With the apparent demise of OBJ’s third term agenda, the stage has been set for political gladiators and opportunists to profile themselves and their favoured candidates for the exalted office of President, since there may be a vacancy in that office after all. In this process, the media has been replete, in recent weeks, with names of prospective candidates, with reviews and counter reviews of those who are best suited to step into OBJ’s shoes come the magic date of May 29th, 2007.

One of those reviews which attract some attention was the recent covers story by Newswatch Magazine, which focused on the presidential ambition of Governor Peter Odili of Rivers State. In that piece written by veteran journalist, Mr. Ray Ekpu, the magazine went to extreme lengths to showcase the many ‘achievements’ of Governor Odili, and concluded that he would be a fantastic candidate for the Presidency, come 2007. Some of the achievements highlighted include the now famous gas turbines, which, after gulping over N40 billion of people’s money, is said to have solved the problems of power in Rivers State, such that power failure has become almost an anathema in the State. Other achievements include the construction of roads, provision of medical facilities in hospitals, including the purchase of an air ambulance to medevac critically ill patients to hospitals outside Nigeria for urgent medical attention, ostensibly due to the high premium placed on human life in the State.

As I struggled to restrain myself throughout the agonising trauma of reading the Newswatch article, I wondered how a journalist of Ray Ekpu’s standing and a newsmagazine of Newswatch’s reputation could have allowed themselves to fall prey to this sort of armchair journalism, which is apparently a paid advert to embellish the truth and thereby perpetrate bad governance in this country. In order to ensure that the contents of the publication are not accepted hook, line and sinker by gullible Nigerians who may not be privy to the facts, I felt impelled to put my thoughts down, in the hope that this may, somehow, set some of the records straight.

As an indigene of Rivers State, I have watched with utter frustration the challenges faced by the State in the past seven years, and the utter waste of public funds by an administration which held out a lot of promise at inception, and which has enjoyed unprecedented goodwill from the peace loving people of the State. It however appears that the quiet and civilised disposition of the citizens of the State has clearly been taken advantage of all this while. To start with, Odili has no reason to fail as Governor of Rivers State, because his emergence as Governor is one of the Seven Wonders of the World, so to speak. Coming from Ndoni, probably the smallest ethnic grouping in the State, who are originally of Ibo extraction, it was clearly a miracle for Odili to have emerged as Governor of a State which has large and proud ethnic groups like the Kalabaris, the Ikwerres, the Ogonis and Andonis, the Ibani people, the Ijaws, to mention but a few.

The fact that Odili had been Deputy Governor under the administration of Governor Ada George, could not have qualified him for the exalted office of Governor in a purely democratic setting where numbers matter a great deal. However, the miracle happened, and when Odili emerged Governor in 1999 through an electoral process adjudged by many to be clearly below minimum civilised standards, people expected that he would use the sheer opportunity given him by God to do what is right, and at least leave a solid legacy, knowing that such a rare opportunity will never come the way of his kinsmen again. And he had every opportunity to do so, considering the harvest of good fortune in the name of excess revenue through derivation, and in more recent times, excess crude oil revenues, with monthly inflows to the State from the Federation Account running into several billions of Naira.

In addition to this steady revenue, there is also the undeclared but equally exorbitant internally generated revenue from personal income taxes of staff working in oil and gas companies, which abound in the State. In fact, from Shell alone, the Rivers State government is reputed to generate monthly revenues in the region of N500 million from Pay As You Earn taxes, which the employees groan under, with absolutely nothing to show for it from the State Government on a monthly basis. This is not to take into account PAYE taxes from other oil and gas producing and service companies, and the sundry other taxes and levies collected by other agencies of the State from time to time

how is my governor's quest for the presidency a futile one?

it is futile because he is not a credible candidate by all parameters. he has reaped ur state blind even if u ppl fail to c it. he is d first govnor i have heard whom d european parliament came to his backyard(p.h) and asked his state assembly to investigate where all d monthly allocation(as at 2005 4billion per month) was being used for? dey asked dis based on the traffic of funds and investments he was making in there countries(i am nt kidding dis was on raypower in 2005 during d parliaments visit). he has shown nt to be a good manager of resourrces is it when he is given nigeria he will do beta?becos surely no sane thinking person is ready to vote him.

