Governor Chibuike Amaechi of Rivers State has urged Nigerians to insist on good governance and the conduct of transparent elections.
Amaechi made the call at a conference of the state council on information in Port Harcourt on Thursday, stressing that laxity among the electorate was responsible for weak governance in Nigeria.
He said Nigerians had a greater percentage of blame for bad leadership in the country than the leaders.
“The people should demand for transparent election and good governance and where they do not, they are 80 per cent of the problem,” he said.
Amaechi said the citizens must avoid remaining quiet when things went wrong in leadership on the assumption that nemesis would catch up with bad leaders.
He said that such belief had impoverished the nation, while the leaders continued to squander national resources.
He said: “Insist that election must be transparent.
“Nobody will give you your right.
“Demand for it and claim it.”
He said that his administration had completed 250 modern primary schools, which would be delivered to the host communities in September.
Amaechi said that his administration had been addressing the problem of a large number of pupils in classrooms to ensure proper learning for the children.
He also said that the administration would deliver six new model secondary schools to communities in September.
Amaechi said that students of the schools would be equipped with laptops, tablets, beds and free feeding for nine months, after which the parents would take over responsibility of their training.
He also said his administration would inaugurate the “Unity bridge” linking two coastal communities, Opobo and Ikuru, to land transportation in January.
The governor said his administration had also built a new school of nursing and that students would move into the facility in December.
He said that the cultural centre and many other projects were nearing completion, adding that his administration released money for the building of a new Rivers FM station.
Amaechi said that the government also approved money for building a new printing press for the state newspaper, Nigerian Tide, and the building of a brand new digitised Rivers State Television.
He said that the projects had yet to begin as the release of the funds was still going through the Public Procurement process.
Amaechi said the state power project had not been able to ensure 24 hours power supply because of the separation of the state grid from the national grid.
In her remark, the Commissioner for Information, Ibim Semenitari, said that the theme of the conference was: “Public Information Management as a tool for Good Governance.”
Semenitari explained that the theme was chosen because the state planned to develop an information policy that de-emphasised praise singing and sycophancy in governance.
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