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Echoes Of A Hidden Agenda …Campaigns Of Insecurity In Rivers
Buhari and Amaechi
When, in his Assets Declaration before the Code of Conduct Bureau, (CCB) President Muhammadu Buhari listed among his assets a plot of land in Port Harcourt, which location he did not know, many Nigerians concluded that it must be a parting gift from former Governor Rotimi Amaechi, who had since jumped ship from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress, after nearly eight years in office.
That gesture also affirmed the very close relationship Buhari both, as an APC candidate and President shared with former Governor Amaechi. Infact, it was that closeness that must have informed the latter’s choice as Director General (DG) of the APC Presidential campaign, and now Transports Minister.
In his capacity as governor, Amaechi made some pronouncements which could go as vows. They include: over my dead body will Nyesom Wike become Governor of Rivers State? Another was, ‘Rivers people must punish the PDP and its presidential candidate Dr Goodluck Jonathan with our votes”. The third’ I can never hand-over to a man like Nyesom Wike if he mistakenly becomes Governor of Rivers State. But that would never happen”.
In the first instance, Wike became governor. In the second, Jonathan and the PDP won the presidential vote in Rivers and all National Assembly seats, and the third, Amaechi refused to handover to Chief Wike as Governor. Most of what the new government started work with were bits and pieces gathered together from Permanent Secretaries.
President Buhari was presumed to have known all these. So when, during his inaugurals, the new president assured that he belonged to nobody and belonged to all, many Nigerians particularly Rivers people believed that he would not turn a blind eye to the disturbing examples of impunity Amaechi demonstrated before, during and after 2015 general elections The most worrisome, being Amaechi’s refusal to hand-over to a duly elected governor, declared winner by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
Many had expected a reprimand from the President and Commander-in-Chief, if for nothing else, to prove that he meant it when he said he would belong to none and belong to all. But none came. And all through the post-election litigations, members of Ameachi’s party publicly referred to Wike, a serving governor as “care-taker governor”, certain that the courts world unseat him.
During the period, the major plank of the APC’s protest against the electoral victory of the PDP in Rivers State was insecurity. According to the APC, Rivers had become a killing field that was unsuitable for any saner and civilised activity. Of course, the APC-led Federal Government swallowed that view point. So did the Judiciary.
Accordingly, the Governorship Elections Petitions Tribunal was relocated to Abuja, where, happenings in Rivers State would be debated.
The Rivers State government pursued its disapproval from the Tribunal all through to the Supreme Court to no avail, as every court upheld the position of the APC, the Appeal Court had powers to decide on the issue.
Strangely, the Rivers APC considered each of those denials by various courts as a victory of sorts and celebrated same in one church or the other, with lavish reception thereafter, in the same Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital that was considered insecure.
In the end, the Supreme Court upheld the election of Governor Wike as declared by the INEC, in the first instance, but the Appeal Court on its part ordered rerun into National and State Assembly Seats. With that decision, Port Harcourt and indeed the entire state suddenly became unsafe again, and so required the military to ensure order, according to the APC. What it rejected in Osun and Ekiti States as opposition party.
To ensure that end, there was a roundly exaggerated picture of insecurity in the state to justify the deployment of soldiers to an ordinarily civilian democratic exercise. And if there was any doubt that the APC intended to use the soldiers for electoral duties, it was doused when Amaechi, the Transport Minister in separate radio and TV interviews threatened to match Wike’s government, man to armed man. He promised to flood the state with more soldiers that had ever been recorded in an election in any state.
As would be expected, the Buhari-led Federal Government obliged Amaechi’s request and flooded the state with armed soldiers whose roles in the rerun elections were most conflicting.
In Khana and Gokana, there were reports that the Secretary to the Rivers State Government, Kenneth Kobani and Commissioner for Environment, Roseline Konya were assaulted and the former detained over-night on the instructions of the soldiers.
But the most bizzarre of the events of the rerun was the drama at the Mile One Police Station in Port Harcourt where, a run-away electoral officer had reappeared with sensitive materials. Television viewers on Satellite Cable TV AIT at first wondered what the Chief of Army Staff was doing at the Police Station with a retinue of soldiers as guards?