Who is this Odili? Where is he from? Is he EFCC investigation material?

he is one of the people in my death list. damn bloody criminal.

where is the proof? both the EFCC and the state house of assembly have not said anything so what is all the hulaboo?

he wont be efcc free 4 long, i can assure u

To say that Peter Odili is a failure is an understatement,any sector you look at,Odili has failed.Health,Education,infrastructure the man is a total disaster.
He is the same man who told Nigerians that OBJ should go for a third term,the same man who instead of building good hospitals for Rivers people decided to buy a plane to take people abroad for treatment.he is the same man who built housing units for the Navy while civil servants have no roof over their heads.
Where a hell is all the money that has come into the coffers of Rivers State?I'm so bleeping pissed of the that fool who thinks because he is in bed with his islamic friends EFCC would never visit him.One day,breeze go blow fowl ynash go open

@mrmayor; well until that day comes, can you hold your peace?

otokx:

@mrmayor; well until that day comes, can you hold your peace?

I just wonder why people love defending corrupt politicians?its either they enjoy the illicit funds stolen from the people or they know people who have stolen from public coffers.
The Niger Delta needs accountability to survive and not praise singing of Odilli and his likes

dats d problem with d niger-delta. though trully a lot of injustice has been done to d area but there leaders who shd take up d gauntlet and develope d area extensively steal d available resources . corruption is celebrated rather dan condemned . why would someon celebrate an odili who went and built a multi-million naira estate 4 civil servants in a deserted,remote place in bori while the civil servants he is building it 4 live in p.h. 38km away. now dat project is built but is deserted cause no one can stay in dat place(ABANDONED PROJECT!!!)
u look at d quality of projects executed in p.h. and it is pathetic e.g airforce new road leading to east-west road is an example. a road dat has claimed lives of ppl it is meant to aid. odili, odili, ODILI, make we change subject , abeg!!!

Folks,
I'm now Portharcourt based. And I've gone around the city a lil bit. Where I live in the city, electricity availability is non existent -I only get light at my workplace and that's because we're on standby generators 24 hours of the day.

I have never liked Odili's style of leadership. Ibori is miles away from Odili in terms or leadership, as a matter of fact, it is generally acclaimed by all that Donald Duke of Cross Rivers State and Ibori of Delta State are the best performing governors from the region. The evils perpetrated by Odili during his tenure in Rivers state is something I'll reserve for another day. I must state here that Warri is far better than Portharcourt in all respect. Portharcourt is just a ''big small'' city

The unfortunate thing however has been the undue emphasis on cheap propaganda and press capture which the Odili administration embarked upon right from inception. The first signals of this was when the government declared, barely 100 days into the life of the administration in 1999, that it had completed 1,000 housing units for the benefit of indigenes of the State. No one ever saw these buildings, and to date, the few ones erected along the roads for the benefit of the press have been largely uncompleted, and the quality of finishing so low that no sensible person can possibly occupy them. Then came the extreme propaganda on the gas turbines, which, because of the huge problem of power failure in Nigeria, captured a lot of attention.

These gas turbines, which have been commissioned several times over by different administrations in Nigeria, starting from the Shehu Shagari era, have been recycled, repackaged and re-commissioned at least five times by the Odili administration since 1999. Many people in the State wonder at the special attraction the State holds for President Obasanjo, who has, at the last count, visited Rivers State 17 times, while he has not visited some States in Nigeria even once! The truth of the gas turbines however is that there is no power coming from any of the white elephant projects, which are apparently drain pipes for the corrupt siphoning of State funds to private pockets of government officials.

In the area of healthcare, the situation is so pathetic that one wonders whether Odili is indeed a medical doctor as he professes. The Braithwaite Memorial Hospital in Port Harcourt, which is the premier State owned medical facility, is in such a bad state that patients and their relations have to buy water for operations to be performed on them, and huge rats jump from bed to bed, terrorising patients and sending them to their early graves in the highly unsanitary conditions at the hospital. If this is the situation for the main hospital in the State, one can only imagine what the situation would be like for other places. In the face of all this neglect, the Governor goes to buy two private jets, one of which he branded an air ambulance.

The real question is, why do we need an air ambulance in Rivers State, if the facilities in the hospitals are as good as Odili’s propagandists will like people to believe? The mere purchase of an air ambulance is a clear acknowledgement of the non-availability of adequate medical facilities. After all, the other hospitals where patients are expected to be flown to also use medical facilities, which can be bought with the funds available and installed in our hospitals here. And I hope Odili will tell Rivers people one day how many ordinary patients have been flown in the air ambulance to any hospital since it was purchased over a year ago. What is widely known as a fact is that Odili bought those planes for his futile presidential ambition, to execute his campaigns, and no Rivers man is fooled by his lack of depth of thinking. The mess in Medicare in the State is so glaring that even Odili’s private Pamo Clinc had no functional mortuary to keep the remains of his father in-law when he died in 2004, and his remains had to be deposited in the mortuary of one of the oil and gas companies in the State!

