₦airaland Forum

eewule:
I haven't been in my home city of PH for over a year, still what I can say to those criticising Ameachi is that they should 'be quiet and happy with the efforts he's making' because as we all know, he could be worse - like Odili and many other governors across the country. Nigerian leaders have no accountability - they can come, stay 8years and go away without implementing one positive change in their state, and still proudly boast of being a past leader in that state. No one will arrest or harass them for not performing (although somebody should). 

The reason behind the hype with Ameachi (like Fashola) is that he is actually making serious effort to tackle the problems in the state. But this is Nigeria - there is never a shortage of problems - dilapidating infrastructure, poor road, and drainage issues left-right-and centre. So his effort will always look fible.

If Amaechi happens to decide to ignore all your complains over the next 4 years and do no other road work in the state, what will anybody do to him ? NOTHING,    as thats the Nigeria way.  He has chosen to act - so let us praise a working governor and encourage him, not complain.

THOSE OF YOU COMPLAINING NEED TO GO LIVE OVERSEA WHERE YOU CAN SUE A COUNCILLOR TO COURT FOR NOT PERFORMING DURING HIS TENURE IN OFFICE,   IN NIGERIA THERE IS NOTHING YOU CAN DO TO THEM WHEN THEY DONT PERFORM, SO BE HAPPY WHEN THEY DO.   
…And thats the damned truth !!

StarBoard:
@chima,
My point is,it is cronies like Chief Ake that make it hard for Amaechi to focus fully on road/infrastructure and be succesful.
If Amaechi refuses to prosecute GU Ake for mismanagement,it will be difficult for him to achieve anything tangible.
I have not said that Amaechi isn't working.All I say is he can do better.
As much as he may have done some roads,the existing roads are crying for attention.You don't need to be smart to know this.
There is no point creating new roads,while the existing road network is crumbling seriously.I wonder what the ministry of works is doing,seriously.

viruz007:
i agree with the op. Hav bin in ph 4 d last 6 years and tho i have nt bin everywer, d few places hav bin to, i hav nt bin impressed. Who eva said d rumuokwuta choba road is gud shld precipitate lemme teach him/her a tin or 2. D road is bad!! Esp. 4rm mgbuogba to choba jxn u hav a lot of bad patches. D ogbogoro road at ozuoba dat leads to mile 3, letz not even go there cuz dat place is an eyesore. Recently 6 hrs of rain made dat road impassable 4 almost a month. Den d demolition of houses at ada george leading to ikwerre road, totally uncalled 4. D most annoying thing which am a witness to now is d issue of all corps members posted to rivers state weda u lyk it or not must teach xcept 4 medical and law students. Werz d sense in dat? Instead of employin more teachers to teach and let corps members serve in capacities that myt favour d state in d long run, they must go teach. Annoyin. Usin my fone. Wld say more.m a witness to now is d issue of all corps members posted to rivers state weda u lyk it or not must teach xcept 4 medical and law students. Werz d sense in dat? Instead of employin more teachers to teach and let corps members serve in capacities that myt favour d state in d long run, they must go teach. Annoyin. Usin my fone. Wld say more.

aspabay:
@poster. Why are you so dump. Are you a Nigerian at all. Tell me which state deserve to be the centre of excellence?

isioma37:
My peeps, i ve lived in PH since 1993 and d truth of the matter is dat we r so used to mediocre performances so wen we see a governor dat does smtin small we praise him to high heavens. let me break dis down for u all. during Peter odili's time, if u give the RVSG 1,000,000 naira Odili & co will steal btw 800k - 900k and only 100k - 200k will be spent on d state. wat happens now under Amaechi is dat 400k-500k will be spent and the others stolen by Amaechi and his cronies. everytin Amaechi has so far achieved is with about 50% of the states funds, the other 50% has been stolen. Imagine how far d state will improve if Amaechi spends about 80% of d states funds and let him and his friends steal d remaining 20%. I don't want to talk about d quality of d roads and the amount spent per kilometer. it is worse than NDDC that gives out 1 km road for 105 Million in PH. Until we find a way to eliminate all these pple there is no hope bc corruption is d general rule instead of d exception.

