HURRAH!GOV.PETER ODILI IS 66 YEARS. Dr.Peter Odili,former Governor of Rivers State is 66 years.It is rather my considered summation that Peter Odili should have created a yardstick in Rivers State through which development indices could be measured.But alas! he held himself out to be exploited by sycophantic elements,who used him only for their own personal ends. Gov.Peter Odili was nice to me as Student Union President of Uniport,and indeed the Student Unions of that era.I owe him a huge debt of gratitude. Indisputably,he could be classified as a paternalistic leader. However I censored Gov.Odili very seriously in the media in 2002/2003 when he derailed from the good governance he had promised me.I eventually coordinated Students for Chief Sergeant Awuse,gubernatorial candidate of ANPP in 2003,under my NGO:Student Vanguard for Good Governance(STUVAGG). I had met Gov.Peter Odili soon after my swearing in as SUG President in 1999,when the first pump price was hiked by the Obasanjor administration.Gov.Odili had summoned Student Union Presidents and the Secretaries-General to Government House,for a plea not to be tools to the outsiders who will come in to forment trouble,since the increment was not caused by the state government. After his pleading,we were given right of audience.The Student Union officials were led by George Kelly,President of NURSS National.When it got to my turn to speak,I was the only one who did not hesitate to make it explicitly clear that the only condition in which I would not pull out my students to the street would be by double assurance by the Governor that the increment would not affect transport fares,because if that happened it would rob on the entire chains of the economy and inevitably students would be the end victims of it. I also availed myself of that singular opportunity to request for a union bus,which I had earlier before the increment appealed to the Governor for Uniport students.The Governor swiftly obliged.Hon.Azubuike Nmerukini was immediately communicated to,to prevail on the transport union. Because of that intervention transportation fares were not hiked as would have been the case.And also,three days after the meeting,the buses were given to all the Student Unions in the state through the SSG,Dr.Abiye Sekibo. I hold it in good faith that Gov.Peter Odili remains the unbeatable Student Union friendly Governor in Rivers State.(to be contd).
Posted on: Sun, 17 Aug 2014 10:49:41 +0000
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