Mkpoikana Udoma
Port Harcourt — Rivers State Governor, Sir Siminalayi Fubara, has promised that his administration will build cottage industries and provide social amenities to create good job opportunities and sources of wealth for the people to promote peace and accelerated development in the State.
Governor Fubara made the remark when he spoke at the front of Kenule Beeson Saro-Wiwa Polytechnic in Bori Town, venue of the inauguration of 13.985 kilometers Bori internal roads project in Khana Local Government Area on Tuesday.
Bori is the headquarters of the Rivers South-East Senatorial District, which includes Khana, Gokana, Tai, Eleme, Oyigbo, Andoni, and Opobo-Nkoro Local Government Areas.
Governor Fubara insisted that achieving the planned development of Khana Local Government Area will require the collective efforts of every body, which will transform into the success of the Rivers South-East Senatorial District.
The Governor pointed to the fact that Bori Town is among the three old districts that were established in the past to drive development but was yet to achieve that status of a thriving urban city, and attributed such failure to the inability of successive administrations to muster the needed political will to pursue that development path round the State.
He said, “We must develop this district. I want to assure you that we are not limiting our development of this Senatorial District, Bori Town in particular, to only roads. We will give you good hospitals. We will attend to the school issues, and we will try our best to make sure that we bring cottage industries to this place. That is the only way Bori will develop. When there is employment, that is when development will come rapidly into Bori. And we must do it together.”
Governor Fubara, however, appealed to Bori people in particular, and the entire Ogoni to be accommodating to strangers who live among them and allow them explore opportunities that could foster development, adding, “Our Polytechnic here used to be the best, but today, if not for the effort of the new management, it was going down everyday. The truth about it, is because of the way we are living with our visitors.
“We must change that attitude. We must be accommodating. It is only when strangers come into your place, that is when development will come. You can’t develop on your own. People must come, live with you, and you have to accommodate them”.
Governor Fubara urged the people to continue to support his administration because it means well for the State, and assured that Bori Zonal Hospital will be among the first of such facilities that will be inaugurated in the State, which will address issues of healthcare in the Rivers South-East Senatorial District.
Performing the inauguration of the project, former National Chairman, Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Prince Uche Secondus, said the completion of the Bori Town Internal Roads project is a miracle made possible under Governor Fubara’s Urban Renewal Policy to create more cities in the State.
He said, “For my people, this road, we must own it. It is important that we maintain the drainage and the roads so that the Governor can do more,” describing Governor Fubara as a man with few words, a man with humility, a man who respects elders, who is not greedy but always willing to make sacrifice.
Providing the project description, Rivers State Commissioner for Works, Barrister Elloka Tasie-Amadi, said the Bori Town Internal Roads are 23 in number, 13.985km long and has 10,000 meters of drains.
He said, “These roads are situated in different parts of Bori Town. The number of the roads and their locations can explain to you the joy in the hearts of the people. In all the roads, we have basic specifications of 150 millimeters of stone base, 50 millimeters of binder course, and 50 millimeters of wearing course, with every intention that with functional drains and thickness of the materials, the roads will last a very long time.”
Earlier in his address the Chairman of Khana Local Government Council, Mr. Martins Nwigbo, said the completion and inauguration of the Bori Town Internal Roads was historic for the people because it represents fulfilled promise by Governor Fubara to advance his development agenda in the area and give the people a sense of being part of his administration.
