Rivers State Governor, Siminalayi Fubara, has urged service providers for the Rivers State Waste Management Agency (RIWAMA), to ensure refuse wastes are cleared off the streets promptly to have cleaner city.

Fubara stated this when he received a delegation of leaders and members of RIWAMA Service Providers Association, on a Solidarity Walk to Government House Gate in Port Harcourt, yesterday.

Represented by Head of Rivers State Civil Service, Dr George Nwaeke, the governor appreciated their daily toiling to make sure that the streets of Port Harcourt and the environs are free of refuse and kept clean.

Fubara noted that a clean and hygienic environment is one enduring way that a government can also stay connected with the people, and ensure that they are not exposed to unhealthy living conditions.

He said: “The governor is proud seeing the level of cleanliness of Port Harcourt City and its environs. You are ambassadors of this government.

“I say so because when people enter a city, like driving into Port Harcourt, they may not have the opportunity of entering our individual houses. If they have a place they’re going to, they can go there.

“But they will be able to assess the level of governance by the cleanliness and orderliness observed on the streets. And anyone driving into Port Harcourt now will see that, to a large extent, there is sanity.

“And it would not be good that people will visit our streets and find them littered with dirt and unkept. I know that some people are trying to sabotage what you are doing. But we know that you can put some measures in place to report such sabotage to the authorities.”

Fubara said because so much has been given to them, so much is also expected of them in remaining true to their responsibilities and committing wholly to them.

He urged the service providers to address some lapses in the conduct of their duties, adding that the resolve of government now is to return Port Harcourt City to its glorious past as a Garden City.

“That is why the Governor has put many things in place to ensure that we will not just be a Garden City on the paper but practically seen as such, so that anyone that visits Port Harcourt or Greater Port Harcourt city where your jobs span to, that person should be able to know that, indeed, we are a natural Garden City.”

He also advised them against either joining or doing things that contribute to de-marketing of the state, which in the long run, destroys both the State while also mortgaging the future of Rivers children.

He said: “Look at the Rivers Transport Company that was shut down, it has been resuscitated. Will the children of the workers consider that as a joke? Won’t such people be part of the electoral force standing with the Governor?

“The governor is creating the climate where everybody can find what his or her ability to do to earn a living. Whatever you or your children can do, you’ll have the opportunity. Even the capacity of public schools are strengthened to have better standards to offer quality education to our children at affordable rate.”

Fubara admonished them to be apostles of Rivers State and the State Government with how they perform their services so that more people will be encouraged to freely support the government that is working to advance the interest of the State.
In his remarks, leader of the delegation and Chairman of RIWAMA Service Providers Association, Comrade Andrew Ijegba, said they embarked on the Solidarity Walk to join in the ongoing celebration of the one year in office anniversary of the Governor.

Ijegba said they constituted the team of persons who operate all refuse evacuation trucks, street sweepers and other levels of service offered towards ensuring that the city is free of refuse and kept clean.

“When the Governor came into office, we sent a request to him that had been on the table for years but to our greatest surprise, in less than two months, the Governor approved it.

“That gave us the spirit of togetherness. He showed by that response, that he is a Governor that has listening ears. So, on that note, today, we decided that we are going to join to celebrate him, and also let him know that we are with him 100 percent.”

They also urged those on the fence to join the bandwagon and mobilise support for the Governor and the State Government to succeed in efforts to transform the State.