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By Amaechi Okonkwo
“Rivers State needs an administrator because an administrator will hit the ground running and will come with a purpose; but not same for a politician. We need someone who is firm and at the same time flexible and has the fear of God to rule the state”.
These were the words of Hon. Tekena Iyagba, a governorship aspirant under the platform of the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) in Rivers State as he announced his intention to join the race for governor in the 2023 elections.
Iyagba, a private entrepreneur and chief executive officer of Acron Limited is a native of Okrika, a riverine area of the state.
He told journalists in Port Harcourt that he decided to join the race for the Brick House because he did not want to continue to watch political events go wrong in the state while sitting down and doing nothing.
“I’m one of those who are tired of complaining behind closed doors, and also have come to realise that governance is too important to just leave in the hands of politicians. I therefore have decided to come forward and do something about”, he said.
He explained that it was not good enough to complain about government at the federal level, noting that “if the states individually can get things right together, the nation will be a great place.”
He however, lamented the absence of what he called a structure in Rivers State, adding that the state needs to be able to create a structure that generations would grow up and follow, further stressing that most other nations of the world in Europe and America had had structures for long that had made their societies better organised.
Describing himself as an administrator who needs a political office to achieve his purpose, the governorship hopeful said that industrialisation and urbanisation are his two key points to establishing a lasting development and prosperity for Rivers State.
He said; “My key points are for us to industrialise our state to be able to stand without our oil revenue that we get from the federal government, have public private partnerships (PPP) in place, create structures that even when another government comes into place the structures still stand. We have got so many abandoned projects because of lack of these structures”.
Iyagba said he shared the vision of the former governor, Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi, pointing out that under Amaechi’s leadership the administration took Rivers to the level where many were happy, adding that the government then touched every sector of the society.
“If the next government had continued where Amaechi stopped, I believe that by now we would have been somewhere. I share his vision but I have my own ideas to perfect his vision. Not just to perfect his vision but to also set it in place that it cannot be altered even by the next government”.
Speaking about his chances of clinching the APC governorship ticket, he said his is like every other candidates in the contest, adding that like many others in the state “we are all tired, we are tired and we need a change and let’s do something differently this time. Let’s forget the usual old faces, the usual politicians and all their promises”.
He announced that he would unveil his detail manifesto on May 1, 2022 when he would officially declare his preparedness to fight for the APC governorship ticket among the about 12 other candidates who had also indicated that they would run for the number one slot in Rivers State in the 2023 elections.