It was much later, it became clear that the man viewers saw being followed by armed soldiers was not a Senior Military Officer, but the Transport Minister, Rotimi Amaechi, while, beside him stood the Executive Governor of Rivers State, Chief Nyesom Wike without any armed escorts.
According to electoral guidelines, everyone was expected to limit his or her movement to his or her electoral area. Amaechi, should have voted in Ubima. While those in his team, like the Acting Managing Director of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Mrs Ibim Semenitari should be voting in Okrika while the APC candidate in the Governorship elections Dr Dakuku Peterside ought to be in Opobo.
Was the presence of the three in Port Harcourt, accompanied by armed soldiers not in defiance of electoral law? Should soldiers be used for such disobedience of the law as demonstrated by Amaechi’s trip to the Police Station aired on TV? Did that not amount to impunity of the highest order?
Again, Rivers people expected the impartial President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces to condemn the unconstitutional use of soldiers, as clearly shown on cable news network during the Rivers rerun.
That is why many where shocked to hear President Buhari, apparently buying into the post-election campaign of the Rivers APC to declare that the state is the most insecure in the country. As commander-in-Chief, Buhari receives briefs from all sectors of the security community. That pronouncement could not have been a product of such briefing.
For, were it to be so, companies operating in the state would have fled. Instead, the Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) of the state has risen to N10 billion monthly from five. Night life in Port Harcourt still booms. No attacks on schools, hospitals or any public institution. Infact, private and public institutions are operating in peace.
What Buhari, might not have considered is: “Is APC in Rivers really on ground? Can an Amaechi-led APC win elections as they want Nigerians to believe? Is it possible for a party to rig elections today, where it is not relatively popular?
If it were so easy, former President Jonathan would have won Sokoto, Kaduna, Kano, Borno, Kastina, Adamawa, Niger and Kebbi. But Buhari won those areas because the people were ready to defend their votes.
Why do people now want Buhari to believe that soldiers can win elections for a party not properly rooted in the peoples? Whatever popularity the APC would have enjoyed among Rivers people, it lost through the non-payment of civil servants three months salary arrears by former Governor Amaechi in preference for politics and Governor Wike’s commendable start in government. After his 100 days record, whatever campaign the APC launched, simply ended-up uniting Rivers people.
Rivers Information and Communications Commissioner, Dr Austin Tam-George captured the scenario aptly, when he said every campaign or action by the APC unites Rivers people against, APC leader and former governor, Rotimi Amaechi.
My Agony is that the campaigns that tend to paint Rivers State as the most insecure in the country are intended to secure a state of emergency, so APC can get through the back door, what the people, INEC and the country’s Apex Court rightfully ruled in their disfavour.
Methinks Buhari and the leadership of the APC ought to read in-between the lines that Rivers cannot be turned into an APC state over night, as its members would want outsiders to believe.
Soye Wilson Jamabo
Rivers State Governor, Sir Siminalayi Fubara, has declared that all the policies and programmes of his administration are tailored towards the protection of interest of Rivers people, especially the youths.
This, he said, is borne out of the importance his administration attaches to youths’ development and empowerment as leaders of tomorrow.
Fubara, according to a statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Nelson Chukwudi, disclosed this when he received the youths of Emohua Local Government Area under the auspices of “Emohua Youths For SIM” on solidarity visit to Government House, Port Harcourt, last Friday.
He said that his administration has put in place modalities that will boost the livelihoods and well-being of Rivers citizens, which youths of Emohua will also benefit when they materialise.
The governor, who spoke through the Rivers State Head of Service, Dr. George Nwaeke, pointed out that the recently awarded Elele-Omudiaga-Egbeda-Ubimini-Ikiri-Omoku Road, the ongoing Emohua-Kalabari Road, reinstatement of illegally sacked workers of Emohua Local Government Area and the approval for electrification of the area, are part of deliberate measures to open up the area to make life conducive and more meaningful for the people.
