News - I’m Not Moved By Speculations On Presidential Ambition, Says Amaechi

[TGD]

 RIVERS State Governor Rotimi Amaechi, who addressed speculations on purported bid to contest for the Presidency in 2015, neither accepted nor denied the "rumour" when he fielded questions in the United States.

Speaking in Houston, Texas after meeting with a group of US investors, Amaechi, who clearly did not rule himself out of the contest, however, said he was mostly focusing on his assignment as governor.

According to him, the assignment he has, for now, is to govern Rivers State. But he said: "If any other person thinks this man has ambitions, it is that person's business."

Amaechi, who is known to have raised flaks in the past regarding presidential politics, added, "the constitution of Nigeria stipulates what qualifies anybody to have ambitions."

But Amaechi seems to link the speculations of his purported presidential ambition to what he considered a poor treatment of Rivers State by the Federal Government.

He said if speculation on his purported ambition "is the reason for which Rivers State is being denied everything, too bad."

Amaechi continued:  `"I have said it; they don't like Rivers State. If they like Rivers State, they should show us evidence that they like Rivers State. Everything that comes to Rivers State they have taken away. I have said it to the President.

According to the Governor, Rivers State has even been denied several federal waivers, including "ordinary waivers for security helicopters; agricultural materials, they wouldn't grant the state. Anything we applied for, they will never approve. There is nothing we applied for that we have successfully gotten, absolutely nothing."

But he absolved President Goodluck Jonathan, saying it is not that the president is bad. The president is absolutely a good man, but those people around the president continue to give that impression of hatred and dislike because that is how they can succeed and make their money,'' Amaechi said.

Commenting on security issues, Amaechi then noted that often, the inability of democratically elected leaders to provide adequate security for the citizenry is an impeachable offence.

``The first offence governors commit is when they are unable to provide adequate security for their people.

``The first oath taken by elected leaders is to protect life and property. It is the responsibility of government to provide security to the people, '' Amaechi said at a town hall meeting with indigenes of the state living in the U.S on Sunday.

The governor, who earlier held meetings with some foreign investors, also linked poverty and illiteracy with insecurity in some parts of the country.

`"I hate to see people building high fences in the name of providing themselves with security,'' Amaechi said, stressing that it was the reason his administration achieved remarkable milestones in maintaining law and order by adopting zero-tolerance attitude to social vices.

The governor noted that he would continue to motivate, train and retrain the police force and other security agents in the State on crime prevention and detection.

He disclosed that the state had established a centralised rapid response call control centre with state-of-the-art equipment and helicopters for effective monitoring.



The Guardian