Amaechi: The tight rope of survival

Rivers State Governor, Hon. Chibuike Amaechi, is engaged in the political battle of his life. Will he succeed or will forces against him consume him? NDUBUISI ORJI asks. For the Rivers State Governor, Chibuike Amaechi, it is not raining, it is pouring. Since April 15, when a Federal High Court, sitting in Abuja sacked the Rivers State Executive of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) loyal to him and replaced them with a new executive loyal to Minister of State for Education, Nyesom Wike, the governor has been on the spot. Amaechi and Wike, who incidentally was his first Chief of Staff and Director General of his reelection Campaign in 2011, have been at daggers drawn over control of the party’s machinery in the state. So, the court judgment that sacked the governor’s men in the party leadership was a blow below the belt for Amaechi. On assumption of office, one of the first things the new party executive, led by Mr. Felix Obuah, did was the suspension of 27 members of the State House of Assembly loyal to the governor and purportedly declared their seats vacant. The House had suspended the chairman of Obio-Akpor Local Government Area, the vice chairman of the council and the 17 councilors, and acting on the resolution of the House, the governor inaugurated a caretaker committee for the council. Obio-Akpor is the home local government of the Minister of State for Education. This infuriated Obuah to no end. He gave the governor and the House a 48-hour ultimatum to rescind the decision but the House would not bulge. Hence the decisions of the party’s chairman to wield the big stick. In the past two weeks, political tension in the state has reached an all-time high with the governor and his associates, gasping for political breath. Pro and anti-Amaechi protests have rocked the state At the height of the crisis, the Police sealed off the secretariat of the Obio-Akpor LGA, just as men of the Force invaded the House of Assembly Complex, making it impossible for both the Caretaker Committee and the legislators to gain access to their offices. However, the Police later vacated the council secretariat, following a court order. The political crisis in the state assumed a new dimension, a fortnight ago, when the Speaker of the State House of Assembly, Mr. Otelemaba Dan Amachree, alleged that there were plans by five members of the State Assembly loyal to Wike to fraudulently impeach the governor. Amachree alleged: “The Abuja plan on ground is to falsely impeach the Speaker and the Executive Governor of Rivers State, Chibuike Amaechi, and create confusion through varied responses, which they hope would make the state ungovernable and provide them with some kind of warped basis to introduce emergency rule in Rivers State.” He also alleged that a fake mace had already been procured to enable the five pro-Wike lawmakers hold emergency session where they will remove the governor. But Obuah said the allegation is baseless. He said the party under his leadership has no plans now to impeach Amaechi or the Speaker. According to him, one of his duties was to bring everybody under one umbrella and to heal the wounds inflicted on the party by the lingering crisis. The denial notwithstanding, those in the know insist that the plan to impeach the governor is real. And that the Wike group is already making overtures to lawmakers loyal to the governor to dump him. Though the state chapter of the PDP has dismissed alleged moves to impeach him, and it is a near impossibility for five legislators in a 32 man Assembly to impeach the governor, the governor is still in a very precarious situation. Recall that former governor of Plateau State, Senator Joshua Dariye was impeached by only five members of the state House of Assembly. While former Oyo State governor, Senator Rashidi Ladoja was also impeached in very suspicious circumstances. Not a few believe that the Minister is fighting a proxy war whose aim is to decapitate Amaechi politically. Analysts believe that it is more a case of the voice of Jacob and the hand of Esau. Besides, the Rivers State governor’s face-off with the Presidency over his continued leadership of the Nigeria Governors Forum seems to give credence to view that there is more to the Rivers State PDP crisis than meet the eyes. Recall that the Rivers State government is currently engaged in a spat over the grounding of the state airplane. The National Civil Aviation Agency (NCAA) had accused the Rivers State government of breaching aviation regulations. The government had repeatedly denied that charge, insisting instead, that the grounding of plane was political. Indications that all is not well between Rivers State governor, Chibuike Amaechi and the Presidency emerged late last year when the governor accused the presidency of ceding oil wells belonging to his state to Bayelsa. Rivers State government pointedly stated last year that the Presidency wanted to cede the oil wells in the disputed Soku oil field to the neighbouring Bayelsa state as a way of emasculating him financially ahead of the 2015 general election. “There is rumour that they are emasculating me because of 2015. It is unfortunate. It is a non-issue. For now, I have no plan for 2015. I was shocked to hear of Lamido/Amaechi 2015 campaign, with branded vehicles in the North and many people are panicking. “I am exhausted. I have not attended any 2015 meeting. If they are taking Rivers oil wells because of 2015, they should leave us alone.” Amaechi is rumoured to be planning to contest the 2015 general election as Vice Presidential candidate to Jigawa State governor, Mallam Sule Lamido. President Jonathan and his wife, Patience are widely believed to be responsible for the political crisis in Rivers. Top presidential official were alleged to have relocated to Yenogoa, the Bayelsa state capital, where they met with security chiefs from Rivers State on how to tighten the noose on Amaechi. But the wife of the President has denied any involvement in the Rivers State political imbroglio. In a statement by her Special Assistant on Media, Ayo Osinlu, Mrs. Jonathan denied the allegation. “We assure all well-meaning Nigerians that this is the handiwork of mischief-makers who are hell bent to drag the person of the First Lady into disrepute,” the statement said. However, an elder statesman and former Minister of Petroleum, Professor Tam David West said, the Rivers State governor is a victim of political vendetta. He said the Federal government is persecuting the governor because the President has been mislead into believing that he is vying for vice presidency in 2015. The former Minister said unknown to a lot of people, Amaechi is eyeing the Senate in the next political dispensation. He said it is because Wike, who hails from the same senatorial district with the governor is equally eyeing the senatorial seat that both men are at loggerhead. “What has Amaechi done? Jonathan had the highest votes in rivers state. Without the governor of the state supporting him, would he have gotten the votes?. Amaechi and the Minister of state, Education are very close. They fell out because Wike wants to contest for Senate, and Amaechi also wants to contest for Senate. Jonathan has the impression that Amaechi wants to run for the vice presidency and it is a lie.” David-West, who maintains that the political crisis is a drawback to the state challenged President Jonathan to publicize Amaechi’s offences. “Let Jonathan bring out Amaechi’s corruption. Let him bring out his offences, then I will join him. He is just pursuing vendetta. “Okay, governors’ forum. Governors’ forum is a forum of all the governors in the country you cannot because you are a PDP governor and chairman of Governors forum and make governors forum an extension of PDP. We have a proverb in Ijaw that if you chase a fowl too much , you will fall down, the chicken will go”, the former Minister warned. Amaechi says the problem in his state is because of his decision to seek a second term as Chairman of the Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF). He eventully defeated the party’s prefered candidate, Governor Jonah Jang of Plateau to retain his position as NGF chairman. Following his re-election, Amaechi was suspended by the PDP National Working Committe (NWC). And plans to impeach him is on, with a South -south governor mandated to raise 7billion naira to facilatate the plot. So far, as at Thursday last week, eight of the pro-Amaechi lawmakers have crossed to the Wike camp, laeving the governor with 19 lawmakers. Though Ameachi is known to be rugged, there is no doubt that he is walking a tigh trope. In this clime, no one engages in a fight with the president and comes out without bruises. Former governor Ayo Fayose of Ekiti, Dariye (Plateau), Dipreye Alameiseigha (Bayelsa) and Ladoja (Oyo) are examples of political casualties in the battle with the Presidency. Will the River State governor survive or will he go down like other governors who fell out of favour with Aso Rock. The days ahead will tell.