By Deborah Nnamdi, Port Harcourt
Rivers State Governor, Sir Siminalayi Fubara has said that Rivers State has gone through the crucible of crisis and was at a stage of rebirth with the promise of everything considered to have gone wrong being restored, if not totally but at 90 per cent.
A statement signed by his chief press secretary, Nelson Chukwudi, said Fubara spoke when he inaugurated eight new judges at the Executive Chambers of the Government House in Port Harcourt on Friday, September 20.
He said: “I want to thank every one of you, more especially our judges. You’ve been very strong even in the face of this crisis that we find ourselves in. God will lead us through it. I think it’s for a purpose, and that purpose gradually is unfolding, and we are seeing it ourselves.
“Things have to get bad before it will get well. You don’t harvest a maize without planting it. When these seeds are planted, they decay and they now, from there, start growing.
“So, I strongly believe that what we are facing, at the stage we are, is for a rebirth of our State, and with your support, we are going to get everything right. At least, if not everything, 90 percent of our issues will be right.”
Fubara told the newly sworn-in judges that he would never call any of them to ask for anything unjust because he expected them to be bold in standing up for the truth and restoring hope in the judiciary.
He said: “So, I am not going to ask you for anything, and I know that I have never called anyone of you here to ask for anything. Discharge your duty with the fear of God. I am saying it here, I will never call any of you here or even the older ones there to go and do what is wrong. Stand for what is right, and that is the only way God will elevate you; that is the truth.
“There is a line in our new national anthem that says ‘a country where no man is oppressed’. You are supposed to be at that balance. When anybody calls you for something that is not just, you ought to have the boldness to tell the person: this is not right, and I am not going to do it.
“My message is simple: do what is right, defend the course that you stand for, justice and equity.
“I also know that you are not going to disappoint the Judiciary, because if you do that, you are disappointing and failing those very poor voiceless people who believe that the only way they can truly correct the wrong is through the Judiciary. So, I appeal to you, stand on the side of right.” he said.
