By Ngozi Nwoke
Former member of the River State House of Assembly who represented Ogba/Egbema/Andoni constituency 1, Hon. Christian Ahiakwo, has called for synergy among political leaders in Rivers State.
Ahiakwo specifically called on party chieftains of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), well-meaning Rivers indigenes to join hands in the restoration of political peace and warned that there may be worse leadership crisis in the state which may destabilise the administration of the governor, Siminalayi Fubara.
He said that in order for governor Fubara to succeed and deliver on his mandate, all hands must be on deck to ensure unwavering support and less distractions.
Ahiakwo noted: “I think my impression is not a bad one. My impression of the current leadership under Tinubu is not a bad one. It is not a bad one in the sense that he came and met a very battered society; in the area of security, we have nothing to write home about; in the area of economy, it was already battered before he came; in the area of agriculture, we have nothing; in the area of empowerment and so on and so forth, all the scars of the enemy, the economy were really down in the ‘Buhariation’ and he came in barely about 6 months or so in office.
“If you look at some of the rules he has made recently, you see somebody who has that genuineness to move Nigeria forward. Especially yesterday and today, you could see some moves that the EFCC is making especially on some notable people that could not be touched in the past administration but they are going after them especially as it concerns forex allocation which has issues with forex dollar rising up to 1,000. Sometimes, all these are domestically influenced, meaning that people are holding forex that is supposed to be in circulation.
If you go into the interior and the interior minister, you would see what he has done; you apply for international passport and you won’t get it but today the young man is designing a system where you can be in your house and apply for this thing without issues; then the guy in aviation is also trying to bring up some as aviation philosophy too that would help to rebrand the Nigerian aviation industry; some of these are some giant strides put in place to make sure that Nigerian moves forward.
“Police welfare is very poor. It will take the Federal Government nothing to fix police reform. They can say that this year, we want to achieve 1000 housing units in all the police barracks. The police force and army need to have a sense of belonging. They need to feel happy when discharging their duties. When they feel happy, they will discharge their duties effectively and professionally.
“So, the cause of incessant insecurity is the government’s inability to provide adequate welfare for the police and army. Until they are regarded as people who put their lives at risk to secure the nation, then insecurity will continue to rise.
“The problem we have is the border situation. We do not have a border in Nigeria. A military man in the North was telling me this situation of the military there, that someone from another country can ride easily inside the desert into Nigeria without passing through the border.
“So, that is the bane of our insecurity; we do not have a border system and until we establish a border system, we will continue to have this issue.”