According to him, “Everything about the governor is putting the interest of Rivers State first. He is looking at and taking action on those things that we need to do to restart the wheels of progress in Rivers State.
“There are many things the governor has planned and is already doing that will boost the life and welfare of every citizen of Rivers State, but most importantly the youths.
“Growing up, I learnt that Egbeda is one of the biggest communities in the whole of Ikwerre, and it’s predominantly an agrarian community. They have food in Egbeda, they have food in Ubimini, they have food in Omudiaga and other natural resources. The whole world is tilting to agriculture, and this is the way to go.
“The Elele-Umudioga-Egbeda-Ubimini-Omoku road, when completed, will open up the area for real development. Your food and everything you produce there will now have value, they will no longer be thrown away. In all these, you the youths are going to be the utmost beneficiaries.”
He added, “Same will be applicable to the Emohua-Kalabari Road which will also, trigger development in the area, and you will be the greatest beneficiaries. When the LGA is also electrified, you will be having 24 or 20 hours of electricity, and those things the youths can do with electricity, you can stay at home and create wealth for yourself and children.
“All the totality of what the governor is doing, when they are completed, or even as some are completed now, the youths are going to be utmost beneficiaries.”
While acknowledging that youths are the true leaders of tomorrow and any government that fails to carry them along in the scheme of things is doomed to fail, the governor assured them of his administration’s commitment to always address issues concerning youths and ensure that they are part of his government.
He commended the youths for toeing the path of truth by identifying with his administration, urging them to sustain the tempo and shun evil, as his government will ensure that the trend whereby politicians turn youths to beggars are over.
He said, “Youths are, indeed, the leaders of tomorrow. The time of youth is a very important time. It a time that your parents or whoever is your leader at that time have to make the greatest investment in you. And any Government that decides to only carry the elderly, chiefs aling and abandon the youths is bound to fail,” he asserted.
“But I am happy that Governor Fubara has concentrated his energy on everything that will benefit the society, especially the youths.
“And based on these, I want to thank you for recognising what is good and calling it good, for shunning what is evil, for saying the Governor is standing for you.
“Let me tell you, you are on the right direction. Let me tell you again, Rivers State is the bride of Nigeria. The whole Nigeria is looking at what will happen here. As they look here and see you standing on the path of truth, this is a very important step that you have taken to right all the wrongs of the past, to make Rivers State stand on the tripod of justice, peace and security. That is what we are going to gain through the governor, taking all the wise actions that he has already initiated.
“The projects the governor is embarking on are meant to prepare nets for the youths to fish and put food on their table, hence you should continue to follow him.
“The SIMplified Movement brought upon by the governor will ensure that Rivers youths stop the habit of going to bow down before politicians, pledging loyalty before they can eat.”
Earlier, spokesman for the Emohua Youths for SIM, Comrade Ovamale O. Ovamale, had said that the visit by youths from the 14 political wards in Emohua Local Government Area was to thank the governor for the award of the Elele-Omudiaga-Egbeda-Ubimini-Ikiri-Omoku road, the approval for electrification of the area and reinstatement of sacked workers of Emohua Local Government Council, of which the youths were mostly affected.
According to him, “Siminalayi Fubara of recent has given Emohua Local Government road that links Elele to Omoku, which comprises over four communities in the local government.”
“Emohua Local Government has also been in darkness for eight years. No community in the local government that has light. But, of recent, because of the passion and love the governor has for the people of Emohua, he has approved the electrification of the local government.
“Also, the illegal sack of Emohua Local Government workers, for which the youths were mostly affected and without the approval of the Local Government Service Commission, the governor, in his compassionate nature, has reinstated them, and that is why we said we must come and thank His Excellency”, he said.
Rivers State Governor, Sir Siminalayi Fubara, has assured that his administration will collaborate and continue to consult widely in delivering a liberated State experiencing enduring peace.
Fubara said, in doing so, he would not operate as a dictator but as a member of a team that has the best interest of the State at heart and determined to leave a lasting legacy that can be celebrated.
The governor spoke during the formal presentation of Certificate of Recognition and Staff of Office to the Amanyanabo of Okochiri Kingdom, King Ateke Michael Tom, as first class tradition ruler, at Government House in Port Harcourt, yesterday.
