Beatrice Itubo, governorship candidate of the Labour Party and Chairperson Rivers Branch of the Nigerian Labour Congress has faulted the casual, impulsive manner in which governance in Rivers State is conducted by the Nyesom Wike administration. “’How many years have we not seen Rivers State budget? We are now governed with impulse. If I enter Rumuoghalu, I say okay, I want to build flyover here, is that how they govern a people? No! There is a procedure to everything, That is why I am saying we should begin to look at people’s credentials.
“I have lamented for the seven years of this administration, I am not talking of other administrations at the front burner.”
Itubo spoke when she hosted members of the Rivers Branch of the Civil Liberties Organisation CLO in Port Harcourt who paid her a courtesy visit to discuss issues of mutual concern.
Speaking during the visit, Chairman of the Civil Liberties Organization, CLO Rivers State Branch, Comrade Clifford Christopher Solomon said, ‘Our visit to the leadership of the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC ranges from a whole lot of issues. The Civil Liberties Organization has been so worried because when you talk about comrades fighting to liberate workers, to make sure that they are not suppressed, oppressed, intimidated and make sure that the International Labour Organization laws are domesticated. So, there is no reason for some persons to be commissioned by the oppressors to thwart the effort. We have also resolved that if the wrangling amongst the state leadership of NLC persists, we would intervene and engage all the warring factions to search for a common ground to see how the issues are settled. This is not good to hear, at this critical moment where people are struggling for total liberation from the stranglehold of those who have held them down.
Responding, Itubo said, “What I have seen, I couldn’t have imagined that people who are conscious, people that are tutored are just killing the state. So far as I’m concerned, Rivers State is in a state of comatose. We are talking about Abuja, what is happening at least Abuja, they are still paying gratuity. At least the National can get up and call the president that this thing you are doing is wrong, but in Rivers State who dares that?
“Like CLO talked about good governance, I have lamented for the seven years of this administration, I am not talking of other administrations at the front burner. What I have seen, I couldn’t have imagined that people who are conscious, people that are tutored are just killing the state. So far as I’m concerned, Rivers State is in a state of comatose. We are talking about Abuja, what is happening at least Abuja, they are still paying gratuity. At least the National Assembly can get up and call the president that this thing you are doing is wrong, but in Rivers State who dares that?”
She opened up on the challenges she shoulders running a fractionalized labour union. when she received the CLO Team accusing her opponents of greed.
Referring to the age long collaborative ties between NLC and CLO, her attention was brought to the existence of CLO’s Political Education Committee. In his address, Solomon noted that, “we are trying to meet all the candidates and set an agenda and template for them.”
Stressing on the poor state of governance in the state, CLO Chairman said, “Government should not be operated from the breast pocket, we should have our budget open, we should hold our leaders accountable. Probity, transparency and need assessment should be taken before a government embarks on a project in any area. This is not to indict any government or person but how good governance should be. Remember, CLO is a human rights and pro-democracy organization and we have all the right to say, we want a working society. So, whenever the CLO’s political education committee calls on you to come and tell Rivers people what you have for them, be available. For instance, there is high rate of unemployment, hunger, starvation and insecurity in the land and the NLC is not doing well. Look at the fuel situation, these are things that the NLC should fight in collaboration with the civil society groups to get this country right again. We should be focused to take back this country, to solve all the wrongs.”
As political campaigns will start soon, CLO asked Mrs. Itubo to focus on issue based campaigns, rather than getting involved in politics of bitterness and acrimony knowing that in the end, Rivers State is one.
The CLO also used the opportunity to call on the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC being the electoral umpire not to be biased and favour any political party against the other. Solomon counselled, “They should be upright in conducting a free, fair, credible and transparent election; election that even the candidates will have no reason to go to the tribunal and the courts because it was free, fair, credible and acceptable. So, that is the kind of election we want INEC to conduct in 2023.”
