame. Wole Soyinka and John Pepper Clark captured the
mysterious nature of this enfant terrible vividly in their poems titled
Abiku. Amaechi is probably acting out the true character of someone
whose appointment with fate cannot be altered by mere mortals.
It is for that reason that I appealed to President Goodluck Jonathan to
embrace this young man warts and all, during the press conference I
addressed before departing Port Harcourt. Amaechi is without doubt one
of the golden boys of this generation. A father should be proud of such a
man and should not voluntarily throw him away. A father who donates his
child to the devil should never complain when he adopts the name
Esubiyi, meaning “the devil gave birth to me.” A rejected son on account
of sibling rivalry is bound to seek other parents, as a matter of
expediency.
This is what may happen if this political debacle is not resolved soon and speedily.
No comments:
Post a Comment