The Rivers State Chapter of All
Progressives Congress, APC has expressed their heartfelt appreciation to
Nigerians across the nation for the unprecedented support privately and openly
expressed towards the successful screening of the Rivers State Ministerial
Nominee and former Governor of Rivers State, Rt. Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi
by the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria today.
The APC in a statement signed by
its Spokesman, Chris Finebone recalled that the screening of Rt. Hon. Chibuike
Rotimi Amaechi became the foremost topical issue of political discourse in the
past couple of weeks since his nomination by Mr. President. With the eventual
screening of the nominee by the Senate today, we do believe that all lovers of
Rt. Hon. Amaechi, President Buhari and the APC would joyously put the suspense
of the past days behind them and move on.
The APC thanked distinguished
members of the Nigerian Senate for carrying out their constitutional
responsibility with candour, maturity and in line with the law.
“Again, we would like to state
that we are overwhelmed by the outpouring of love and recognition for the
former governor by all shades of the Nigerian populace and would like to assure
everyone that Rt. Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi would continue to identify and
fight for the interest of the ordinary Nigerian even as he becomes a Minister
in the cabinet of President Muhammadu Buhari” the statement finally averred.
Full Text of Amaechi’s Address to
the Senate .
Good morning. It is a rare
pleasure to stand before you distinguished Senators in this hallowed chambers.
I am deeply humbled and honoured to have been nominated by President Muhammadu
Buhari to serve in the office of a Minister in the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
My name is Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, and I am the immediate past governor of
Rivers State. Before then, I had served as the Speaker of the Rivers State
House of Assembly for two terms of eight years and as Chairman,
Conference of Speakers, for two
tenures. I am perhaps the first Nigerian to have served as Speaker of
a State House of Assembly, for
eight years.
I served as Governor of Rivers
State for two terms during which period, I had the honour and privilege to
serve my colleagues as Chairman of the Nigeria Governors Forum, for two terms.
Taken together, whether as Governor or as Speaker, these two career paths tell
a story of public service.
During my tenure as Speaker of
the Rivers State House of Assembly, we achieved a lot. Some key bills were passed
like the Anti-Kidnapping Law and the Rivers States Schools Rights (Parent,
Children and Teachers) Law. However, my most fulfilling moment as Speaker was
the passage of the Rivers State Schools Rights (Parent, Children and Teachers)
law, No. 2 of 2005. This bill clearly enunciated and defined the
responsibilities of parents,
teachers and children to guarantee our children access to qualitative
education.
As Governor, we inherited a state
that was comatose and in the throes of insecurity. Rivers State bore the fault
lines of the Niger Delta militancy. Our immediate task was therefore to restore
security and improve the social and economic wellbeing of our people. Ours was
a two-pronged approach of fiscal and physical security. Whilst we confronted
criminality with aggressive law enforcement measures, we embarked on massive
social and infrastructural development.
We declared an emergency in the
education sector that guaranteed free and compulsory education up to secondary
school level. During my tenure as Governor, we awarded the construction of some
500 primary schools. 314 of these were 100 percent completed while others were
virtually completed by the time we left office in May 2015. We undertook the
training and recertification of teachers already in the service of the state
and employed over 13,000 new teachers. Our efforts and investments in the
education sector did not go unnoticed as Port Harcourt won the UNESCO World
Book Capital city for 2014, beating cities like Moscow and Oxford.
In the area of healthcare
delivery, we built over 140 primary healthcare centres, three secondary
healthcare facilities, employed 400 doctors and 200 nurses to improve the
manpower in the healthcare sector. Anyone who visited Port Harcourt while we
served, will testify to the fact that we worked to bring back the old glory of
Port Harcourt as the garden and city as the third leg in the economic tripod of
Nigeria.
We built a dualised network of
1500 Kilometres of roads, 23 bridges, 2 major fly-overs and 2 interchanges.
In the area of power, of the 350
Megawatts (MW) total capacity generation assets invested by the government
before ours, only 70MW (equivalent to about 20 per cent) was available. With
enthusiasm, we ramped up the efficiency to 77 per cent availability including
injecting another 360MW Green Field Generation Project at Afam. That massive
investment is partly the reason why today, residents in Port Harcourt enjoy
almost 24 hours of electricity supply.
On the whole, Mr. President of
Senate, I say with pride that during our stewardship of eight years we
consistently maintained our pledge to our people to render transparent and
accountable stewardship.” To guarantee that we did not deviate from that
pledge, we were the first state to pass a Fiscal Responsibility law and the
Rivers State Bureau of Public Procurement law. Both laws stemmed from executive
bills, and we are pleased that we maintained our stance of surrendering the
power of the governor to award contracts until the end of our tenure.
Mr. President of Senate,
Distinguished Senators, it is therefore fair to say that under my leadership as
governor of Rivers State we redefined governance and repositioned Rivers State
as a destination choice to live, work and do business. Accordingly Mr. President
of Senate, Distinguished Senators, I give you my word that if I am confirmed as
minister by this distinguished Senate, I will bring to bear my vast experience
as a Legislator, Speaker and Governor in the execution of my duties
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