*‘Things you didn’t know about Gov. Amaechi’

By Bilesanmi Olalekan

Ibim Semenitari, commissioner for information, Rivers State,  is neither a pastor nor a pastor’s wife but almost every sentence was punctuated with Bible verses. She is so passionate about God such that she must seek approval from Him before venturing into any enterprise, including being a commissioner;  yet, Ibim Semenitari says she is not religious.

“He has shown  me so much favor and love, and that is the more reason I fear Him because there is no one like Him. The mistakes we make as humans is that we do what we think is right instead of doing what God wants for us. There is no job I ever took that God never intervened.  I  I didn’t take this job until God approved it. As soon as my husband approved of it and there are passages of Esther in the Bible to support it, I knew it had God’s backing”,she stated.

Until she was appointed commissioner, last year, Ibim was the publisher  of Business Eye, a weekly business magazine.  Before then, she was editor of Broad Street Journal, a tabloid in the stable of Tell magazine. Her climb to the peak of her professional career, I told her, was quite rapid.

She must be one of those lucky ones. Or could it be a product of hardwork or a combination of both?  “I will say it is a combination of many factors but, at the peak of each factor, there is always God showing up. Joseph was a tiny little kid when he dreamt that the sun, the moon and all the stars were bowing down for him.

Then he was sold to slavery, then to Potiphar  and, when he was there, he found favor from God.  That is where hardwork comes in. That was the beginning of his greatness because Potiphar’s wife reported him to her husband who, in turn, threw him into prison where the king’s’ prisoners were kept. This was where God’s plan was being activated because if he had not gone into prison,he would not have told the butler when Pharaoh had a dream that `there is this Joseph who can interpret dreams’.  When he came out, because of hardwork, the king had to abandon the administration of the kingdom to him. If you don’t work hard, you will not get anything, it is there in the Bible”, she explained.

Whatever she may be today, Ibim admits that it must have been the result of the seeds unconsciously sown in her by his parents. She is the daughter of former Rivers State Deputy Governor Gabriel Toby.”I am the beneficiary of the grace of the activities of my parents. I am proud to say that I am his daughter (former  Deputy Governor Gabriel Toby). I am proud of his legacies.

Every parent lays heritage for his children without knowing because the heritage you lay is what would help the children years down the line. When you do certain things truthfully to the society,you will not know that you are sowing seeds which your children may harvest many years after you are gone. I just hope i will be able to match my parents commitment in terms of community service because they were totally committed to everything they do”,she said.

The Rotimi Amaechi administration is embarking on urban renewal programme particularly in Port Harcourt metropolis leading to demolition of structures and banning of motorcycles which government claimed are tools for armed robbery. However, there has been so much hues and cries about the demolition without adequate compensation. What is her take on it? Said she: “People must live in habitable places, slum is not acceptable in Rivers State.

Any government that encourages uncontrolled development is encouraging crime,chaos because every society must be well laid out and planned that you can identify who lives where. Interestingly, it was two of his (governor) wife’s shops that first got affected by the demolition, they had to go. That story was never told because he is not a man that plays to the gallery,he is not a showman,he is not grandstanding; when you read such stories and you are not here,you will not understand.

Let me even shock you: Some of the people having seeing the kind of development going on, actually called on government to come and demolish their property and, for every property brought down, even some of them didn’t have proper documentation; this is where the humane side of the governor comes in,the owners were paid off even much more than the value of the property. People might not appreciate the kind of development the governor is bringing to the state  but, in years to come,prosperity will judge the governor right”.

Stories abound that her boss is arrogant and thinks highly of himself. She defended him. “There is nothing to hide. There is something about value and standards which, unfortunately, is drifting away from us. When you insist that people must play by the rules and that standards must not be compromised, you are seen as harsh, arrogant, overbearing or pushy.

If this country must make progress, a few people must insist that we cannot continue like this. In fact my worry is that our leaders don’t insist enough because there are values we must not fall below. Amaechi is a very simple man, extremely very simple. He is very trusting. Once he trusts you, he totally abdicates  mistrust of any kind.

“However, you find people taking advantage of that. If you are close to him, you will see that he is a very humble man because he is not carried away by trappings of office. As a matter of fact, he is not interested in trappings of office. Above all, he is a passionate man. He is passionate about governance and delivery on his promises. He is in a hurry to deliver what he promised the people because he is very close to God perhaps because of the challenges he went through before reclaiming his mandate”.

One would assume, given her progression of success that Ibim would be fulfilled; she is not. She misses the newsroom even as she lamented that the media is losing focus of the critical role of the watchdog in the society.” In all honesty, i am not fulfilled because I am missing the newsroom.

I left the newsroom at a very difficult time. However, it appears to me that the media is losing it because we are no longer holding the critical sectors of the society accountable for their actions. This is bearing in mind that I am presently an information manager. This is one of the reasons I set up Business Eye. I believe if we do it the way it ought to be done, properly and sincerely, we could actually become the feedback mechanism between the government and the people”.

Beyond her children,one of the highpoints for Ibim was the remark dedicated to her by one of her subordinates many years back during the Nigerian Media Merit Award  held in Port Harcourt. “ One of my subordinates went up the rostrum to receive his award and he said , `I dedicate this award to two women in my life’. I was waiting to hear `my mother and wife’ or `girlfriend’ and he said `my mother and editor’. It made me cry. I have won several awards and even that night, but there is no award that I have won that meant much to me as much as Tunde’s comment. What that did to me was this: It is not wrong to be hard. That is one of my greatest joy that I have been able to mentor people who are also doing well in the society”.

The death of her grandmother, in 2003, is an event, if Ibim has her way, would want to obliterate because, according to her, it was her saddest in life.” That woman was a woman of prayer. I was extremely close to her. She was my role model. Everything her children and grandchildren are today is because she prayed. She was very strict, disciplined and prayerful”.