BY JIMITOTA ONOYUME

Governor Chibuke Amaechi of Rivers State proved beyond doubt that government could be made to work for the ordinary citizen in his first term with his unparalleled projects in education, health and agriculture. Given the overdrive in the first term it is not surprising that critics say that he has slowed down this time around. Has he?

SUCCESS has many friends and with it, many secret hostile enemies. That indeed is the unfolding development in Rivers State where the Chibuke Amaechi administration has to a large extent won plaudits for its remarkable achievements in education, health, agriculture, sports and indeed infrastructure. Not surprising, many governors from far and near have had cause to visit the state to see the wonders that were credited to the Amaechi administration in the recent past.

With the success also came political capital which catapulted the governor to the chairmanship of the Nigerian Governors Forum, NGF and the consequential exposure that has now put him in harms way.

The Amaechi administration by a far degree laid solid landmarks in the diverse sectors in its first term and in the first half of the second term the governor has largely concentrated on harvesting the projects, commissioning and building upon what he did in the first term.

Gov Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State00

Given the relatively slower tempo in the second term, it is not surprising that many dwellers accustomed to the aggressive drive of the first term say the governor is no longer working. Others mischievously say that the NGF is taking his time.

One of the 23 model secondary schools in the state situated at Eleme took off this session under the management of Educomp Solutions Group, an India based education consultancy. The tuition free institution with structures that could make many universities green with envy is conceived to rank among the best secondary schools in the world and hence the importation of the Indian education consultancy as managers of the school.

To further drive home his commitment to delivering quality education, the governor recently flagged off distribution of free laptops to secondary schools in the state.

The governor explained that the exercise was part of his resolve to ensure secondary school students in the state were ICT compliant.

The governor has also been making frantic efforts to complete, and where not, add to the primary health centres and roads started in his first term.

The monorail is among the projects the governor has been striving to complete. It is a project the administration claims would ease traffic flow in Port Harcourt, but critics now allege it is an albatross on the government given what they allege is the administration’s difficulty in completing it.

The Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN state publicity secretary, Mr Jerry Needam while flaying the project as a waste of funds alleged that the money so far invested in the project could have been channeled to areas of urgent need in the state.

Among the projects started in the first term of the government that have recently been completed or commissioned is the ultra modern Kelsey Harrison hospital in Port Harcourt managed by International Trauma Critical Care Limited, ITCC, an international hospital management organisation.  The administration is also making effort to guarantee the state uninterrupted power supply as it intensifies effort to complete work on its power project.

The relationship between the executive and the legislative arm of the government at a time was so cordial that the ACN described the latter as a rubber stamp House of Assembly.  But the Speaker of the House of Assembly, Hon Otelemaba Amachree was quick to dismiss the allegation by the ACN party as lacking in substance.

Amaechi’s concentration on governance despite pretension to the contrary would have been affected by the recent eruptions in the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.

The governor is faced with the rebellion of renegade party supporters who in cahoots with authorities in Abuja are allegedly aiming to undermine Amaechi’s political profile ahead of the 2015 general elections. Few indeed would claim Amaechi to have failed at mid-term having, the dispute is only on how he has managed the success!