From Tony John, Port Harcourt
The Chairman of the Senate Committee on Privatisation and Commercialisation, Dr. Orji Uzor Kalu, has commended Governor Siminalayi Fubara for his love for peace, determination to offer quality governance and to keep pace with providing the right climate to engender economic growth to the peole of Rivers State.
Kalu, who represents Abia North, also urged the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, to sheath his sword, and call his supporters to order as a commitment to fostering peace and putting the interest of the state above all other considerations.
The former Abia State governor spoke when he led a delegation of the Senate Committee on Privatisation and Commercialisation to the Government House in Port Harcourt, yesterday.
Senator Kalu, who said they were in the state to carry out oversight duties on some projects under the Committee’s purview, said: “I want to admire Your Excellency, your deputy and your team for the good things you are doing in the state. But, it is good to have peace.
“I want to thank you because you look like a very peaceful man. Your face shows a peaceful man. Your laugh shows a peaceful man. So, I want you to continue in that manner of peace. There is nothing like peace. Let people who are eating with this problem stop eating from it. We know that politics has taken its shape. We commend you for what you are doing for the people of your state. I will continue to ask you to focus on the job.
“Leadership is a very big burden. It is not a sweet potato. It is not anywhere that you can see rice and beans. On the street of Rivers, everyone is saying that the Governor and the former Governor are quarelling.
“We want to plead with you to continue to hold your people back because if your people demonstrate like the other people, we will have a state of anarchy, and it is not good to have anarchy.
“I want to plead with you to abide by the rules of the land. I plead with you to abide by what the Constitution says. I plead with you to also abide by the decisions of the judiciary. Wait for every judicial interpretation and act on judicial interpretation.”
He pledged readiness of the committee to work with the state government to achieve mutually beneficial goals that would advance the interest of all Nigerians.
He added that the hardship in the land was already enough of a burden that leaders need to concentrate efforts to address to promote growth and prosperity for all.
Meanwhile, Governor Fubara has said he was not fighting anybody, but rather defending the state against predators, and protecting supporters of the interest of the state against those who feel that they own the lives of others.
He has also asserted that the failed attempt to detonate an explosive device at the Hotel Presidential in Port Harcourt was a deliberate ploy to strengthen the call for a state of emergency by haters who want to undermine the state to achieve their evil plans.
He explained that some youths were hired to engage in a protest to demand extension of tenure of the former local government chairmen, who have served out their statutory three-year tenure.
Fubara said the protesters and their sponsors were aware that some members of the National Assembly were guests at the Hotel Presidential, which was why they attempted to detonate an explosive device near the facility in order to give reason to support the call for a state of emergency when the matter is raised at plenary, but they failed.
“This God that we serve, it happened that the man who was trying to do it, detonated it but just a few seconds after, it blew his hands off.
“The idea was that as you were hearing about the state of emergency, it will be so that by the time they finish, when you return to have your sitting tomorrow (Thursday), the debate will be from somebody from this state who called you people to tell you not to come. He will now raise the issue of a state of emergency, and say after all, distinguished colleagues saw it happen while you were in Rivers State, that you saw what happened.
“But, you see, when you are with God, even your own child who is planning evil will go and tell somebody that God is with this man because he is clean, this is what my father is planning. That is what is keeping us in this state.”
He pointed out that there is no governor in Nigeria who could take 10 percent of the abuse railed at him by former local government council chairmen.
He said he has taken those insults and attacks in his strides without going hard at the purveyors because their plan is to distract him. He stressed that he has remained focused on delivering good governance and democratic dividends to Rivers people.
“I tell you, we know everything that is happening, and you know it, everybody knows it. We should be bold enough to look at the face of people and tell them the truth.
“I am not fighting anybody. If I am fighting, people will know that I am fighting; my pattern will change. What we are doing is to defend ourselves. We can’t just fold our hands. Only a tree will be standing and somebody will come and cut it off.
“It doesn’t happen as a human being. If you know that danger is coming, you shift. What we are doing is just to protect ourselves. So, distinguished senators, I am not fighting anybody.
“Somebody thinks or some people feel they have their own life. I don’t own life. The person who owns life is God. What we are doing here is to serve the people of Rivers State because God has given us this opportunity.
“It doesn’t matter the channel the opportunity came from. But, the most important thing is God, and nobody takes the place of God in anything.”
The governor told members of the committee to factor in the interest of Rivers State as they recommend the privatisation and commercialisation of public companies, saying that when the state buys stakes in such companies, it can be protected and supervised to be viable.
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