That the Rivers State government under its present administrator, Chibuike Amaechi, set up the Truth and Reconciliation Commission is no longer news; what is news today is that the commission headed by erudite Justice Kayode Eso has so far achieved nothing. Or how else does one explain the backbiting, witch-hunting, and the half truths being peddled at the Commission's sittings all aimed at discrediting some of the state's leaders?

Perhaps, that accounts for why writers and commentators have been having a field day feasting on the lapses of the commission. One of such articles titled "As Odili Hibernates In Abuja" was written by Ikechukwu Amaechi in his Candour's Niche column. For the avoidance of doubt, I'm neither an Odili media aide nor do I enjoy defending public officers in or out of government. I'm not even from Rivers State.

My interest is that I spent a greater part of my adolescent life in the state having schooled at the University of Port-Harcourt and taught in at least two schools in the State in the course of acquiring a degree from the university. What this implies is that I have a fair knowledge of the people and environment of Rivers and also made a few friends including the present governor in whose room I squatted in at Delta Park.

Whether we accept the truth or not, what constitutes old Rivers State turned violent when oil began to appreciate globally. Initially it had to do with the easy life of the populace culminating in the subtle harassment of top oil companies via community development associations and burgling of homes of its top executives by some miscreants styled youth groups. The other communities that do not have direct contact with the oil companies preferred to use their lands and properties to extort white people and other top residents. This is a precursor to the militancy in the region today.

On the political plane, there appears to be no love lost between the two political divides in the state - those on the upland and others in the riverine areas, with the later continually dominating the scene. There is also the case of agitation for Port Harcourt State by those on the upland. Added to this is the mistake of military leaders in the state that rather than open up new towns, concentrated development in Port Harcourt only.

That was the situation for at least 18 years before Dr Peter Odili who had consistently agonised how Rivers can surmount these man made hurdles took office as governor in 1999. In his first 100 days in office, Odili built 1,200 houses, located in different nooks and crannies of the state to decongest the city of Port-Harcourt. He was also the first to introduce free bus scheme for school children, first to pay the new minimum wage of N7,500 and first to roll out hundred luxury mass transit buses and five hundred taxis.

In the Health sector, his administration introduced free caesarean section for women, free ambulance scheme for accident victims and introduced free medicare for children under six and adults above 60 as well as first to give full subsidy on HIV/AIDS drugs.

In the area of infrastructure, the House of Assembly complex is perhaps the most modern and most equipped in the entire nation. The Unity Road linking Ogoni, Andoni and Opobo as well as the Trans Kalabari highway, no doubt, have enhanced the lives of the people. Another landmark is the Auto Destruct Syringe factory which is the First in Africa as well as Mono Carbon company which analysts see as another infrastructural milestone. The flyovers which criss-cross the length and breadth of Port-Harcourt have ensured free flow of traffic.

In the area of education, the Odili administration renovated all primary and secondary schools, provided them with brand new buses and equipped them with latest educational accessories. The University of Science and Technology, Port Harcourt is now linked to the famous Lincoln University to transfer the former into one of the best in Africa.

Already many Rivers people in Nigeria and Diaspora have found the university good enough to send their children and wards.

The internally generated revenue base is perhaps the most ambitious drive of the Odili administration. Between 1999 and 2007, the states' IGR rose from a miserly N100,000 to over N3 billion. There are also the Gas Turbine Power Stations which target 24-hour light for all parts of the state. The unemployed were not left out. The skill acquisition scheme trained over 500,000 youths, the highest number of graduands under any skill acquisition programme the world over is now being copied in most African countries.

In the face of all these achievements, one wonders why Ikechukwu Amaechi only saw failure. The charge by Amaechi that Odili relocated from Port Harcourt because he was afraid of his shadows and thus feels unsafe in the garden city amounts to cheap blackmail aimed at making Odili look like the coward he has never been and will never be.

For the avoidance of doubt, Odili still lives among his people both in Port Harcourt and Andoani. He only maintains a guest house in Abuja to enable him cool off after eight strenuous years of correcting the ills of Rivers State. Besides, before 2007 when he exited from government, the family had been living in Abuja as the wife works in the Abuja division of the Court of Appeal as a judge. Perhaps Amaechi forgot that Dr. Odili contested the Presidency of this country and was coasting to victory before the garrison commanders put paid to that ambition. Nowhere therefore could have been more suitable than the Federal capital city to give breadth to this ambition.

Besides the desire to give his political son enough room to operate freely as the governor also accounts for Odili's stay in Abuja. Even at that, most people can attest that he is always in the state. Odili continues to garner awards and honours from far and near such that almost every ethnic group in the state has honoured him with one traditional title or the other.

At the last count the man has been bestowed with over 20 chieftaincy titles in the state alone and another 17 from across the nation. It is difficult, therefore to believe that a man who is found worthy to be bestowed these titles would suddenly become a fugitive.

The path to peace in Rivers State lies in all citizens accepting guilt over how they turned Garden City into an enclave of militants. It cannot be achieved through the Eso panel, which is hypocritical, sanctimonious and naÔve. Odili is not the problem and does not stand on anybody's path to achieving success as a governor. He did his bit in the eight years that he was on the saddle; it is now left for the new administration to equal or surpass that record.