It is clear that our state is in a battle for its soul. A battle, which no sane person would wish for. Last week, someone published an article in The Guardian, asking Governor Amaechi to go and make peace with the President. Good advice I guess but the bigger question is, is Governor Amaechi fighting the President? Can he even do so?
What really are the issues under contention? It may be necessary to throw them out and let Rivers people honestly judge for themselves.
The first issue that appears to have caused contention is the demolition of buildings around a primary school at Ayungibiri in Okrika Local Government Area. The incident occurred in 2010 when Governor Amaechi had received Her Excellency the wife of the President and she had spent a night in Port Harcourt. The next morning she  headed to Okrika and the Governor out of regard for her person and position and because she is a Rivers daughter and our pride, decided to show her some of his work. She took offence when he showed her the primary school and mentioned that he would like to buy the adjoining properties to enable government demolish them and create grounds for the primary school. He was still explaining the rationale behind this and the children’s safety when Her Excellency grabbed the microphone and thoroughly berated him for daring to suggest or even give a thought to buying up the properties to create a better learning environment for the children. There were many witnesses at this event and there is a recording of the same, which thankfully, Mr. President is privy to. Governor Amaechi did not respond to this abuse but dutifully waited until the reception in the First Lady’s honour was over before leaving Okrika. The school in question stands today in Ayungibiri smack in the middle of those living houses. In deference to the first lady who comes from that local government area, NOT ONE HOUSE was brought down. For the sake of peace, the children lost.
The second issue is that of the oil fields in Soku. Soku is a riverine community in Rivers State. The people of Soku are Ijaws. The fight between Soku and neighbouring Nembe in Bayelsa is an old one. In October 2012, the Kalabari National Forum, an interest group of communities from the Kalabari area of Rivers State protested against what they termed “ the malicious and unconstitutional intent to balkanize and excise oil producing communities in Kalabari Kingdom of Rivers State and annexing them to be part of Bayelsa State.” Governor Amaechi’s electoral and constitutional mandate is to protect and secure the lives and properties of Rivers people and of Rivers State. As a Rivers son now privileged to defend his state; he must be able to rise to the occasion. He refused the stealing of Kalabari oil wells just as he defended the rights of the Andoni, the Etche and the Ndoki whose oil wells have also been ceded to neighbouring Akwa Ibom and Abia states. Refusing to bribe his way through, but preferring, instead, to the instrumentality of the courts in defending what is rightfully Rivers people’s commonwealth, he has become a pariah and erroneously tagged anti-Jonathan and anti-Ijaw. He defended the rights of the Kalabari people to oil on their land. He stood for them and not against them. He is not Ijaw by ethnic orientation but he is fighting an Ijaw cause similar to the cause for self-determination and resource control. This is his offence and one for which he also has come under persistent attack – for saying that the oil wells belong to Rivers State and that the National Boundary Commission should stop the travesty of justice of paying to one party monies that had been erstwhile held in an escrow account awaiting determination of its rightful owner by the courts of the nation.
The third issue for which Governor Amaechi has come under attack is the matter of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum and the allegation that he was using the Forum to attack the presidency. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Governor Amaechi is one man out of 36 chief executive officers of their states. He does not have the wherewithal to order them around. As chairman of the NGF he can merely speak the governors’ minds after a decision has been reached. Why then is he being singled out for persecution? The decisions reached by the forum are the decisions Governor Amaechi announces. Isn’t this a question of killing the messenger rather than the message? The same issues, the NGF talked about were the same issues raised by the PDP Governors’ Forum. Underneath this accusation lies the bigger one that Governor Amaechi is using the forum to prepare to run in 2015 as vice president. But everyone knows that no one contests for vice-president anywhere in the world and there are very few presidential candidates that would pick a strong and prominent character as their vice-presidential candidate. Besides, there are more politically savvy ways to court a perceived opponent in a democracy.
Last week, a new dimension to this entire drama unfolded. An accusation that neither Governor Amaechi nor his wife condoled with the wife of the president on the loss of her foster mother. It was the most shocking and embarrassing statement any publicist could have sent out, especially in the face of a widely publicised visit to the family home of the first lady where she was indeed receiving visitors and where a register was opened for condolences. This new twist has come despite press statements of both Governor Amaechi and his wife Judith to that effect? There couldn’t have been a more classical case of giving a dog a bad name just to hang, nay, out-rightly kill it.
Governor Amaechi has endured much bashing because he has chosen to tread the path of peace. When the incident occurred in Okrika, he briefed his older brother, Mr. President. Thereafter, he worked assiduously for Mr. President’s election. Rivers State was not a burden at all to Mr. President all through the campaigns and preparations for the 2011 elections. Indeed, to date the Government and people of Rivers State continue to mourn our brothers and sisters who shed their blood at the Elekahia Stadium just to ensure Mr. President’s victory. The NGF was also a united front and gave support to Mr. President during that re-election bid.
Before the NGF elections he met with many leaders of the party explaining his position and his desire to contest. After the NGF elections, he sought audience with Mr. President and was denied access. When the Commissioner of Police hurled insults at him, he protested to the authorities. When there was a breakdown of law and order and insecurity loomed in the state he sought audience and met with the President and Commander-in-Chief. He has repeated at different times he holds the person and the office of the President in high regard. So, why has he been declared public enemy number one?
For me, the answer is simple. People are using the name and office of Mr. President to fight a proxy war. People who are determined to seize the soul of Rivers State and send us down the beggarly road of “ruler-centric” rather than “people-centric” government. People who fear that Governor Amaechi in office till 2015 may put paid to their attempt to get at the purse-strings of Rivers State and the draw-strings of the Brick house.
These are the people goading Mr. President on and feeding him with lies that have been allowed to fester for so long, that they are beginning to seem like the truth. People who shudder to think of the day there might indeed be peace between Mr. President and Governor Amaechi and, therefore, who would stop at nothing to foment trouble and continuously fan the embers of the furnace of hatred. Thus, the reason these people increase the tempo of the sabre-rattling of war each time the President and Governor Amaechi meet to forge a way forward. For them a resolution portends political demise and the end of their hopes. Peace means the exact opposite to their ambition. These people are those screaming to Mr. President “share the child, share the child”, because they hold no good intention for or claim to the child.
But Governor Amaechi is determined to finish this race well. Rivers people deserve to enjoy the benefits of the wealth that God has put in their soil. Free education, free healthcare, good infrastructure, new opportunities, human capital development and saving for future generations. Amaechi’s work is evident and that is why those who oppose him are panicky.
The problem is that in their panic, they are sowing the wind. For sowing the wind, the bible promises them the whirlwind in full measure.
As for Governor Amaechi, I think he knows this already, because it is his mantra: “Once has God spoken, twice I have heard this, that power belongs to God.”
Mrs Semenitari  is the Rivers State Commissioner for Information and Communications.