AS PRINCEWILL COMMISERATES WITH THE INDEPENDENCE BOMB BLAST VICTIMS, PPA COMMENDS GOV CHIBUIKE AMAECHI FOR THE LAUNCHING OF FREE EDUCATION AND HEALTHCARE DELIVERY TO THE PEOPLE OF RIVERS STATE
Rt. Hon. Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi the Executive and peoples Governor of Rivers State as part of activities marking the nation's golden jubilee launched free primary and secondary education and free health care services for all taxpaying residents in Rivers state. For University graduates, the Governor promised to run a scholarship programme for all undergraduates from the State. Quoting the Governor, “Today, we formally declare free education and free healthcare. I would like to convey this message to the Ministry of Health to advice all doctors in the health centers not to charge anybody, including fees to obtain card. The free education is for primary and secondary schools. I will sponsor scholarship in the university. For health, it is free health in all government owned hospitals or health centers, free of charge”.
The joy of the leadership and members of Princewill Political Associates (PPA) knows no bounds over this Independence gift to the people of Rivers State. As we congratulate the Governor for these unique gestures we will like to urge all our people to rally round the Governor to continue to give the State purposeful, viable, virile and pragmatic leadership. Finally we are going beyond buildings to actually providing services. This is what we and our leader Prince Tonye Princewill have always pushed for. Reacting to the announcement the Prince who was at the Nnamdi Azikwe International Airport in Abuja on his way to Europe to attend a Rivers state investor's conference described Amaechi as a layer of foundations. “What he is doing may not be felt until after he has left. Very few politicians will do this. Everyone is thinking of today and their glory. Amaechi is thinking of tomorrow and our glory. For me a man who has seen what is possible to bury my ambitions, you should know there is something going on in Rivers state. This announcement marks a major milestone. Now we can educate and treat the poor. I actually feel like crying.”
Meanwhile the Prince has condemned unequivocally the bomb blasts that rocked Abuja during the golden jubilee independence celebration of the nation describing the incident as sad and unfortunate, “My heart goes out to the innocent victims of Nigeria's dirty laundry washed in the full glare of the international public and to those whose loved ones were killed in the bomb blasts in Abuja yesterday. There is no justification whatsoever for that dastardly act. We should learn to see dialogue as the route for settling whatever differences we may have. We should all ponder that engagement rather than brute force is the pre-requisite for peace and only then can we secure much needed development. Be it in the Niger Delta or Nigeria as a whole” I said that in Rivers state when Amaechi wanted to go down the route of a judicial commission of inquiry, when he referred to all militants as criminals and when Yar'Adua commenced the Gbaramatu bombings. In response we received a truth and reconciliation commission, the A K Horsfall rehabilitation committee and amnesty, all in that order. Let us see what comes now. My problem with our current leadership is that they believe in saying less and doing more even when what they say can more than likely help them do less.”
Chief Eze Chukwuemeka Eze,
Media Consultant, PPA.