[Protect democracy, AMAECHI BEGS REPS] --------------------------------------- Rivers State governor, Chibuike Amaechi, has appealed to the National Assembly to save the nation’s democracy from disasters by engaging in what he called, parliamentary activism. Amaechi, who is also the Chairman of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum, spoke yesterday in Port Harcourt, when the Chairman, House Committee on Emergency and Disaster, Federal House of Representatives, Ifedayo Abegunde, led other members of the committee to pay a courtesy call on the governor at the Government House in Port Harcourt. The governor said: “You seat in the parliament to think of ways to help the citizens, because, if the citizens are helpless, the parliament must be the avenue that the helpless can be redeemed. That is the reason they were voted into power. The judiciary became judicial activism in 2007, when I got the Supreme Court judgment. You can also be progressive in PDP. If the parliamentarians don’t do that, then one day, the citizens will wake up and start running for their lives. That is why you (Reps) and I (Amaechi) have the responsibility to re-pair the damage. We need to protect our democracy. “I must say that, at different occasions, you have risen to defend democracy. You have a big assignment. The assignment is not only natural but also man-made disasters. The disaster include the disaster in Yobe, Borno, and Adamawa states. We are living in a disastrous country, where there are disasters everywhere; there is even disaster in the revenue that we are sharing. You won’t believe that from N20 billion federal allocation that we have been receiving from the Federal Government, we now receive only about N13 billion monthly, meaning that our wage bills are now affected, including social developments, that is disaster too.” He said Nigerians were extremely hungry, adding that no one seemed to be responding positively to the problem of hunger. While thanking the federal lawmakers for visiting the state to commiserate with the victims of Rumuwoji Market over the inferno that razed the market, where properties worth millions of naira were destroyed, Amaechi appealed to the Federal Government to assist the state in the development of the market and payment of compensation to those who were affected by the December 17, 2013, inferno. Earlier, Chairman, House Committee on Emergency and Disaster Preparedness, said the visit of the committee was the outcome of the House Resolution of Thursday, January 30, 2014, which mandated it to commiserate with Governor Amaechi, and victims of Rumuwoji market fire disaster.
Posted on: Thu, 06 Mar 2014 09:19:01 +0000
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