The mere mention of
the name Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi sparks different images in the minds of Rivers people and Nigerians in general. A vibrant, bold and fearless man, Amaechi is a shrewd but blunt politician, who combines activism with governance.
Often times, the amiable governor has said that he wants to demystify governance. He frowns at every bit of protocol and bureaucracy. He views simplicity as a far side of complexity. But the more one seeks to study the simplicity that surrounds him, the more one is confounded by his altruistic nature.
Naturally, the governor is blunt, straight-forward and open to a fault.  It is these attributes that imbue him with some element of mystery. He confounds his political opponents and thinks ahead of them, an attribute that has made him survive the treacherous Nigerian political landscape.
Rt Hon Amaechi has, over the years, learnt the political rope fast and adeptly. One phoney aspect of his political journey is that the governor has always leaned to the left. He is a tough Marxist who believes governance should serve the general good of society based on a welfarist policy of free education, health and provision of employment.
For instance, at a time when majority of Rivers men and women were tilted to the Social Democratic Party (SDP), the governor was in the National Republican Convention (NRC).His minority stand later paid off, when Dr Peter Odili became deputy governor and he was appointed a Special Assistant on Student Matters. He later joined the Democratic Party of Nigeria (DPN) along with his political mentor, Odili who was then angling for the governorship of the state.
As if nature was ever smiling to him, Dr. Odili won the governorship in 1999 and Amaechi again trounced his opponents and later emerged as the first Ikwerre man to become the Speaker of the State House of Assembly. Eight years later, he became the first Ikwerre man to become governor of the state. A man of many firsts that is! And now, the governor has joined other progressives in the All Progressives Congress (APC), considered to be a leftist party.
Recently, he told traditional rulers who visited him under the banner of Supreme Council of Ikwerre Traditional Rulers Council that though his kinsmen had considered him a sell-out and working against the Ikwerre interest at that time, now it has paid off.
Amaechi began to nurture a socialist prism which was honed by Marxist university academics like late Prof Claude Ake, Prof Ndemili, Nkem Okoh and others at the University of Port Harcourt where he studied English and Literary Studies. He saw the university environment as a preparatory ground to launch into full time politics to pursue his quest for an egalitarian society. He became a student activist, first as a member of the Students Coalition Against Apartheid in South Africa and later President of National Union of Rivers State Students (NURSS). It was the presidency of NURSS that actually exposed him to actual political currents.
Whatever prism one views the chief executive of Rivers State, one thing is glaringly true of him: he is not a pretender and he embodies simplicity.
Two weeks ago , the young and vibrant governor drove off without any security detail in the early morning of Friday, 16th May, 2014 to go and buy fruits at the Fruit Garden Market in D-Line, Port Harcourt. On reaching there, he was nearly mobbed by women who were excited by the rare opportunity of engaging in business transaction with the governor.
Later same day, while playing host to women politicians of the APC, he explained why he took the action. “ I had told the kitchen to buy me fruits and vegetables because I was told by my doctor friend that if I take fruits and vegetables morning and evening without eating anything, this stomach will go down. So when I told them to buy me fruits and vegetables for three weeks, they did nothing. So, this morning, I asked for fruits and vegetables and nobody gave me anything.
“ A week ago, I had talked to my wife and said you are not the wife of the governor, you are the wife of Amaechi, can you buy me fruits and vegetables? She said no problem, I will buy for you. But this morning, there were no fruits and vegetables and without her knowing, I went to the fruits market. So I have bought fruits and vegetables for myself. If they don’t want to wash it, I will wash it myself because at the end of the day, first and foremost, the governor is a human being”, Amaechi stated.
That indeed is Rt. Hon Amaechi; blunt, active and ‘response-able’. Unlike most governors, he inspects projects, points out specifications and chides contractors who fail to meet expectations. During one of the inspection tours to Artillery,  he ordered a  contractor to pull down the drains and start afresh. He also arrested a top politician along Aba Road for traffic offence. He, on several occasions, stops his convoy and controls traffic. He also drives himself. A great enigma indeed!