Following the final registration of the APC after surmounting
landmines and series of other barriers, the arrival of the broom revolution took off in Rivers State around July/August 2014. As the party was launched in one locality after the other, a sea of devoted flag wavers marked every gathering. Men and women, some making the ‘V’-sign for the first time, braved rain and sunshine to make a loud we-are-for-you declaration for the governor and his team.
The scene was more boisterous at APC membership registration centres across the state where lines of enthusiastic Riversmen, women and residents lined the streets singing and dancing and braving the elements, Nigeria’s recent history has witnessed the emergence of the rented crowd, a phenomenon entrenched in notoriety by the Abacha apparatchik, but here was one crowd, or several, where men and women underlined their commitment with unabashed enthusiasm, fervor and passion.
The election days will yet tell a more emphatic tale. Like him or hate him, Amaechi has rewritten the history of’ Rivers State and even his adversaries will be hard-pressed ignoring that fact. “Loyalty earned is enduring than loyalty foisted” Omenazu Jackson.
You do not need to be a politician to play or even excel in politics. Rather, what you do makes you a politician. Were he not a politician with the Shakespearean ‘sterner stuff’, Governor Amaechi would by now have been history, given the calibre of forces arrayed against him. But the enigma is waxing even more valiant. This is down to his emersion in real politik, his deep understanding of the various layers of the politics of the state the governance of which divine ‘providence has thrusted upon him.
For almost one year he was in the trench trying to slug it out with reactionary forces with the ruling PDP at the national level. It was a battle that was to pitch him against the President of the federation who happens to come from his own region of the country. That fact alone was enough for any other governor to surrender without a fight; but Amaech’s background in lawmaking had already armed him with knowledge of the limits of federal power over the states in a democratic federal system such as Nigeria practices.            Amaechi would tell anyone that he has nothing against the President, which may be technically true. But the truth of that position easily comes under serious scrutiny as soon as issues bothering on the inalienable rights of Rivers State and the welfare of her people come into contention, as in the matter of the alleged ceding of oil fields and wells to neighboring states.” An I want is the same thing you want. To have a nation with government that is as good and honest and decent and competent and filled with love as are the American people”.
Jimmy Carter.
Similarly, as Chairman of the Governors Forum, a body that hitherto had little national relevance until the President’s brazen efforts to ‘control or emasculate’ it, Governor Amaechi ‘s grip of real politik is reflected in his networking and organizational capability, which saw him winning an election in which the president of the Republic openly backed his opponent. That was, a two-edged sword, though, as that experience concretized the view that he, Amaechi, was pandering to the interest of the north.
It is a politically dangerous position to be in, as the north is seen as trying to deny the South South her putative right to a second term presidency. There may be some truth in this, but those who canvass the view seem to have forgotten that the singular incident that triggered Amaechi’s oft-labeled ‘confrontational’ stance was the issue of the Sovereign Wealth Fund where President Jonathan’s administration insisted on managing funds on behalf of the states, in disregard of constitutional stipulations, whereas those states believed that they were best placed to manage such funds to meet the social and economic peculiarities of their people.
That little disagreement that was tested at the constitutional courts has since snowballed into APC versus PDP standoff. It is a standoff that is at its most telling at the state level. This is where’ Governor Amaechi has demonstrated his deft grasp of real politik, The singular most important factor weighing against the Governor is the fact of the President coming from the same zone, as noted earlier.
The opposition therefore easily coalesce around the President’s name and quickly acquire relevance and, invariably, financial power. For instance, in the race for elective positions in Rivers State in 2015, PDP candidates from legislative to governorship positions would always have to adorn their campaign posters and billboards with the photo of the President. But as someone who knows his onions, Governor Amaechi always goes back to the source of power’ the grassroots. Even when he was being checkmated by a brazenly partisan Commissioner of Police in the person of Mr Joseph Mbu, he ‘still managed to retain his bond with the grassroots, mobilising and galvanizing them. “One man with courage makes a majority”-Andrew Jackson.
In addition, the Governor also understands the ‘language’ of the traditional rulers in the State. Most tellingly, he understands how to connect the struggle for power in the State – which he clearly understands to mean the struggle for the power to use the State’s resources either for the public good or for selfish, personal enrichment of a few oligarchs -and the titanic struggle for power at the centre.
Amaechi can never be a northern stooge; he is simply using his connection in the north and west to fight for the good of Rivers people. It is clearly a titanic struggle that’ often pitches principles against the weight of Ghana-must-go, as was observed in the National Assembly during the defection of disenchanted but largely principled legislators on the platform of the PDP decide to pitch their tent with the APC. Were it not for the weight of the dollar-laden Ghana -must-go, it is believed that by now the APC would have had a working majority in both chambers of the national legislature.
At the, Elelenwo Bridge linking Elelenwo to Woji and Slaughter, a helmeted, boot-wearing Governor Amaechi strode about recently discussing the nitty gritty of the ongoing road dualisation project with the project managers. He witnessed and in some cases actually took measurements and compared the work-in-progress with agreed specifications.  Where ever there was a mismatch, he insisted that ‘rectification be effected and reports brought to him by his ministry team. It was the same with the school projects. It was the same with the independent power plant. This is Chibuike Amaechi, the governor with a hands on approach making sure that the people are never shortchanged.
The Amaechi story of course is still being written by construction workers, by school teachers, by health workers [notice the pace with which ebola fled from Rivers State when the fighter in Amaechi practicallv took charge of the. fight, backed by his health team], by students at home and on scholarship all over the world. The Amaechi story is still being written, not on paper, but in the hearts of his beloved people of Rivers State and Nigeria.
Concluded.
Dr Jackson is Chancellor, International Society for Social Justice and Human Rights.

Omenazu Jackson