Events in the past weeks have not been fair to the Honourable Minister of Transportation and leader of the All Progressives Congress in Rivers State, Rt. Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi.
First, his faction of the Rivers APC was at the June 23rd National Convention of the party in Abuja denied voting rights despite huge resources the minister was said to have invested in the process. It is no longer news that the Minister and his faction led by the former Chairman of Asari-Toru Local Government, Ojukaye Flag-Amachree, has been at daggers drawn with the Senator Magnus Abe’s faction headed by Prince Peter Odike. One is tempted to vomit seeing the hatchet jobs done on social media by youths loyal to the two factions.
Also read: National Convention: How Rivers APC delegates were denied voting rights
Events that led to the chaos that is now threatening the soul of the party in Rivers State have been nothing but dramatic. So dramatic were they that the common political enemy the leaders of the Rivers APC is meant to be fighting and whose job they have threatened to take away from, is reaping the fruits of their laborious disaffection within the party to the extent of being endorsed by some leaders of the APC.
During the build-up to the state congresses of the party, specifically on May 4, members of the APC said to be loyal to the senator representing Rivers South-East Senatorial District in the National Assembly, vandalized the party’s secretariat, claiming among other things that the minister was trying to highjack the party and install his stooges as wards and local government officials.
Also Read: Rivers APC Secretariat Vandalized
Two persons were reportedly shot dead by security operatives while many others were left with several degrees of injuries. The then leaders of the party had to relocate to a Bush bar as a temporary office from whence they issued statements.
The Senator Abe’s faction, not satisfied with the outcome of the ward congress, on May 10, obtained an interlocutory order from the Rivers State High Court sitting in Port Harcourt which stopped the party from holding further congresses. This also led to the vandalization of the High Court Court premises by faction said to be loyal to the minister.
Also Read: Thugs Invade Rivers State High Court
The faction subsequently disobeyed the High Court order and carried out the local government congress a day after and then the rescheduled congresses, specifically on the 19th, 20th and 21st of May which ushered in the Ojukaye Flag-Amachree-led executive in what is referred in many APC’s circles as ‘Midnight vigil’.
The High Court, on May 30th, declared the congresses null and void. However, the Amaechi’s faction filed a suit in the Court of Appeal sitting in Port Harcourt challenging among other things, the jurisdiction of the High Court and prayed the Court of Appeal to vacate the earlier order of the High Court. The matter has become an object of legal conflict as the presiding judge gave a conflicting judgment that did not affirm the Ojukaye Flag-Amachree-led executive as the true leader of the party. The judge also ruled that the lower court has the jurisdiction to hear the matter and did not stay execution on the declaration of the congresses as null and void by the High Court.
As the rumblings in the state’s chapter of the party were going on, the John Oyegun-led National leadership which was said to be in support of the minister, came to an end and ushered in the Adams Oshiomhole-led National leadership which sources say is sympathetic to Senator Magnus Abe.
To make matters worse, it was rumoured that the new National Chairman of the party, during the South-East rally of the party on Tuesday at the Dan Anyiam stadium in Owerri, announced the sack of the minister as the Director-General of the Buhari campaign organization.
It will be recalled that the minister, as the DG of the Buhari campaign organization during the 2015 general elections, played vital roles in ensuring that the then-candidate Buhari emerge victorious at the polls. If the minister is being sidelined as it is rumoured, then it safe to say that the end is near.
The strength of the minister’s army in Rivers State.
Looking at the direction of things and the perceived loyalty in the Rivers APC, it is safe to say that the minister is labouring hard to bring back the Director-General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, NIMASA, Dr Dakuku Adol Peterside as the party’s candidate come 2019.
Other popular candidates that have also been speculated to be interested in the position include likes of billionaire businessman, Chief Dumo Lulu-Briggs, Orji Ngofa and Tonye Dele Cole. Among the list, Dakuku seems the most plausible as the minister has not hidden his desire to field the NIMASA DG yet again. Tonye Dele Cole is also being fronted by some loyalists in the minister’s camp. However, little is known of him except the social media praises heaped on him by fans.
