Good day Nigeria. You know what they say, "when the cat is away the rats play". While the President was away in London, Minister Rotimi Ameachi and his counterpart, Minister of State Ibe Kachukwu decieded to get into a little public squabble, to flex their muscles, just because they could.
I watched the video of their little power tussle at the Akwa-Ibom town hall meeting on YouTube over and over again this past week, and each time, Rotimi Ameachi's body language appeared to be more flagrant the the already blatant words that fell out of his mouth. Minister Ameachi had always been a loud mouth from time immemorial, he uses words without caution and respect for the recipients of his addresses.
Minister Ibe Kachukwu on the other hand showed character. His character really impressed me and other Nigerians alike, according to the views aired on Twitter. However, not too long ago in April, I wrote a piece in respect to the unguarded utterances made by the Minister of State for Petroleum, at a time when fuel scarcity in the country was at its peak, and Nigerians were yearning for answers. The Minister's words then, seemed unforgivable, but with his recent show of maturity and respect to the Nigerian populace by standing up for what is right and giving a higher minister a good reply on all our behalf, we not only forgive his earlier excesses, we forget them.
We need growth and progress in our country, and a new University that is very much up to standard will be just a good step in the right direction. Unfortunately enough there are still leaders like Ameachi who are of the notion that we need to chase around a man who has reportedly found his way to far away Libya, for some 13billion naira, no matter how long that will take us, before we go ahead to build a school that will build young men and women who will in turn build us refineries, aircrafts, automobiles and a sound Nigeria for all, pitiable.
I read a piece by Reno Omokri on the Minister of Labour's "decree to banks", to stop cutting down labour they obviously can't afford, thanks to the rigid and uncalculated economical polices of the present administration. I couldn't agree more with Mr Omokri, especially on the fact that when one is under the mentorship of a dictatorial figure, such a person tends to rub on some of his mentors dictatorial attributes. Counting from Dr Chris Ngige's ludicrously stolid and disrespectful threat to withdraw banks' license if they don't stop cutting down on labour they can't afford any more, to Rotimi Ameachi's care free mouth opening at the Akwa-Ibom town hall, on national tv, in the presence of all in attendance including the principalities and powers of all Akwa-Ibom, it's now quite obvious to me that these ministers are learning very fast from their boss, the President. The king of frivolous and lax public statements.
Lax statements like " the federal government does not have money" shows just how patriotic and progress oriented some of our leaders are. Even for the finance minister, statements like that is very reckless, how much more a minister of transport. With this uncalculated public show of irresponsibility how do we expect the so much awaited foreign investors to come in and help us "develop our solid minerals".
South southern Nigerians deserve an apology from the Minister of Transportation for all his recorded and unrecorded verbal attacks on them, above an apology, all Nigerians need an administration that will defy all odds, pull the bull by the horn, make less excuses about the mishaps of the previous governments, commission her own projects, give credit to whom credit is due and work, work for the betterment of all Nigeria in ways we can actually see and feel.
Chukwuemeka U. Chinyere
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