The Rivers State House Assembly recently approved the loan request by the state government to the sum of N18bn. The governor of the state, Nyesom Wike, had requested the approval of the legislators to source this sum from Access Bank in order to execute some of the infrastructural projects in the state. It is also heartwarming that the loan will be repaid before the end of the lifespan of the present administration through the state’s Internally Generated Revenue. One of the projects earmarked for the approved loan is the construction of a flyover at the popular GRA Junction on Aba Road, within Port Harcourt metrolis, the state capital. This is the fourth flyover Wike would be constructing in the last one year; all located in Port Harcourt and Obio/Akpor LGAs. The governor had awarded the construction of three flyovers to Julius Berger Construction Company which will also understandably build the fourth flyover. Among them are the popular Rumuokoro Junction flyover, the Garrison Junction flyover and the Artillery Junction flyover. These three projects are at different levels of completion.
No doubt, these landmark projects will help to ease free flow of traffic in the Garden City of Port Harcourt. However, it is important to point out to the governor and his team that the fourth flyover which the administration intends to construct at the GRA Junction is not in any way the priority of the Rivers people at the moment, little wonder the several criticisms that have trailed the award of the project. The GRA Junction is not usually as crowded as the Rumuokoro Junction to deserve an urgent attention at least for now. The Rivers State Government should rather take into cognisance the myriad of other people-oriented projects littered all over the state begging for its attention. Those projects will have more economic importance and positively impact more on the lives of the people than the GRA flyover.
Given the opportunity to suggest to the governor, I would opine to him to redirect the resources to the dualisation of the Igwurita-Etche Road down to the state’s boundary with Imo State at Igbodo, Etche. The Etche people have suffered untold hardship no thanks to the dilapidated state of this road. It has made it difficult for the agrarian populace to transport their farm produce to the markets in the urban areas, leading to wastage of such produce.
It is important to remind the governor that the Etche Road was one of his campaign promises to the Rivers people during the 2015 and 2019 elections and not the construction of a flyover at the GRA Junction. Its construction will therefore be a veritable electoral promise kept.
Besides, the construction of the Tran-Kalabari Road is another project the governor should have made a priority. Like the Etche Road, this road has remained a campaign tool since the return of democracy in 1999. If constructed, the road will drastically reduce the travel time from the capital city to some of the riverine communities in the state. Consequently, many of the civil servants from these communities would prefer residing in their communities while working in Port Harcourt to paying rents in Port Harcourt thereby decongesting the capital city. Apart from the fact that this will help in decongesting Port Harcourt, the governor would have proved to the Kalabaris and other riverine communities that he is not concentrating developmental projects only in Port Harcourt and Obio/Akpor LGAs to the detriment of others as being insinuated in some quarters within the state.
The Elele-Omoku Road is due for dualisation by the state government considering the volume of traffic on the road on a daily basis and the strategic location of the Omoku town. Omoku, the capital of Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni LGA, is host to so many oil and gas multinationals and obviously one of the areas where the state is deriving enormous revenue through the activities of these companies. The road leading to the town should therefore receive a fair and deserving attention of the state government.
One area the Wike administration has performed poorly so far is in the creation of employment opportunities for the teeming Rivers youths. The governor had promised to employ 10,000 teachers in the state education sector during the build-up to the 2019 general elections. Surprisingly, nothing has been heard of the employment process after the governor won his re-election last year. Instead, the job opportunity Wike’s government has created in its numbers since elected in 2015 is the task force work. Unfortunately, the people involved in the task force work were given little or no training leading to several incidents of misunderstanding between the task force and members of the public. The state government needs to take another look at its modulus operandi in creation of jobs in the state. The governor can start by issuing an executive order for the immediate employment of the 10,000 teachers he earlier pronounced without delay in fulfilment of his campaign promises to the youths.
Dennis Ofurum, Port Harcourt, Rivers State @Dennis_Ofurum.
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