Also Read: 2019 Ticket: Amaechi settles for Tonye Cole
When one takes stock of the minister’s camp, there is no one among the above named potential candidates with strong political structure and grassroots support in the state. Even the most visible, Dakuku, cannot mobilize more than one local government on his own. This is the truth. The DG was humiliated some months back when the Free Rivers Initiative took their campaign to Opobo while the leaders and Elders of the local government had been summoned to Port Harcourt by Governor Wike. It remains to be seen, in the absence of the minister political structure, the magic that these contestants will employ to win even a local government election in Rivers State.
The Minister does not want APC to win in 2019.
Conspiracy theorists have been beaten around claims that the APC led by Amaechi is indirectly trying to hand the Ikwerre ethnic group another term in office by ensuring that the party remains disunited and subsequently file in an incompetent candidate with little political muscle to give the incumbent Governor a run for his money.
The propagators of these theories are of the belief that only Senator Magnus Abe has the political clout and experience to challenge Governor Wike and ensure that the APC wins in 2019 and wonders why the leaders of the party are not taking such into cognizance.
In their political calculations, the Senator’s political base compromises of six Local Government Areas while the DG of NIMASA can only boast of one Local Government Area, of which he has no control over.
The quest for justice
The Minister of Transportation says that he is pursuing justice by making sure that power shifts from Ikwerre Ethnic Nationality to the Riverine area. There is nothing wrong with that. In short, everyone deserves Justice. However, whoever seeks equity must do so with clean hands. While the minister is crying injustice, he skillfully removed the senatorial position from the hands of a Riverine in the person of Senator Thomson Sekibo and handed it to his long-time associate and kinsman, Andrew Uchendu. It did not in any way come free. It involved several election reruns and lengthy court battles.
In short, the people who are on the other side of the APC divide were former political associates of the Minister who benefitted immensely from the rerun and the lengthy court processes. The Minister must be feeling betrayed in a way.
What the time says.
Things are going to get tough as the new national chairman of the party takes charge. There seem to a reduction in activities of the Free Rivers Development Initiative and their quest to swell the ranks of the party with alleged defectors.
The court cases are still there.
The Minister who also served as governor of the state for two tenures had during a grand reception organized in his honor by the Chiefs and people of Ishimbam General Assembly (IGA) in conjunction with the Free Rivers Development Initiative (FRDI) at the Freedom Square, Elele in Ikwerre Local Government Area of the State, stated that some projects being commissioned by his successor were projects already completed by him during his administration.
He said Wike was taking credits for his administration’s achievements because he (Amaechi) did not place priority in commissioning projects.
However, reacting to statements credited to Amaechi during the commission of the Rivers State University college of Health science complex, Wike said that such claims made by his predecessor do not hold water as he will not leave any projects initiated and completed by his administration for anyone to commission them.
The governor who noted that instead of the minister to fight over projects initiated and completed by his administration added that he should revamp the decaying Port Harcourt International Airport, the Onne Seaport and the Nigerian Port Authority in Port Harcourt.
Governor Wike also challenged Amaechi to name one thing he has done for the state since he became minister under the present administration saying that as minister of state for education, he brought faculty of law to University of Portharcourt, ensured that Ken Saro-Wiwa Polytechnic and Ignatius Ajuru University of Education got 500 million Naira support funds each.
Governor Wike has been consistent with his attacks on Amaechi’s legacies while he was governor and now as minister. The Minister has not equally provided a robust response to some of the claims by Governor Wike that he(Amaechi) has not done anything for the state in the area of infrastructure since he became minister.
The Future
The political future of President Muhammadu Buhari is uncertain. The incessant and insensitive killings by herdsmen from the President’s ethnic group has derailed much of the goodwill the president enjoyed in 2015. That has cast a great shadow of doubt on the ability of the president to safely manage the affairs of the country. The denial from the presidency has also in a way, escalated the matter.
On Wednesday, members of the New PDP who decamped to the APC at the build-up to the 2015 election, have also indicated plans to leave the APC. The Minister was one of the members. It is unclear if he still associates with them or is a solo artist in the scheme of things.
However, if President Muhammadu Buhari loses the election as it is most probable that he would, given events in the past weeks, the Amaechi’s political dynasty will crumble in Rivers State and send the minister into a political oblivion.
The Minister should in a way, eschew the principles of personal interest and allow common interest to thrive.
