Abayomi Elias
As the 6 months emergency rule of Rivers State gets its halt today 18th of September 2025, a stakeholder in River State has urged Governor Siminalayi Fubara to embark on genuine reconciliation once he hits the ground running.
Newsconnect reports that the President of Ijaw National Congress Professor Benjamin Ukaba on The Morning Show on Arise News made this assertion when asked by Dr Reuben Abati one of the anchors of the program the lessons learnt from the emergency rule.
Going forward, Dr Abati among other things had ask him what is next for Rivers State and who does he consider the winners or losers as the emergency rule lapses.
In his response, he said;
“It has actually resorted in very significant loses across multiple sectors. To start with, the suspension of the governor, deputy governor and legislative arm replaced with some form of dictatorship.
“Decisions were made with no form of legislative imput devoid of public accountability. All of these have undermined the very basis of democracy which is the government of the people, by the people and for the people.
“The local government autonomy has seen was also undermined. There was kind of apathy in investment to the extent that economic activities was very low.
“There were reports that investors and businessmen receive low patronage because of uncertainties.
“There are two major projects that are on going. Talking about the 195 billion naira port Harcourt ring road project and transcalabar initiative.
“All of these were stalled and the impact for us is worsening transport hardship and detained development. There were job losses.
“Ten thousand jobs was lost as a result of people removed from offices, which increases unemployment and created hardship.
“Port Harcourt was once known as the garden city, during this period it was very visible that the entire environment littered with all kinds of indisposed waste which degraded the social services.
“He should get into genuine reconciliation. Part of the losses is because the issue that led to the emergency rule remain unsettled.
“State capture and federal overreach. We believe there is ao much division across party line, ethnic lineages.
“Fubara should initiate genuine reconciliation not minding the party that brought him to power. He is governor of everybody. Taking it from there, if he is able to stabilize the state, those who fought him, those who stood by him, let them sense of belongings.
“He should not be discouraged by what has happened, it’s an opportunity to assert himself that nothing has changed. Moving forward he should fastrack projects in all sectors”. He said.