StarBoard:
Pardon my gaffe about law,but I've heard that story about his name several times.
As per the roads,
You just contradicted yourself.Why didn't he probe Chief Ake publicly?It's this hypocrisy that makes me want to puke.Because of whatever transpired in the past,we are pardoning corruption.How sincere are we about his intentions,given the example you cited?
The same NTA road that several thousands ply a day and has been re-awarded is proving to be an eyesore and a symbol of all that is wrong with governance.
My point is:no need for half-measures.The road network in port Harcourt needs upgrading,hence you can't afford to do some and leave some.
The road you cited is done well,but other roads are crying out for attention.One good road in a city of 99 bad roads isn't enough for us to say he is doing well.

nakedwire:
What is happening to agip junction by ikwerre road flyover?

mbulela:
why are most of the model schools not yet occupied?some have been finished and locked up for months?are they for sale?

nakedwire:
What is happening to agip junction by ikwerre road flyover?

bossinie:
My guy that's a 'nakedwire' i do not want to touch! I bet the completion of that project will outlive his administration.

sleekfella:
at least something is happening in river state. my guy i am inviting you to come to delta state, let me see if you will blast rotimi anymore

Bensonite:
@ Phamtom,
Your query of if people live in PH is worrisome. You are not more Port Harcourt resident than pple here making constructive criticism of Amaechi. I admire your contributions a lot on this forum but on this you are wrong. Amaechi is over hyped even before the elections for simple reasons of Odili waste and useless 8yrs. Governors forum chairman is certainly going to be a distraction to Amaechi- he is already making effort to buy 2012 model jet for his frequent Abuja travels that will add no value to the average Rivers man. If you partook/move round in the just concluded garden city games 2011, you will see the mess ups(besides opening and closing ceremony jamboree in elekahia stadium) etc.

fyncorp:
You failed to mention the State of Oyigbo roads , a town thats 10 mins from portharcourt town.
Oyigbo is the 3rd  largest town  in Rivers State with highest population  , I will be doing a publication about this city soon with pictures of the state of infrastructure there.Its a great shame to call portharcourt garden city

zeal500:
i simply do not understand some pple here
no offence though but seriously wt the media hype abt d governor hell no!!!!!! wht we hv on ground here in rivers state in general and port-harcourt in particular is simply sad
Dt we hv some level of sanity called security to some point we all shd rejoice(even where at some pubs sm element wt militant id's use it to slap pple arud in d presence of police men while d later stand aside n do nothing)
wt d amt of money received each month by dis administration which is far higher dan dt which d last administration collected which cannot in any way b quantified wt d level of work done or on ground
awarding contracts to coys like mcc,zerok who spends 2years on a project is killing even when figures given for dis jobs are just unimaginable
apart from d few completed road which sm hv already started given way wt emerging dangerous pot hole i challenge any to tell me roads dt are okay >>>>
dis media hype shd better stop
nonsense
enuf of dis completed schls dt are not occupied by student
enuf of dis greter phc project dt hv no bearing
if truely dev is needed then places like ikwreetch,umuebule,obigbo,igrita etc shd hav tractor move in n work on drainage systems n dev a master plan so dt when d communities there sell d land it will simply b build n park in instead of wasting money in d name of payin compensation where they hv sacred cows
enuf of this media hype
"i am trading in my old private jet for another one new worth how much"
hissssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss!!!!!!!!!!
barning keke n wife is getting another type of keke wt doors an i wonder why d barn
enuf of this media hype
sooner or later d pple will take there destiny into their hands and free em selves frm tyranny n deciet

stagger:
Gov Amaechi needs to stop giving road contracts to local contractors. The nature of the soil is not one that can support sub-standard road jobs. You may get away with it in the north, but not in a state that is in the Mangrove swamp area.

The Choba-Rumuokwuta road is a case in point. The stories behind the contract award of that road are simply distasteful. Already, some of the areas around the Ozuoba axis are showing signs of disrepair. This is a section that I am quite sure is not up to a year old. He needs to look into the roads seriously.

bossinie:
I believe the posters observation and opinion is quite objective, impulsively hauling a stone at him does not make you more admirable.The hype about the performance of Gov. Amaechi in my opinion is a little over-rated for two reasons(1)The non-performance of his predecessor & god-father has made any little effort by him to be magnified unnecessarily (2)With the magnitude of revenue generated internally and via allocation from the FG monthly which is comparable to that of Lagos alone i believe much more should be expected of this 'wonderful gov.'
The challenge we have as a people is that when one heavier burden of governance is lifted and replaced with a lighter one we go into some hysteria praising these public servants as they they are doing us a favor whereas what we ought to do is to keep holding them accountable for every penny of state funds in their care.
Yes,most of the roads in the state are either totally bad,going bad or a lame excuse of under construction examples (1)Agip juntion (2)Ada-George junction(total mess) (3)Junction b/4 UST junction that connects Ada-George (4)Iwofe road etc. The governor may have done quite well in the areas of Health,Education and Security but he has failed woefully in road construction,rehabilitation and maintenance.He has also allowed unqualified construction companies to handle huge projects thereby wasting scare resources(He even apologized on-air for this blunder) that did not bring back the wasted resources or stop him from re-awarding same contracts to gov. cronies who will never do the jobs right.And i wonder why he cannot employ sound project managers to better manage most of these 'cut & join constructions' going on everywhere.

