Before I returned to Nigeria in 2005, I was weighing my options on what city to settle in. The options that looked endearing were Lagos, Abuja and Port Harcourt for obvious economic reasons. They were about the only three cities in Nigeria at the time that had any semblance of economic activity.
Then I came to Nigeria and visited all three cities. Lagos was a hell of an experience teething on the brink of suffocating collapse. Abuja was a relief. Beautiful and serene but pretty much a boring place at the time. Port Harcourt on the other hand appeared like a better alternative than Lagos. It had a Night life with lots of expatriates everywhere you turned. It looked very promising plus it had lots of money. This was just before the Niger Delta crisis snowballed and engulfed PH.


Fast Forward 8 years later>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>


Lagos has seen tremendous improvement. Infrastructure has been and is continually being upgraded. Commute time has reduced. Economic activity is impressive. The city is becoming more international by the day. The city tough still a difficult place, you get the feel that the Government is really working to improve the lives of the citizens. Scattered across the internet is pictures of the new Lagos with improvements all over. And one good sign: International Hotel chains scrambling to take a pie in the cities landscape. And the credit for this must go mainly to the very excellent Administrative style of Governor Fashola.

Abuja also has seen tremendous improvement. The boring tag has been erased. The city remains the most livable and continues to see tremendous improvement both in infrastructure and economics. Abuja is know for the excellent real estate scattered across the city. More than enough pictures of the city everywhere on the internet.

Port Harcourt on the other hand is nothing to write home about. The city is as unappealing as it gets. There is literally no coordinated infrastructure development in the city. Every corner is littered with traffic jams that aren't caused by the number of cars on the streets but by the parlous state of the roads. Visit the city and you leave it overtly uninspired. There is still lots of money in the city as a result of the oil industry no investment are pouring in from the private sector because there is no framework to support it.

In the days pre 2005, numerous international Hotel chains were looking to get in on the city- Novotel, Le Meridian, Best Western,Protea. However, while Lagos continues to scoop many new chain, Port Harcourt has not had a single new Hotel development.
Finally, there are no pictures of new and wonderful looking PH scattered on the internet like you have of Lagos, Abuja, Enugu, Uyo, Benin and the likes. Development doesn't hide. If it is happening, people will snap pictures and show it proudly.
Truth is nothing except the building of schools has happened in PH in the last 6 years. And the failure is attributable to the Governor. He receives the highest allocation of any state, presides over a small landmass, has only one urban area to deal with and yet the city of PH still looks like a cesspit. Yet he moves from place to place making noise as if he has created an Eldorado out of Port Harcourt. His speech on the state of our economy was the height of his hypocrisy. If Okonjo should resign, then Amaechi should be jailed because while she has obviously brought real sanity and confidence to the Nigerian economc system, Amaechi has overseen the decline in the state of Rivers.


To understand the failures of Amaechi, I have opted to do a comparison between Rivers State and the Country of Rwanda and to show what it means to grow an economy. Rwanda experience a brutal civil war and had its country destroyed. But its has bounced back tremendously and continues to out-stand analysts and economic watchers.

RWANDA VS RIVERS STATE


RWANDA
Population: 11 Million
GDP: $16 Billion
Budget: $1.67 Billion
Size: 23,000 SQ km



RIVERS STATE:
Population: 6 Million
GDP: $19 Billion+
Budget: $3 Billion+
Size: 12,000 Sq KM.


Rivers State has more money, less responsibilities ala Land area and Population than Rwanada. Yet the pictures below would tell you why Amaechi should shut up and work. He has amongst the highest Budget per Capita in the country and yet he has failed to impact his little state.
While Rwanda has had barely $7 Billion in Budgets for 11 million people over the last 5 years combined, Amaechi has had almost $20 billion Dollars for just 6 million people.

The Nigerian FG's budget is just 7 times the size of Amaechi's Rivers state budget($22 Billion vs $3Billion) despite have more than 30 times the responsibility in population and almost 100 times the size in landmass and another multiple times over in responsibility ala Defence,Security, Foreign Affairs, Power, et all.
So why is Amaechi failing and yet having the effrontery to pontificate. There surely is something wrong with Nigeria where an obvious failure stands on a stage and shamelessly calls people who are working hard to resign. Pathetic.