Governor Chibuike Amaechi of Rivers State was in his unafraid and freehand
way of making comments recently. He said that President Goodluck Jonathan
had abandoned Rivers State, development-wise. This was contained in an
interview he granted a national daily.
Anyone who was not following Amaechi and the way he presents issues of such
import might think that he was afraid or confused. But in earnest, he was
not. As someone in Rivers State who has contributed his quota from afar for
the government of Amaechi from 2007 when he was in court to reclaim his
mandate (being that public opinion is part of government), I can
confidently say that Jonathan has abandoned Rivers State today, likewise
Amaechi.
My real fear is not that Amaechi has said that Jonathan has abandoned
Rivers State, but those that work with Amaechi or are close to him that
would abandon him very soon. Many have! The ones that are still around him
could be said are just watching their wristwatches. You may call them sheep
in wolf’s clothing or whatever name.
From an observer’s calculation, this set of people that would abandon
Amaechi are those who would stop or end at nothing in making sure that they
continue to make more money in his government to the detriment of a host of
others who have in one way or the other been fans or faraway well-wishers
and supporters of the governor. They have been sidelined and marooned to
nothingness.
But for such people’s love for the governor, they recoiled to their shelves
and refused to vent their anger on the pages of the newspapers like many
do. Needless to mention names, except condition permits. The question
Amaechi should be asking himself today is how his once overwhelming
popularity came to a sudden halt.
The popularity he enjoys today is on the off-putting that posterity would
think that there was a governor of Rivers State called Amaechi who was
always set for every kind of fight; they would not know that the wars that
the governor was fighting were those he insignificantly knew were created
for him by those who would abandon him. The dreadful news of militancy that
once characterised the state is even a small thing to the disaster that
sycophants have caused Amaechi Rivers State.
Around Amaechi are people one could call spoilers within. They are sharks
that swallow both the small and big for the hunger of wealth. They make the
government of Amaechi to sound mingy before the general public even though
that Amaechi radiates of discoloration to wealth circulation, whereas they
pocket whatever that was meant for those they should have lengthened their
hands to.
They betray trust and hang their positions as the real ‘His Excellencies’.
They would prefer to build choice houses and acquire state-of-the-arts
property than settle some of the customers of theirs they owed. From Lagos
to Abuja, they now own enviable houses and property, whereas Amaechi is
fighting a fight he was not certain the direction of the compass and how it
would end.
Amaechi’s once magnanimous forbearance in making sure that peace was
returned in the state suddenly disappeared. This was a man who refused
making an offer that could endanger Nigeria, to the militants, now referred
to as ex-militants. In his face, those that would abandon him after would
tarnish the image of those that Amaechi might want to assist for the lucre
they enjoy in the government and as well preach the obverse to tarnish his
image at back.
We have seen this from people of Rivers State origin residing in Abuja. In
the real sense, Amaechi was never against Mr. President, but those who
would abandon him could be fingered as the real source of his problems
today. Amaechi was a man who once regarded militancy as an irresponsible
move against the Federal Government of Nigeria, but didn’t hide his voice
for a true agitation for the emancipation of the Niger Delta region in
Nigeria, where criminality would be sent on errand.
I’ve commented at a different time that Amaechi saw militancy as an act
that was targeted against the Federal Government and as a bad policy that
was capable of establishing lingering repercussion in the whole country if
not checked with fierce measure. The fact was that he ignored to extend any
olive garden to the people he described as ‘criminals’. He refused to abide
by their pressure so that posterity does not, in any form of future
agitation, say ‘unless you carry arms and use force, you would not be
heard’.
The real turmoil around Amaechi today is that those he trusted are the ones
deceiving him without him knowing that they are greedy for power; hence
they make the government to look like one that is unimaginable. They have
localised the governor’s government, whereas Amaechi was a man who had made
it his responsibility to take care of development in Rivers State.
But this could be said is no more within the previous years, due to
fisticuffs here and there around him. They have made him to be spending
more time thinking of the next strategy of the federal government against
him than he would think about the progress of Rivers State or think about
some unsung residents who had many times spread their backs for traducers
of his government to match on instead of match on Amaechi’s.
The responsibility the government thinks it has today is its obvious
political fight with the presidency than making sure that it sees to the
welfare of all the citizens of the Federal Republic of Nigeria dwelling in
the state. Many of the places in the state are today glorified abyss
occasioned by unsustainably development in those areas. Oyigbo LGAs is one
abandoned abyss in Rivers State. Go to the place and imagine a war-torn
environment!
Without mincing words, Amaechi has maintained his government by not
allowing anything dumpy of the many brews he had encountered in the state
seed for anarchy. But what is anarchy if not for the pauperisation of the
led. And many of those around him are not helping matters for him in this
stead. His media aides may be gluttons, as journalists in the state
complain against them a lot. Amaechi should check if his media aides are
like an over-fed baby elephant that has wasted a lot of weight for
reasoning. More details, later.
