On that drizzling afternoon When the newly sworn-in Governor Siminalayi Fubara mounted the podium to give his inaugural address minutes after he had taken his oath of office, the following words stood out for me;
“…You have invested your trust in us, and the question is how we can provide effective good governance to meet your hopes and expectations.”
“Our response is simple and majestic. By today’s mandate, you have asked for continuity in leadership, and like a strong relay team, we have accepted the baton to continue the race. We will provide that strong, determined, focused, purposeful and responsible leadership. Though enormous, we assure you we are equal to the tasks and responsibilities ahead.”
Within those words, Gov. Fubara equivocally stated strongly, his readiness to deliver on his mandate given to him by Rivers people.
As an avid follower of politics in Rivers State, and like many other political analysts and stakeholders, I’ve been keen to see the direction the SIM administration would take and from my professional analysis of the event of the last one month, I will quantify it in these 2 words; STABILITY and PROGRESS.
The New Governor has spent most of his first 30 days in office setting the stage for what would be one of the most eventful 100 days in office.
A day after his inauguration, he announced the first sets of commissioners and appointees and were inaugurated the next day.
On the 1st of June 2023 as part of his first steps in structuring his government, he met with the heads of the Civil Service and permanent secretaries. On that same day, he embarked upon the novel and significant visit to the state secretariat.
On 5th June 2023 he was at the State House of Assembly to proclaim the formal resumption of the 10th assembly.
Apart from his moves in properly setting up the structures of government, he hosted a couple of stakeholder bodies in government house.
On the 8th of June, he met with the leadership of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), on the 14th he played host to the British high commissioner state house and on the 20th he hosted the leadership of NLC in the state where he promised to roll out transport palliative in Rivers State to cushion the effects of the subsidy removal.
Another strategic meeting that was held within this one month was that of the visit of the representative of the NLNG which held on the 21st of June, 2023. The Governor used the opportunity to urge them on completion a of the NLNG Bodo-Bonny road and also advocated for more employment opportunities for the state through their train-7 project. On same day, the Governor also played host to the leadership and representatives of the Oil and Gas Free Zone Authority.
Beyond setting the stage with these strategic meetings, he also followed up on a couple of ongoing projects in the state with aim of seeing their completion and eventual commissioning during the 100 days in office milestone celebration.
Apart from approving required funding for most of the pending projects, Gov. Fubara paid an unscheduled visit to the ongoing construction of the convocation arena project at the university of Port Harcourt. Other projects inspected where; The Andoni road, Dental & Maxillofacial Teaching Hospital of the Rivers State University at Garison, Kersley Harrison Hospital Emenike; Comprehensive secondary school, Borokiri; Government secondary school Alessa, Eleme; Oyibo-Koloma-Afam road, Government secondary school Eneka and rumudaholu market road.
Within the last 30 days since his inauguration, Gov. Fubara has been consistent on his approach.
Also in keeping to his promise, Gov. Fubara has sent a supplementary budget to the state assembly for passage. This is to carter for the legacy Port Harcourt Ring Road project.
While many governors that were sworn-in on same May 29 are still being engulfed in the politics of setting up their government and unnecessary back and forth with their predecessors, Gov. Sim has covered more grounds within his first 30 days.
From my overall assessment and analysis, I’m very optimistic about the Gov. Fubara’s administration as it is beginning on on a very fine and firm foundation, positioned for STABILITY AND PROGRESS.
Ugochukwu Oputa is a political analyst and public affairs commentator
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