15th April, 2011
The Rivers State Government says it would not be blackmailed into changing its position on the payment of the enhanced consolidated salary package of 70 percent, which was jointly agreed by labour and government in February 2011.
Rivers State Governor,Chibuike Amaechi who made this known while speaking as guest on a live TV programme in Port Harcourt, said the state government would uphold the terms of agreement reached between the two parties, as it was the wish of the people.
The governor, who was responding to the strike action by lecturers of the State University of Science and Technology, Port Harcourt, said the state government, Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC), Trade Union Congress (TUC) and its affiliate unions agreed to the payment of the 70 percent after weeks of negotiations, and wondered why the lecturers at the state university would be the odd one out.
He described as most unfair, the present situation where lecturers have decided to hold the future of their students to ransom by engaging in clandestine meetings with some opposition politicians where the lecturers were instigated to proceed on strike, at the detriment of the students.
Governor Amaechi, who picked holes in the credentials and policy thrust of some politicians seeking public office in the state, said it amounts to lack of proper discernment for anyone to seek to replace the Monorail Transport system that has the capacity to convey 40,000 people, without coming up with an alternative plan.
The Rivers State Government, he insisted, is fixing and re-inventing the local economy, by stimulating the growth of the economy via spending locally, hence the temptation for people to see it as a big spender.
“But again, we must not forget that N18 billion was spent by the Celestine Omehia government in one day – the 25th of October, 2007 – on the day the Supreme Court ousted his government,â€,he emphasiisd.
Meanwhile, Governor Amaechi has urged the Managing Director of Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) to ensure the maximum utilisation of existing ports in Nigeria rather than building new ones.
Governor Amaechi, who stated this when the Managing Director of Nigerian Ports Authority, Omar Suleiman, paid him a courtesy call at Government House Port Harcourt, wondered the kind of goods the country is exporting when the ports are underutilised.
He enjoined Suleiman to always advise government on how to revamp the existing ports across the country.
—Okafor Ofiebor/JPort Harcourt