By Kelechi Esogwa-Amadi
An elder statesman in Rivers State, Alabo Dagogo Michael Fubara, has said that any project capable of making transportation in the state more feasible is worthy of being embarked on. He was speaking in reaction to the 50.15 km dual carriageway Port Harcourt ring road project flagged off by Rivers State Governor, Siminalayi Fubara, on July 17, 2023. Speaking on Wednesday in Port Harcourt, Prof. Fubara said the ring road project has been long expected and commended the Rivers governor for making it a reality.
He advised those criticizing the project or complaining about being excluded from the design to sheathe their swords and let the project be, having been envisioned and designed years before the current governor came on board.
He said what Governor Siminalayi Fubara is doing is to bring into reality the vision of the fathers of Rivers State who designed the project. Prof. Fubara, who played a pivotal role in the establishment of the Rivers State University of Science and Technology (now Rivers State University), added that even Opobo Town, where he and the governor hail from, is not part of the ring road. He maintained that in policy implementation, what matters most is the collective interest of a state and its people.
“Anybody complaining that he’s not part of the ring road should have complained at the time
it was designed. He (Governor Siminalayi Fubara) didn’t design it. As such, it’s a concept that he inherited and is executing, because it’s a concept that has been lying in limbo as if it was never going to be done. Yet it’s a very important thing to have the ring road, even if it didn’t go through Opobo.
“Anything that will make transportation and movement in Rivers State feasible and more successful is something a person must do. He’s governor of Rivers State and not of Opobo Kingdom.”
The elder statesman expressed happiness that Sir Sim Fubara recognizes that he is a governor for all Rivers people and not for any particular section of the state.
He said with that understanding, the welfare of the entire people of Rivers State should be the governor’s primary concern.
“We’re glad that he recognizes that the most important thing is that he is governor of Rivers State. Security, development, well-being, and progress of Rivers State are paramount concerns of whoever is governor of Rivers State, not just talking about his local government where he hails from.
“We’re glad he’s seeing it that that is what a nationalist and a statesman should do – to see that the progress of the entire territory he’s governing is paramount,” Prof. Fubara, who is the Dappaye Amachree XVII and Chief/Head, Fubara War Canoe House of Opobo Kingdom, said.
He said as an elder statesman, his advisory role for the welfare of Rivers people dates back to the time when former governor Melford Okilo invited him and a few other Rivers academicians like Prof. Tekena Tamuno and Prof. Tomenso, to help develop the state. According to him, one of the results of that patriotic advisory role was the turning of the Rivers State College of Science into a University of Science and Technology.
“Since then, I haven’t turned my back. I’ve been in the position of advising very many governors, not only Okilo. When Ukpo became governor, he made me chairman of the governor’s advisory panel. Today we have Saro Wiwa Polytechnic, it is through my advice that we were able to establish the Rivers State Polytechnic. It was formally a Roman Catholic Teachers Training School but we were able to turn it around to a Polytechnic,” he recalled.