Another sad point to note is that he never puts the right people who will criticize him constructively but dummies who cannot look him in the face and say sir you got it wrong here.The former commissioner for works 'Dakuku' said on air in Oct.,2009 that the Ada-George road have been awarded to Gitto Construction company and "Fully paid for" that the company will commence work fully Nov.,same year.When you visit the same road today even right now as i speak nothing has been done, in fact the road is still in a mess.Ques. if all the money has been paid in 2009 and we are in 2011 why has Gitto failed to go to work since then.This is just one case out of many in the state.

To now say that the post is not constructive is in the least hypocritical or shear wickedness in the face of sufferings by commuters.

StarBoard:
phantom,
A good deal of traffic passes through those roads.It's not about being elitist.
It makes no sense to upgrade other roads and leave some.If you declare that you want to upgrade the roads,elitism doesn't come in here.Besides,Old GRA isn't elitist in terms of high-brow.Everyone who stays there wants to leave.The road joining CFC round about is an abomination to car users.Waht about stretchof road from Mile One which hosts Busdor?The potholes there are a mess.Doesn't he see those places?Instead he's busy buying jet.
Sasun Road hosts oil servicing companies.Is it too much to make that road motorable?That road has been done twice in the past three years,under Amaechi's watch.No drainage as well.Check it sir.

Anvaller:
Now I see the reason the game of politics in Nigeria is interesting to Nigerian politicians. Just feed people with garbage and tell em its cabbage, they will praise your name to high heavens. After all some governors aint feeding em with nothing. Fashola cleared Oshodi and then, but the question is, how many millions or billions does it cost the government just to chase people away.

Let's talk about the BRT, it is a PPP thing how much exactly is Lagos fund in the project and how much is private investment? What about the so much noised Eko Atlantic project. Lagos government has no financial stake in that project. The only stake is providing an enabling environment for the group of investors.

So the point is, let us thank Fashola for clearing Oshodi, for initiating the BRT, providing an enabling environment for Eko Atlantic developers and to be fair, some more I may not know.

But at the same time, lets ask Fashola where exactly is the raw money in Lagos going? They were talking about the light rail project, is it there now? can someone help me to confirm that? Has the project started? I really like that project when they were talking about it but I don't hear much about it anymore.

It will always be a blatantly wrong conclusion to measure Fashola's performance by comparing it with other states, such juxtaposition is illogical. You measure his performance against economic advantages and disadvantages of Lagos and not with any other state.

StarBoard:
@phantom,
That doesn't take away the fact that the roads are shambolic.
The two roads I mentioned are a disgrace to PH with its status.
What about the rest of the road?

nakedwire:
Ada-george road from Agip to Mgbuoba is something else when it rains.

Bensonite:
Good point made. The problem with the work ministry is corruption and nothing less. A friend of mine told me how he tried fixing a pot hole that will last for a long time during the operation zero potholes and the effort was fraustrated by the same ministry workers that are suppose to insist on high standards.
Back to OP,
You made a good assessment of Port Harcourt. Odili 8 years was a waste but did not mean we should accept anything just because Amaechi is performing better than his former boss. Someone mentioned earlier that Odili got more revenue than Amaechi---please that is wrong by any standard. Odili 8years was approximately N800billion while Amaechi 3years is about N1.2 trillion check the records and see. There may be inflation but not so much so there is more money now than before. Odili is history and we dont want to remember that name anymore.

StarBoard:
Roads?
What about Old GRA?The potholes there are multiplying by the day.
What about the Ordicance-Sasun road?Is that a road?
Just two cases in point.There are sevral bad roads in Port Harcourt.His zero-pothole policy was a failed one.Good point.Amaechi does roads with hardly functional drainages.

Vavavoom:
The OP has a fair assessment on Amaechi's performance. The problem has and seems to be our bojuboju approach of doing things.
Amaechi seems to have good intentions but like all padimen can hardly run away from friends who have helped made him - that is his bane. People, friends, relatives, associates, indigenes have been given jobs for which they hardly have any capacity to execute. So standards even when clearly started in issued contracts were not followed, na case of give us food make we chop especially on some of the roads being executed. But compared to Odili the monitoring of projects and revocation after realisation has been markedly improved.

