Amaechi has done morethan we asked for – Sen Ake

By JOSEPH ERUNKE
Senator Wilson Asinobi Ake represents Rivers West Senatorial district
in the Senate under the rulingPeoples Democratic Party. He is the
Chairman, Senate Committee on Labour. In this interview, he addresses
recent issues concerning the crisis in his party in Rivers State.
Excerpts:
What is your assessment of the current administration in Rivers State?
For me, I still believe that the greatest asset of any nation or any
group of people is the human asset and anyone trying to harness that
asset, that human resources by givingthem opportunity to excel will
definitely help to make the society excel.
The government in my place has taken the issue of education very, very
seriously. The quality of primary education which I also believe is
the foundation of any society, if you don't have a good early
education, you keep struggling in the later days of life but he has
provided very good foundation for our children and also, he has
provided for all those not within that range, educational
opportunities outside the shores of this country by giving massive
scholarship to our children to study overseas. So, with what he is
doing, you can begin to have a mental estimate of how Rivers State
will become like in the next ten years.
By the time these children in primary schools will grow through the
learning environment they are passing through to the quality of
secondary school he is also building and then, giving them opportunity
forhigher institutions, then you can be able to measure or have mental
idea of what our workforce in Rivers State look like and how the input
and the output is going to be. I believe Amaechi has given Rivers
people more than they had asked for from him.
But given the performance you mentioned, why is the governor still
being tackled at home?
Well, there is no way you will work to the satisfaction of everybody;
it depends on how you perceive development. It takes an open mind to
understand when there is development. There was a man I met who told
me that Amaechi has worked but he hasn't benefited directly from him.
That is how he views development. So it depends onthe way some people
perceive development and because of high level of ignorance.
We suffer when we don't know what somebody is doing in our society for
the growth of tomorrow, so no matterwhat you do, it is not everybody
that will be very happy, it is not everybodythat will be very pleased
with everything you are doing, they must find a way of discrediting
you. For us as true Rivers people, we believe thathe has taken a very
good measure to lay a very good foundation for the state.
Are you not worried over the controversy trailing your state branch of the PDP?
Definitely, every true Rivers State person and every true member of
the party will be saddened by what is really going on in my state. We
believe that it is like in every other human organization where there
is up and down and that at the end of the day, reason will prevail and
peacewill reign and we will come back and forge ahead with one
political family.
Do you believe that constitutional procedure was followed in the
sacking of Obio Akpor Local government council?
I am a senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and those that
carried out that action are legislators in the Rivers State House of
Assembly. Usually, when decisions are taken in parliament, there must
always be some dissenting voice. If somebody feels strongly that they
have done something illegitimate, in not following due process, has it
been examined by law? Because we have laws that we have to resort to
and I am sure some people have gone to court, so it is now within the
court to say whether they had followed due process or they had not
followed due process.
Do they have the law, local government law before them? So if they
have the local government law, which I know all the states have, to
govern activities of local governments in the states, if they have
followed the processes legitimately, why should we questiontheir
action?
You know, when there was problem when Late President Yar'Adua was ill
and we had to adopt the doctrine of necessity to settle the issue. It
did notmean that we couldn't have done otherwise but for the sake of
the country, for the sake of the nation, wehad to adopt something that
would save the situation.
Interest of people
So, whatever is the interest of people,let them tread carefully that
these areelected persons of the state, they have a duty to the state
and that the decision was passed by the majority of the members in the
State House of Assembly. That is very important. We must give them
that, because it not when a decision does not favour you that you
think that decision is wrongand that it is only right when it favours
you. I think that legislators have some levels of responsibility and
immunity and if they have done their job and you are not happy
aboutit, I think the most appropriate thing you should do is to go to
the law