As the year 2024 crawled to a close, ThisDay newspaper announced that they had selected President Bola Ahmed Tinubu as their ‘Man of the Year’. Naturally, that announcement attracted lots of ‘yays’ and ‘nays’ depending on how the people perceived Mr. President’s efforts and accomplishments within the year in question. Since the impact of government is felt most at the state level, I was curious about who would be voted Governor of the Year.
  
Admittedly, a lot of media and social organisations have announced their pick for Nigerian Governor of the year 2024, and the winners have come from virtually every geo-political zone of the country. Looking through the list of the different winners, I was particularly puzzled, as a Rivers person, when none of the organisations that have taken it upon themselves to gazette the Governor of the Year or Man of the Year did not deem Governor Siminalayi Fubara worthy of that accolade. It makes me wonder whether these organisations do not know what is going on in Rivers State or whether the governor’s media handlers have not done enough to tell the world what Governor Fubara did in 2024. While it is no secret that Fubara’s former boss and immediate past governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike, and his allies are bent on giving the incumbent governor a hard time, it seems that the outside world is either ignorant or has chosen to ignore Governor Fubara’s monumental strides and the unprecedented people-oriented projects he undertook in 2024.
 
While the most common criteria used in determining the winners of the Governor of the Year award is infrastructure development, we need to understand that the primary duty of government is human development and Fubara scored maximum marks in that regard, if he is to be evaluated. The following are some crucial human capacity areas that the governor touched on in 2024.

Health
Like the saying goes, health is wealth. Governor Fubara took this maxim literally to heart by ensuring that the Rivers State government employed no fewer than 5,000 medical personnel to ensure that Rivers people receive prompt medical attention in all tiers of health facilities across the state. The governor also approved the release of N300 million as grant to about 389 resident doctors in the state. He also introduced the Rivers State Health Insurance Scheme to make healthcare more easily accessible to the people of the state.

Job Creation
In October last year, the state government under the aegis of the Ministries of Women Affairs and Local Government Affairs, unveiled the ‘Skilled Wave Project’ to empower 23,000 persons, mostly women, across the 23 LGAs of the state by training them in entrepreneurship, vocational skills, digital and financial literacy, as well as other relevant skills. Earlier in the year, the Rivers State Microfinance Agency partnered with the Bank of Industry to give loans ranging from N1 million to not more than N50 million to support Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in the state. The majority of these SMEs are agro-based, thus boosting food production and security in the state. Three thousand and sixty-six businesses benefited from the N4 billion that was disbursed in this loan scheme.

Education
In the area of education, the governor has gone the extra mile. Apart from ensuring that schools in the state are adequately maintained and furnished with the right staff, he has made sure not to compromise staff welfare. Teachers who had been overlooked or bypassed for promotion over the years were promoted and properly incentivised to give their pupils and students the best of teaching. When Wigwe University had its inaugural matriculation in November 2024, the Rivers State government gave full scholarship to nearly every single one of the 150 pioneer students of the university, both Rivers indigenes and non-indigenes resident in the state.

Peace And Security
Perhaps Governor Fubara’s greatest achievement is in the area of maintaining security in the state. Isn’t it surprising that despite all the provocations from detractors, including the burning down of government-owned properties by enemies of the governor, he has consistently called for calm and peace from his supporters, thereby starving the fire of his detractors the fuel and oxygen they need to justify throwing the state into chaos? He has given the Police maximum support to ensure that crime has been curbed to the barest minimum. Night life has returned in full-swing to the state, as the activities of the ever bustling nightclubs can attest. Before now, hardly a day went by without news of someone being kidnapped in some parts of the state, with the Emohua axis of the East-West Road being a den of kidnappers. All that is now a thing of the past; thanks to Governor Fubara.

Workers Welfare
In the aftermath of the Federal Government’s increase of minimum wage of workers to N70,000, Governor Fubara increased the minimum wage of the state workers to N85,000. He is the first governor to actually pay the increased minimum wage. Aside from paying salaries of active workers, the governor has ensured that pensioners are not left to suffer, unlike the case before his assumption of office. In December, he went further to give Rivers workers and pensioners a Christmas bonus of N100,000 each.

Infrastructure
If we turn to infrastructure, which some people consider their yardstick for measuring government’s performance, Governor Fubara has done amazingly well. He spent the better part of December 2024 commissioning project after project across all the senatorial zones of the state. He commissioned about 28 roads totaling nearly 292 kilometres, renovated 38 primary health centres in the state, and gave most of the primary and secondary schools in the state a facelift.

Internally Generated Revenue
Added to all these, the Governor has been able to showcase his financial prudence and sagacity, leading to the state recording over N300 billion in Internally Generated Revenue for the year 2024 (a N100 billion improvement on the state’s 2023 IGR; the first of its kind in the state’s history), as well as his ability to fund the 2024 budget without borrowing. This is quite a feat, which hardly any other governor in Nigeria was able to achieve in 2024.
  
To consolidate the gains of 2024, Governor Fubara did make sure that he presented his budget for 2025 to the State Assembly, passing it in record time. A look at that budget, which the Governor tagged “Budget of Inclusive Growth and Development” shows that Governor Fubara is set to improve on the gains of 2024 by touching key areas of the economy as well as capital development.
 
It is quite instrumental to note that Governor Fubara was able to accomplish all these despite the heavy attacks, distractions and campaign of calumny from self-centred people and parties that do not mean well for the state. One wonders what he will accomplish with the total support of the people of Rivers State.
*Wai-Ogosu is the Convener of Rivers Arise Movement