Out of Africa

Age 43 and with his own Facebook page, Rivers State Governor Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi of Nigeria believes that the youth of the country will be the ones to bring change. Especially in regards to teh conditions in the Niger Delta, where oil has brought violence instead of development.

How do you see the situation in the Niger Delta?

The criminal activities that were taking place in the Niger Delta are no longer as rampant as they used to be. Kidnappings are no longer a daily occurrence. They occurred due to the lack of an enforcement of laws. The laws are there, but the government didn’t see the need to [enforce them] and people were doing anything they wanted to do with impunity. When some of us took over they said,  “Negotiate with them.” I said that I negotiate with those who have ideological intentions. I didn’t see anybody among those who claimed to be fighting for the Niger Delta with any ideology.

The Niger Delta area requires total re-branding because what is on the ground is not what is being portrayed. Things have started changing at a very high magnitude. All the young governors are pushing things in a different manner. Almost all of us governors in the Niger Delta have started making things change.

How have you been trying to improve conditions?

We believe that one way to transfer ourselves from our own injustice is to ensure that you look at the quality of education, infrastructure, the availability and quality of teachers, the training and re-training of teachers. Education is an essential element in the progress of our people, because, at the end of the day, there is a competition in the committee of states and if you are not properly educated you cannot compete. And you the governor will have visited injustice on your people if you don’t address that.

The law says that primary education is the responsibility of the local government council. But what we’ve done because of the incapacity to develop that area, we’ve taken it over from them. We are currently building 250 primary schools. Before the conclusion of the construction of those schools we intend to train and retrain teachers and hire more teachers.

To read the complete interview on allAfrica.com, click here.

Some of the coolest things, to me, about his plan for his state: 

• providing free primary school education
• that maintenance is more important than construction
• the hopes of building a new city hub in Rivers so that Port Harcourt isn’t the only one

Thing I learned:

• Rivers State has a free pre-natal program
• They have one of the only syringe factories in Nigeria
• There’s a monorail in the old city (I’m assuming Port Harcourt)
• There’s some foreign investment going on … from South Africans, and even Ukrainians. 

Introducting Solving Africa.

Written and organized by journalist Kingsley Kanu Jr. Solving Africa is a project/quest to discover how young people can contribute toward the development of Africa. 
He is a currently on tour of seven African countries— Dakar (Senegal), Accra (Ghana), Lagos (Nigeria), Addis Ababa (Ethiopia), Tunis (Tunisia), Nairobi (Kenya), and Johannesburg (South Africa). In this interview with Farafina magazine, he explains what Solving Africa is all about: 

This project is a collection of dreams; asking young Africans what they see as wrong or right with the continent and their role in its development. But it’s not a policy book. This is first and foremost a work of creative nonfiction that I hope makes people think about some of these issues. …

The African dream is to leave Africa. There are many people like me. We are often at the tops of our classes and each year, our SAT scores and achievements prove that we can run with the best from any country on earth. We have capable people who do not see Africa as theirs to build as much as something to sidestep. But if it isn’t this generation of an educated, uninformed African middle class, who else is going to care? Who else has the resources – social, political and economic – to care?

For those of us in the Diaspora, let’s keep up with his findings and see how we can contribute as well!