The sorry state of affairs in the health sector pervades every other sector, ranging from education, to infrastructure, such that there is a near total absence of governance in the State. The government has been surviving on propaganda, and it is obvious that even the propaganda machinery is tired, as there is nothing new to say. The recent desperate efforts to construct a few roads, which are all without drainage and very poorly finished, is such a huge joke that every discerning person sees through it. Moreover, there are allegations that the contracts are often over inflated, and awarded to sons of highly placed individuals in Abuja who may be able to help Odili with his presidential ambition. The fact that the whole of Port Harcourt is always submerged when there is a major rain, like the one on Saturday 10th June 2006, is a clear testimony to the fact that Odili’s seven years in office has been a total waste to the State.

To demonstrate Odili’s disdain for the Rivers man, he embarked on a destructive exercise in 2004 of demolishing people’s houses, apparently aping the exercise in Abuja by Nasir el-Rufai to restore the Abuja master plan. This exercise sent a lot of people to their early graves and confined many more to perpetual penury, as their means of livelihood and their residences were destroyed in the name of expanding roads or beautifying the city of Port Harcourt. Not only was no compensation paid to any of the victims, but to date, nothing has been done to provide the roads or drainages the houses were demolished to make way for. In a similar vein, early in the life of the administration in 1999, Odili ordered the demolition of Rainbow Town, a settlement within the Nigerian Army Rainbow Barracks at Trans-Amadi, Port Harcourt. The propaganda then was that the vast area would be laid out, with modern facilities like roads, water, electricity, etc., to make way for a modern settlement. Seven years after the bulldozers wrecked the havoc on the hapless residents, the area remains desolate, and latest indications are that the choice property has been shared out between Governor Odili and his political cronies.

Erm, those of you pointing accusing fingers at Odili as a failure should know that there are terrible people as governors in other states too.

And you should also know that Odili is not a Niger Deltan. He's an Igbo man, by every standard. He was foisted on Rivers people by the powers that be at Abuja. Well, his time is almost up, and our brothers in Rivers state will heave a sigh of relief when he's gone. Good riddance to bad rubbish!

brosss, ehhhh!!! deepsoul leave tory. did u knw how bayelsa was in 1999-2001? if u knw how it was u would appreciate hw far alams went in developing infrastructure from scratch. odili has reaped off rivers state by all standards even to an extent dat european parliament came 2 p.h. n asked dat he be probed by d house of assembly in 2005. u c ppl here are so petty y would someone say dat odili is ibo? as at d last count he is from ndoni in ogba -egbema l.g.a. of rivers state. pls dont confuse issues by bringing irrelevant and downright ignorant issues to governance. if odili had performed in office would u still say he is an ibo man? but its convenient for u to say so now. nna yarn beta tory(dis na 4 ono)

again i say hes time is ending soon!!!

ono:

Erm, those of you pointing accusing fingers at Odili as a failure should know that there are terrible people as governors in other states too.

And you should also know that Odili is not a Niger Deltan. He's an Igbo man, by every standard. He was foisted on Rivers people by the powers that be at Abuja. Well, his time is almost up, and our brothers in Rivers state will heave a sigh of relief when he's gone. Good riddance to bad rubbish!

Yes, he is an Igboman from Ndoni in[b] Rivers State[/b]. According to the Nigerian constitution that gives him a right to contest for the governorship of Rivers State. Get your facts right.

wat really does d ibo man tag have to do wit d fact dat d guy is a non-performer? well, if u want to call him an ibo man it means dat all d ppl in rivers state where either asleep or not capable to rule in '99 thyereby allowing an ibo man to come n rule ur state 4 8yrs without u blinking.

@Chxta,
Yeah, yeah, he's an Igbo man from Rivers State. Just like someone from Asaba and other Igbo ''portions'' of Delta State will open their mouth and say they'll want to be governor of the state. I don't have any beef with the Igbos or any tribal group as a matter of fact. I just hate it when a leader does not perform to the expectation of those he's leading.

Why I made the statement in my last entry stem from my suspicion that this Odili man is siphoning Rivers money to meet the need of his ethnic enclave only(maybe an unknown godfather somewhere; it's typical of most Igbo governors, you know); otherwise, where else could he have been stashing all the billions accrued to Rivers State in the last eight years?

