News reports that the Rivers State Government is proceeding with plans to demolish settlements along its waterfront in Port Harcourt that is certain to render over 200, 000 people homeless and without any means of livelihood are disturbing.

It is even more disturbing that under the guise of an urban renewal scheme, the Rivers State Government will take land that has been forceful seized from displaced Nigerians and hand it over to commercial developers who intend to build hotels, theme parks, cinemas among others.

Although it claims that portions of the forcefully seized land will be developed for low cost housing to be sold at discounted prices with mortgage arrangements, the Rivers State Government is silent on the fate of the 200, 000 Nigerians that will be displaced by its urban renewal scheme.

Instead the Rivers State government has come out to claim that the settlements in the waterfront have been known to be locations from which criminal activities have been conducted and that the poor quality of life in the settlements warrants the type of draconian steps it is currently taking.

The Rivers State government has however not refuted the claims by Amnesty International that the forceful evictions are being carried out without prior consultations with the present occupants of these settlements, payment of compensation or resettlement plans.

What it denies is that 12 Nigerians were injured when officials of the Rivers State Government with the support of heavily armed security personnel invaded these settlements in August to demolish part of the settlements, which has seen a state of the art cinema spring up in the settlement.

The Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria vests on the Rivers State Government the primary  responsibility of catering for the welfare and well being of its residents especially in meeting their housing needs, which the United Nation now regards as forming part of the basic rights of people.

The forceful eviction of over 200, 000 residents of its waterfront settlements without putting in place resettlement plans, compensation packages or consulting with those to be evicted contravenes the Constitution and the United Nations Charter on Housing.

If as the Rivers State Government claims that the demolition will address criminal activities from being conducted from these waterfront settlements, then demolition orders should be issued for the various seats of power at Federal, State and Local Government levels across the nation that are seats of corruption.

If the settlements in the waterfront are dilapidated and the basis for the demolitions and forceful evictions being conducted by the Rivers State Government, then the dilapidated governance that Nigerians are subjected to across the nation should also attract similar actions.

If the settlements in the waterfront are not communities in which a respected government would leave its people why are cinemas, hotels, shopping malls and other commercial developments slated for these areas by the Rivers State government?

One would have expected Rotimi Ameachi who was forced on the people of Rivers State by judicial fiat to use his urban renewal plan for the waterfronts in the state as a campaign issue and then after securing the mandate of the people at the polls go ahead with his plan.

Failing that approach, Rotimi Amaechi is advised to heed the calls of Amnesty International to “cease immediately all forced evictions and adopt a moratorium on all evictions and demolitions in the waterfront areas until adequate safeguards are put in place.”

Failing which I strongly urge the 200, 000 residents of the settlements in the waterfronts to organize and with the use of lawful strategies and tactics resist the actions of a governor who is yet to obtain the electoral mandate of the residents of Rivers State.

"We must be the change we want to see in the world."  - Mahatma Gandhi