The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Okrika

  • Peterside condemns bombing of Okrika APC secretariat

    Peterside condemns bombing of Okrika APC secretariat

    Rivers State All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship candidate, Dr. Dakuku Peterside, has condemned the multiple bomb attacks on the party’s secretariat in Okrika.

    The APC candidate was accompanied to the scene of the explosion by the party’s senatorial candidate Andrew Uchendu, House of Representatives candidate Maureen Tamuno, party leaders in the local government and other APC supporters.

    He expressed shock at the attack, which he said signalled danger, ahead of next month’s elections, if not checked.

    Peterside said: “It is very sad and unfortunate that some persons have chosen this path. If you notice, there has been a pattern of violence. On January 6, when we had our presidential rally at Adokiye Amasiemaka Stadium, you would have noted that some of our party members from Abonnema, Degema and Asari-Toru were attacked around Sama Junction. Those coming from Khana and Gokana were also attacked around Sakpenwa Junction. Some other groups coming for the same rally were attacked around Elele.

    “Fingers point to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). We have raised these issues with the police commissioner and the security agencies, but not much action has been seen.

    “Aside from this, you would have also observed a trend even among them. A few days ago, they were in Abonnema to campaign and a faction of the PDP fought with another faction of the PDP. Two persons have been confirmed dead. They have also exhibited several other acts of violence at many other instances. That portends serious danger for our democracy.

    “I don’t want to believe that this signposts what to expect on February 14 and 28 because Rivers people are peace-loving; we reject violence.

    “I am optimistic that the police will do something about this pattern of violence we are witnessing. If they don’t, they will force ordinary people to resort to self-help, and self-help does not do anyone any good.”

  • PH Refinery trains Eleme, Okrika youths to acquire skills

    The management of the Port Harcourt Refining Company Limited (PHRC), Port Harcourt, Rivers State has initiated an empowerment scheme for youths from Eleme, Okrika Local Government Area of the state as part of efforts to make the youths self-reliant.

    The empowerment scheme, which involves skill training and capacity building, is being done through the company’s Youths Empowerment and Skills Acquisition Programme (YESAP).

    Speaking during the official flag-off of the programme at the company’s premises, the Managing Director of the PHRC, Mr. Ian Udoh, said the scheme was part of the corporate social responsibilities of the company to its host communities.

    Udoh advised the beneficiaries to make good use of the opportunity so that they would be relevant in the economic growth of their communities and the state as skills acquisition is a critical component of economic development.

    The objectives of the programme, the PHRC boss said, is to increase opportunities for wealth creation, economic empowerment and reduction of unemployment as well as to improve human capacity for sustainable development.

    He also assured that the trained youths would receive starter packs from the company at the end of their training.

    Also speaking, the Ag Executive Director, (Services) of the company, Sir Ralph Ugwu, said the youths would receive training in specific skills like: welding and fabrication, carpentry and woodwork, plumbing and pipe fitting, plaster of Paris (POP), fashion designing, GSM repairs, catering, poultry and fisheries production among others.

    He also pointed out that youth empowerment and skills acquisition programmes are some of the various social investments within the host communities of Eleme and Okrika, aimed at addressing issues of youth unemployment and its attendant negative consequences.

    Speaking at the event, the Paramount Ruler of Alesa Eleme, HRH Emperor Nkpe, thanked the company for the opportunities provided for the youths.

    The royal father who was represented by Chief Benson Dibia from his domain charged the company to build stronger ties with its host communities in order to achieve sustainable development.

    Some of the beneficiaries who spoke with Niger Delta Report, expressed appreciation to the company for the gesture, assuring that they would make judicious use of the opportunities given to them.

  • Jonathan’s Okrika homily

    Jonathan’s Okrika homily

    IN President Goodluck Jonathan’s declaration in Okrika, Port Harcourt, Rivers State, that he is not bothered by criticisms, has come a basic contradiction.

    The president said he was not bothered by opposition criticisms. Yet, he insisted that he had his eyes on legacy. How sure is legacy if you don’t use criticisms to correct your mistakes? Or is all criticism in bad faith?

    Yet, overall, the president’s declaration would appear, in the context in which it was made, not manifestly bad. If it sounded offensive, to the extent that almost every newspaper that reported it led with a declaration that tended to portray the president as contemptuous of criticism, it was because an innate yearning to do good seemed to clash with a Freudian slip to not “give a damn”.

    Could the president be so lexically challenged that he would mean the best of things yet sound the worst of things? That really is the worry; and the president and his handlers should be the first to bother, if really they are working towards a post-Jonathan era legacy.

    What the president said, at the funeral of his mother-in-law, about public office being like death, and that every public officer is doomed or saved by his action – or inaction – in office should have been near-holy writ for the Nigerian political class. Death is the freezing final. With death, there can’t be a second chance. So, it is with office. After office, there is simply no second chance.

    But with the level of impunity in the land, and the penchant to abuse public office for personal gains or use public office to settle personal scores, the president was simply on point.

    Yet, ironically, given the location of Jonathan’s declaration – Okrika in Rivers State – the president did nothing but trenchant self-indictment. The way his presidency has grossly abused the use of the police, against real or perceived political opponents in Rivers, is totally condemnable.

    The Rivers State Police Command, under Commissioner Mbu Joseph Mbu, is a classic example of how not to be a police officer. Under his charge, the Rivers police have become a partisan tool: a rod to crack the skull of the opposition (even if opposition activity is entrenched in the Constitution); and a scheming machine, maintained by public money, to aid and abet criminal intolerance by the powers-that-be. Most ruinous: CP Mbu even figures himself a rival power, against an elected governor, all under the unfazed guidance of the Jonathan Presidency!

    Besides, how the police have been deployed to harass the G-7 governors, members of a splinter group of the federal ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), does not exactly mould the Jonathan Presidency in the image of a government that particularly cares about its post-office legacy on rule of law, the very pillar of democracy.

    In his Okrika homily therefore, President Jonathan has evinced the tragic contrast of a president who knows the right thing to do but, due to political expediency that will sooner than later come back to haunt him, is too undisciplined to do it.

    For the sake of Nigerian democracy, it is not too late to correct this tragic flaw. But if the president must, it is to the bitter pill of opposition criticism that he must resort. He must swallow that bitter pill; and demonstrate to everyone he can improve on whatever he is not doing right.

    That is the straight and narrow path to legacy. Any other way is the wide and merry way to destruction. The president must choose right. But eventually, the choice is his – and so would be the consequences of that choice.