Three bills that may shake Rivers State to its foundations have crossed the short distance between the Brick House (the seat of power in Port Harcourt) to the House of Assembly.

Governor Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi who pushed out the proposed laws had spoken sternly in recent times about the new laws he was unleashing as his tenure draws closer to an end.

One the bills may give teeth to threats by the governor to launch an aggressive revenue drive (ARD) in the state that may require revenue agents to go from house to house to ferret out tax dodgers. The state government expects to cover its recurrent expenditure requirements of about N10billion per month with internally generated revenue (IGR) so as to devote the entire federation allocation including VAT of about N17nillion per month to capital projects.

For this reason, the administration introduced a contributory levy to help run free social services, especially in education and health, but found out that it may fetch mere peanuts, less than N6billion in a whole year. Now, a law to back up the state’s Board of Internal Revenue has been sent to the House.

Another bill is one that may wipe away the countless mushroom private schools in the state capital. The Rivers State president of the National Association of Proprietors of Private Schools (NAPPS) and the Proprietor of Victory Comprehensive College, Peter Harrison, had described the situation as pathetic, saying it was now a case of every parlour a private school and had called for serious clampdown.

Now, the “Rivers State Education Bill 2012” that would set up inspection agency has also landed in the House of Assembly. The law would permit the agency to shut down any school that did not meet world standards, and many do not come close to this.

The state government is toiling to build 750 modern primary schools to replace the 1000 dilapidated ones. There may be 245 public secondary schools in the state as well as the 24 world-class colleges being built since 2008 by the Amaechi administration, but there are over 1000 private schools whose owners may wail and weep in the Garden City soon.

The third law may be one that would force Port Harcort residents to imbibe new sanitation behaviours at great pains. The traffic laws and other legislations so far churned out in the state have been tough on the people. Now, the “Rivers State Environmental Sanitation Authority Bill 2012” may help to clean up the city but many residents would learn new habits in great pains.

The three Bills were presented by the Leader of the House, Chidi Lloyd, the member representing Emohua Constituency, who said the objectives were to provide efficient collection, treatment and disposal of wastes in Rivers State, establish adequate administration and collection of revenue in the state and to check all forms of illegality in the establishment of schools.

He explained that the State capital has been very filthy and that no responsible government would fold its hands to be over taken by refuse in all nooks and crannies of the state.

The lawmaker added that the provision of well equipped school libraries, information centres and standard data for revenue collection in the state would help to actualise its developmental vision. Meanwhile, the bills have passed through first reading on the floor of the House.


http://www.businessdayonline.com/NG/index.php/news/111-politics/45153-amaechi-sponsors-3-bills-that-may-shake-rivers

nothing special about the laws

If na Lagos do this one, afam4eva and other pack of bigots go done yarn dust for everywhere.

@ Topic

Nice one Amaechi, "Rivers State for Rivers people"

Another fashola in the making! Too much laws flying in the air. Smh

I hope Rivers people will buy into this oo.

I guess better late than never. . . .
I just hope the bills have been well drafted, feasible, with no hidden surprises, so there wouldn't have to be a back and forth between the legislature and executive and hopefully it can be passed expediently.