Amaechi: Our Administration Maintained A Healthy Balance Sheet

PHYSICAL AND SOCIAL SECURITY

By the time we came into office, armed gangs had practically overrun the entire Rivers State. There was no other option to us than to fight. In doing so, we were aware that the battle would be in both physical and social fronts. We also realised that Rivers State is the nerve centre of the hydrocarbon industry entrusted with pipelines to export terminals. We therefore had the duty of protecting the national economic asset. We began with massive weaponry to the police and other security agencies.  Apart from heavy involvement in training and welfare of security personnel, the Rivers State government invested heavily in top class security equipment and is the only state with a central command security structure that enables all security agencies in the state share information in real time. This was how the war against organised crime and armed gangs began.

EDUCATION

Education is one the strongest areas of focus by this Administration.Under our watch these last seven years, our educational system witnessed transformation in infrastructure and service delivery. 

Although constrained by the reduction of our revenue by more than half, our administration is proud of undeniable successes in our educational sector such as infrastructure revolution: Building and equipping over 311world class primary schools and five model secondary schools; The retraining and recertification of teachers with the involvement of the British Council in Port Harcourt; Total elimination of strikes and disruptions by takeover of payment of salaries of primary school teachers amounting to about N2bn per month; Recruitment of 13,210 teachers; Establishment of the Quality Assurance Agency; Introduction of Free Education up to secondary school level; Abolition of all fees in schools; Annual oversees scholarships in strategic branches of knowledge; Establishment of skills acquisition institutions to draw attention to self-employment and entrepreneurship; and above all, the outsourcing of management of schools in the state.

The icing on the cake perhaps is the transformation of the UST from 79th to best state university in Nigeria and 12th over all best. There is also the establishment of a university of education.

As part of the Administration’s deliberate academic growth policy, we sent our children to schools overseas, while working on improving our facilities in the state. Back home, we sent others to rated secondary schools and universities. We are proud of our achievements in the education sector; and are equally proud of our children who proved that given conducive locale, they could compete with the world’s best and brightest.We have given over 3000 scholarships to our deserving children within and outside the country. Even with mounting pressure and competing interests made the education of our children a priority as indeed it should be. N800,000 ( Eight hundred million Naira) has been released to the Rivers State Sustainable Development Agency in this light to enable it pay down some of its obligations to our scholars.

HEALTH

The philosophy of this administration remains the need to create easy access to healthcare through preventive healthcare delivery policy, disease control, boosting access to primary healthcare facilities to reduce pressure on the secondary healthcare centres (General Hospitals), and reduction of foreign medical trips by establishing world class health facilities in the state.

Our programs in healthcare these seven years promoted child and maternal mortality. We committed personnel and resources to a better healthcare delivery for our people. Thus, we are proud of such milestones as 436 additional doctors, 400 additional nurses employed; 160 modern primary healthcare centres built, Kesley Harrison specialist hospital built; The Maxilo-Facial specialist medical facility at Garrison Junction; Self-Destruct Syringe factory; 1000-bed hospital ongoing; The war against malaria especially the bio-larvicidal factory that is ongoing; the total war against epidemics such HIV/AIDS, Polio and Ebola; and tackling Glaucoma and Cataract.

Worthy of note is the Ebola scourge, and how Rivers State emerged with minimum casualty rate. Recently, the Rivers State Government was honoured for standing Ebola to the face. The fight tasked our best in men and resources. We quickly harnessed global comradeship built out of a universal fear that unless mankind overcame Ebola, the earth would be turned into a morgue. We rallied our people to alertness and healthy habits. The media was summoned to a race against time, and to the glory of God, withthe hard work of our professionals and the support of Rivers people, the federal government of Nigeria and international development agencies we were able to defeat Ebola. This is a testimonial to what is possible when the people and Government work together.

PHYSICAL INFRASTRUCTURE

Our administration faced the battle against infrastructural decay with all seriousness, realising that there is a direct link between state of infrastructure and the growth rate of any economy. The administration has so far completed 90 per cent of the Phase 1A of the Rivers State Monorail, completed two major interchanges, two flyovers, 25 bridges, and five shore protection projects. We have also completed 890 kilometres of the on-going 1,424 kilometres of road projects across the state. There are over six land reclamation/shore protection projects at Andoni, Opobo, Buguma, Abalama, Olumbie/Owukiri Island, Oba-Ama-Okrika with over 1,140,000km completed.