Odilli actually stands a chance at winning the presidency. His origins are perfect for this election. An Igbo from the South-South is like killing two birds with one stone. From what I understand, he is fairly pro-One Nigeria which the north would like. He also appears to be a decent governor. And most importantly, he is pro-Obasojo which is the most important factor in this election.

Judging from what I have seen, anyone that opposed the third is not going to get the Presidency come 2007. Obj is not a man to forgive and forget and he will punish them for what he percieved as disloyalty.

ol'boy ono which kin ethnic conclave is he servicing with rivers money? d guy is not ibo and if he is i think d blame 4 him governing rivers shd be put at d doorstep of rivers ppl and if u may know south-south governors are d most corrupt in d southern part of nigeria shd we name them? from d iboris of delta,igbinedions of edo or is it attah? of course ur RIVERS broda odili is an oscar winner in dat regard while d rest are nominees.

@deepsoul,
You see wetin dey happen now? We don give people like buchio chance to dey yab us anyhow. buchio don forget say the money wey even the governor from him own state dey take build mansion for abroad, na from Niger Delta dem for fetch am. I go leave small pickin buchio for now.

deepsoul, you be woman o, abeg tell me, you get some link to Odili? You seem to like defending this man a lot. Prolly he's done some wonderful work for your town. Please tell us, so that I go keep my mouth shut. I dey wait.

whey them? eh? are you sure warri is better than PH ono? haba!! na wa o. I live at the university of port harcourt and we have light 22 out of 24 hours everyday and am talking of the one from PHCN. Dr. Odili has giving the university a facelift even though it is a federal institution. Indeed he donated a hostel block for the medical students, amongst other things. He might not be the best but he is definitely not the worse.

@Ono
i took time to read through wat u wrote and equally took time in replying. i came to d realisation dat wat u vomitted is a mirror via which to realise d problems d niger-delta is wallowing in. when ppl cant face issues but go down to d level of personal abuse. it rather immature of u and petty to a grand degree dat u would choose to call me a small boy when in reality u dont knw me frm adam. i am really nt angry wit u my broda just sad,sad because u most probably shd be in ur early twenties frm d way u have represented ursef and if at dat tender age u have dis mentality of running away frm stark issues but choose to go into personal assault den wat kind of leaders r d youths supposed to be for d future? pls change ur attitude for good of ur community,state n ur country.
as 4 deepsoul, i choose nt take dignify u wit a reply dat befits ur vituperation but to tell u to reference back to wat i said n read it more carefully dis time wit a discerning mind nt wit emotions.

@Buchio,
All right make we be friends, Ok? I no be trouble maker o! But na you start am now, ehn, If to say you no go stir the horners nests now, bees no go sting you. I warmly extend my hand of comeradeship to you. We can be friends. Cheers.

@deepsoul,
I must say you're too much. You are the type that will not wash your dirty linen in the public. Abeg give me your YIM address, we need to gist beyond this level. Cheers.

@Ono

Are you a politician? What do you want to say that cannot be said here?

Finally, Odili’s desperation further came to the fore through the childish sycophancy he embarked upon by his recent purchase of some vehicles, ostensibly for public transportation, many of which he dedicated to the memory of the late first lady, Chief Stella Obasanjo. Instead of allowing this lady’s spirit to rest in peace, especially in view of the highly embarrassing circumstances of her death, these vehicles are all over the place in the city, charging ridiculous and unsustainable fares of N10 per drop, in the hope of winning cheap popularity as usual. But the majority of Rivers people are not fooled and are a lot more sophisticated than Odili and his political adventurers will like to believe.

Also, having so openly supported Obasanjo’s ill-fated third term bid and declared that OBJ has been the best thing to ever happen to Nigeria, Odili has clearly shown that if given the opportunity to serve in that exalted office, he cannot perform up to what Obasanjo has done. And knowing as we all do, that Obasanjo has hardly achieved anything meaningful since assumption of office seven years ago, the clear verdict of Odili on himself is that he will be a misfit in any other office bestowed on him. It is therefore clear that having cursed himself, whatever efforts he is dissipating currently will come to nothing but another round of wastage of public funds. It is hoped that someday, the EFCC will muster the courage to hold him and other thieving Governors to account for the way they have misruled their States since the restoration of democratic governance in Nigeria in 1999.

I must agree that this N10 a drop is one of the evils of Dr. Peter Odili. The economic price should be about N200.