Rivers State Governor, Chibuike Amaechi has said that the provisions of most laws in the country do not encourage development of several sectors of the nation’s economy. This was even as he gets set to avert workers’ strike over demands for the implementation of the minimum wage
Amaechi stated this yesterday in Port Harcourt while declaring open the 44th annual conference of the Nigerian Association of Law Teachers (NALT). The theme of the conference is “law, peace and development”.
The governor, who was represented by the secretary to the state government, Mr. George Feyii said that the existing laws did not encourage development in some sectors of the economy such as power, petroleum industry as well as the fight against corruption.
“We know the role of power in development, but as we speak, the law as it affects the sector does not encourage development. We have a lot of laws that have not allowed states, for instance, to distribute and transmit power. Look at the petroleum industry bill, corruption in governance; these are some of the issues we are talking about,” he said.
He disclosed that the inability of full enforcement of laws in the country has contributed a lot to the high rate of criminality, pointing out that it would take a lot of commitment and courage to enforce the law.
“There is a presumption that when laws are made, there are supposed to be enforcement procedures, when there is no enforcement of law, you won’t have peace and there will be no development.
“The fact is that there are laws in most of the states, but the problem is there is no enforcement. It is lack of enforcement of the law that gives room to criminality. It is lack of enforcement that makes people to easily carry arms and do all sort of things,” the governor said.
In his own address, Chief Judge of Rivers State, Justice Iche Ndu stated that the rule of law was a pre-condition for peace and development of any society and pointed out that when law and justice prevailed, peace and development would follow.
Ndu commended the executive arm of the state government for living up to its constitutional responsibility as it affects the judiciary in the state.
Earlier in her welcome address, the president of NALT, Mrs. Florence Akaagar called for continuous maintenance of peace and order and insisted that one key factor that hindered peace was the rejection of law and order.
In another development, and in an apparent move to discourage workers in Rivers State from participating in the planned three-day warning strike by the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) over the non-implementation of the new minimum wage, Governor Amaechi has promised to commence payment of N18, 000.00 to civil servants in the state.
Amaechi, who made the promise yesterday while speaking at the flag-off of the 2011 civil servants week in Port Harcourt, however did not disclose when the payment of the new minimum wage would take effect.
The governor, who was represented by his deputy, Mr. Tele Ikuru, said that as chairman of Nigerian Governors’ Forum, he held a meeting with other state governors to press that all the states pay the new minimum wage in order to avert the impending workers’ strike.
He said that the state government would work hard to deliver on its mandate of ensuring that workers in the state got the best from the present administration and attributed the success story and credible performances of his administration including the just concluded national sports festival to the cooperation of civil servants in the state.
The governor also promised to provide all facilities needed by civil servants in the state to enhance their performance and efficiency and warned that government would not take it kindly with civil servants who indulge in corrupt activities, lateness to work and lack of commitment to duty.
Earlier in her speech, the head of service, Mrs. Esther Anucha said that over 115 workers in the state benefitted from the revolving loan while over 450 workers has also benefitted from the state assisted capacity building training for workers at the state Polytechnic, Bori.
Anucha, who commended the Amaechi administration for its support to the state civil service, appealed to the state government to build more houses to be given to workers on owner-occupier basis.
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