Fubara stated that, during the Sixth State Executive Council meeting, N80.8billion was approved with 50 percent contract value paid already as the Government awarded the construction of the Elele-Egbeda-Omoku Road.
He said the project will be funded from the savings from Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) to underscore his administration’s prudence without also borrowing to complete the project.
“We are at a crossroad in our State where we all need to stand for what is right. It happens once in a life time. So, for now, be one of those people that will be in the course to liberate and free our dear State.
“And I know strongly that having the support of a peace-loving Amanyanabo of Okochiri Kingdom, having the support of the wonderful Council of Chiefs, having the support of the great people of Rivers State, we will bring peace in our State. We will do those things that are right to develop our State.
“We will continue to consult. We will not act as dictators. We will act as people who know that one day, we will leave, and when we leave, the way we have acted will speak for us. We will not force people to talk good about us. Our legacy will be a signature for how we led”, the governor said.
Fubara explained that he acted within the ambit of the law to upgrade the traditional stool upon which King Ateke Tom sits in recognition of his efforts in promoting peace in Okrika, and indeed, the State, and urged him to continue to do justice to everyone.
In his speech, Commissioner for Chieftaincy and Community Affairs, Hon Charles Amadi, congratulated King Ateke Tom for being formally presented with the Certificate of Recognition and Staff of Office as first class traditional ruler.
Also speaking, former Transport Minister, Chief Abiye Sekibo, thanked the governor for fulfilling his promise of upgrading the traditional stool of Okochiri Kingdom, and pledged the support of Kirike Se people to his administration.
Rivers State Governor, Sir Siminalayi Fubara, has promised to give the best attention to the education sector so that standard and quality learning will never be compromised in the State.
The governor emphasised that in achieving such legacy, schools in the State will be driven with a curriculum that will equip school-aged children to become competitive, innovative and self-reliant.
Governor Fubara made the assertion while inaugurating the Governing Council of Rivers State University at Government House in Port Harcourt on Wednesday.
He said: “There is a lot of noise everywhere: people asking what we are doing; that we are not focused, and that we don’t have direction.
”But I want to tell the world that we are focused and aware that we cannot grow if our energies are not channeled to education. Not just education, but purposeful education.
”Education that is creative. Education that gives you independence. We have left the era in the world when you speak too much grammar. We are in such times when it is what you can do with your hands.
”Our purpose for education is that we should bring back our academic programmes to where, at the end of your studies, you don’t need a job but you create jobs. When one creates a job, you automatically employ others. That is what I want this council to see as their task.”
Governor Fubara noted the non-existence of public secondary schools for the male child in the Diobu axis of Port Harcourt.
He said such negligence leaves children in that area who have completed primary education, and whose parents cannot afford sending them to far away secondary schools, to roam the streets, and therefore becoming willing tools for criminality.
Governor Fubara assured that such fundamental problem will be addressed by his administration as a measure to curb the negative impression associated with Diobu axis of Port Harcourt.
The governor said he trusts in the capacity of the members of the Governing Council of Rivers State University to bring about positive change in the institution while also contributing their quota to improving the general education standard in the State.
”I charge you, not just in terms of administering the affairs of the university, but let us add something different from the normal things that we already have to see new things.”
In her response, on behalf of the other members, the Pro-Chancellor of the Governing Council of Rivers State University, Justice Mary Odili (rtd), thanked the governor for finding them worthy to serve in such capacity.
Justice Odili assured they will work assiduously as a team to solve the problems that agitate the mind of the governor and ensure their contributions form part of the legacy that will be bequeathed by his administration.
The members included Justice Mary Odili (rtd) as the Pro-Chancellor and Chairman of the Governing Council with Barrister Mela Oforibika and Chukwuma Chinwo, Esq.
Others were Adata Bio-Briggs, Esq., Dr. Jonathan Nimi Hart, Ngo Martins-Yellowe, Dr. Nancy Nwankwo, Dr. Igoni William-Park, and Mr. Ogbugbu Barisua.
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