If all the roads under reconstruction turn out like the schools and health centres then he would have met the expectation of many. As a tax-paying citizen I expect to drive on good roads and when the standard under which such roads are constructed appears not to have phase-timelines and continue to linger after years then there's every justification for questioning. He expects our praise for the schools and helath centres, and rightly so we have especially knowing where we are coming from but to say one shouldn't criticize aspects of his work because of the performance of close-by inept governors that is folly and unacceptable.

All Mbulela seeks to and has done is keep Amaechi on his toes, those who are advocates of RA should take both the praise and consider the constrcutive criticism as part as a tool for improving life.

samstels:
Gents/Ladies,
I think the writer must have visited port harcourt this past weekend.He tried in his analysis of the works of Rotimi Amaechi.

I live in port harcourt but do my biusinesses outside the town .I think on the average the governor has tried but i will score him very low in road maintenance .Quite good he is opening up new roads but as this goes on he should be able to maintain the existing old roads.Yes,someone may argue that the roads in question are federal roads but they are inland roads that connects one part of the city to the other.E.g.coming from warri to port harcort ,from choba to eleme junction is nightmare.also coming from omagwa to igwurita etche road intersection is a write off.Along eneka road precisely by elimbgu police station is terrible,better assume there is no road there.It took me 5 hours from tank at rumuokwurusi junction to airport ,which naturally is less than 20 minutes on a good day .If all the roads are fully opened ,phc will be an interesting place to live and do business but presently it is a nightmare .I imagine the man hour and resources wasted on the road in traffic on daily basis ,its enormous .Rotimi Amaechi should urgently put in place a scheme that will be maintaining these roads till the new roads under construction are finished.If not the phc citizens will continue to suffer this issue of bad road .
No doubt the young man has really shown an example of how development should be but it seems he has slowed sown drastically after his re-election ,we all know that the rains are also there but at least something can be done to cushion the heavy trauma people pass through on daily basis in  port harcourt .

Areas that need urgent attention :

1.Eliozu junction by ABC bus terminal  the four shoulders of the road .
2.Rumuodara by east west road up to tank at rumuokwurusi.
3.Elimgbu to eneka ( in front of the police station precisely and upwards )
4.Igwurita by etche junction coming from eneka to airport
5.Igbo ecthe road junction by eleme .junction .
6.Artillery junction by okporo road along aba road .

Spyker:
On point, the road beneath is the East west road or was it not awarded by the FGN? What a government should do is to fix the bad portion of the road even though it is a Federal road and that is what I expect RSG to do.
Back to the airplane, the same logic being heralded by the House of Assembly during odili's stay in Government House is the same being heralded now. Do we need an aircraft now when we already have three (or is it two now). Port Harcourt residents are suffering from all angles, bad or no roads, lots of touts in uniform claiming Obio Akpor or sanitation or Phalga metro e.t.c., flooding and heavy traffic couple with the lack of vision from the Government to create jobs, I wonder how many jobs this aircraft can create. This same Amaechi refused to pay RSUST lecturers agreed wage to the point that the University lost one academic session, my brother, even those who work for him are tired of defending and praising him, they have got to sit up.
My point is that there are more better things to spend money on like reactivation of moribund industries like Risonpalm, Olympia Hotel, Delta Rubber e.t.c. the list goes on an on.
Why not commit N7.5Bn into one of this moribund industry in the State and create jobs for thousand of jobless graduates. That is why I said this Government is clueless when it comes to the need of the people.

Maximip:
@mbulela

you are very right! with the amount of money Rivers State has, there's a lot
to be desired.

Some of the projects he carried out may need to be redone in the near
future. esp. roads.

Kobojunkie:
Why does one need to do that? I mean the state most likely gets more allocations now than when his predecessor was there, and the laws in the country are probably more lapse than it was under the previous administration (most likely allowing the governors use more of the money and freedoms for the greater good now) so, why does one need to compare the present to the past when all Governors get to, sort of start out on a clean slate, let's say, when they are they elected. They are not mandated in anyway to continue from where the last stopped,

maskara01:
i dont care about omehia or rotimi strides, the point here is the plane! do we need planes to fly about rivers state? very soon they'll buy speed boats. i remember when baba bought a jet, ofcuz u guys rae alive then to hear what the whole nation said! so pls lets face the issue.