The Prince of Eleme Kingdom in Eleme Local Government Area of Rivers State, Awalanta Ejire, has lamented over the continued marginalization of the people of Eleme by the Federal Government and the multinational companies operating in the area despite their huge contribution to the economy of the country.
Speaking in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, Prince Awalanta Ejire said it was painful that the people of Eleme/Oyigbo Federal Constituency had little or nothing to show for the immense resources they contribute to the country, as they still languish in poverty while many of the youths are jobless.
Prince Mike Ejire, who was recently given an award of excellence by the League of South-South Media Professionals, in recognition of his selfless services and developmental programmes in Eleme, including the historic quiz competition he organized in Eleme language for secondary school students as a way of promoting the Eleme culture, said he believed that he had not done enough for his people irrespective of the fact that people commend him for the ones he had done already.
“We have so much and contribute so much to the nation’s economy yet there is so little for our people. It’s really painful. That is why I’ll join hands with the federal and state governments to bring development to my people if I have the opportunity to do so,” he said.
Prince Ejire, who is aspiring to contest for the House of Representatives to represent Eleme/Oyigbo Federal Constituency, bemoaned the abandonment of the deplorable Oyigbo axis of the Aba-Port Harcourt Federal Road.
He said he was moved to tears the last time he went to Oyigbo, because of the bad road that had subjected the people there to intense suffering, adding that he had to call the Minister of Transport, Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi, to plead with him to intervene urgently.
The Eleme Prince said although he would like to go to the House of Representatives, he did not see his ambition as a do or die affair, assuring that if another person from Oyigbo who had the same passion he had for his people decided to run for the same position, he would be willing to step down and support the person as long as the person was qualified.
He appealed to Rivers people to learn to love themselves and shun the pull-him-down-syndrome that had been their bane development-wise, adding that their counterparts in other parts of Nigeria complement one another so to keep moving forward.
Prince Awalanta pleaded: “Let us begin to love one another. In the north, they hardly pull down one another. But here, we like to pull down our brothers. Let us learn to be our brother’s keeper.”
