I believe in prayers, says Governor Amaechi

Rivers State Governor Chibuike Amaechi yesterday affirmed his belief in the efficacy of prayers.

He said prayers saw him through difficult times in the past.

Amaechi spoke at the weekend when the Catholic Bishop of Port Harcourt Diocese, Rt. Rev. Camillus Etokudoh led over 100 priests at a prayer session at the Government House in Port Harcourt.

Amaechi said: “I believe in the Power of Prayers. If you look at my political history, you cannot divorce God and prayers from my political history, if you remember how I became speaker, it was through prayers. Before I became speaker, I was already married to my wife (Dame Judith Amaechi) and she knew how we prayed and fasted together to be speaker. You know the story of the governorship race. What I ask God is that, why should I go through crisis like this all the time, why are people not honest in life?”, Amaechi said.

Amaechi also vowed that his administration will hinge on his vision of sustaining integrity, transparency, accountability and good governance to deliver dividends of democracy to Rivers people.

“When I’m asked a question, people expect me to tell a lie or bend it a bit, and suddenly it comes out straight. And when it comes out straight, people don’t like it. And my Catholic Priest told me that it is only me that will account for my soul before God, not even my wife will help me to account for my soul. So if because of you, I bend it a bit, how will I answer to my God?”

He commended the Catholic Diocese of Port Harcourt for their solidarity and promised to deliver on his promise to God and man and described the activities of his political opponents as a calculated distraction against his government, urging members of the state Executive council to remain focused in service delivery to the people of the state.

“The Solidarity you have shown to me and my wife today, we can only take it to God. We thank God for your presence here. One promise I will make to you is that I will continue to deliver on my promise to God and man, that they can’t take away from us. They are just trying to distract us. You know, usually governors begin well and sometimes end badly. If you allow them to distract us, we will end badly. So don’t you ever listen to any body, they can’t do anything, know that God is behind us”, Amaechi stated.

Worried by the recent power problems in the state, Governor Amaechi said, steady power supply to Rivers people is one of the main target his administration hopes to achieve before leaving office in 2015.

“the reason why we have total disconnection of power is that the transmission line which brings power belong to the PHCN is bad, so, the directive I gave to the commissioner of power is that, we will look for money and do our state grid, so that, we don’t hear any longer that the transmission line is bad. PHCN is trying to fix the transmission line, and once they fix it, power will improve. But while they are doing that, we have decided that between now, July and August, we will do our own state transmission line, at least around Port Harcourt, so that we can transmit our own power directly from our own transmission line”, Amaechi explained.

On Education, Governor Amaechi pointed out that, he had directed the commissioner for Education, Dame Alice Nemi to acquire land in Port Harcourt and Obio-Akpor metropolis to commence the building of 40 new model primary schools.

On roads, Amaechi said, his administration will soon complete the Odili road extension to link the East-West road and will temporarily be open to the people of Woji, Elelenwo, Akpajo, and those coming from the Ogoni axis between July and December this year.

“I think, we have done well in the area of roads. When his lordship talks about being proud of us as Catholics, I assure you that, when we leave office, you will be proud of us”, Amaechi said.