Never has the question of who should be the Governor of Rivers State been so contentious, contemptuous, and acrimonious in the history of the State, as it has been before, during, and after the 2019 Governorship and House of Assembly elections of March 9, 2019. The nearest to it was in 2015 when the state was drafted into becoming opposition for the first time.
Since then, it has become worse in the context of redefining the essence of politics in the State, which currently wears a toga of vendetta hinged on a surreptitious inclination to have a no-holds-barred control of whatever goes on in and about the State.
Before now, but for the usual relatively minor disagreements warranted by alignments to different political parties, Rivers State has been an epitome in the political sphere of Nigeria: it was common for leaders of several other States in the country to consult or seek the advice or help of key actors in order to better build their States. In other words, the State was noted for always holding the most peaceful elections. Currently, however, the reverse is the case.
Even when there had been disagreements then, they were soon resolved as mere misunderstandings. In virtually no time, such misunderstandings were settled and the State becames the wiser in terms of key participants letting bygones be bygones and working together for the good of the state. At worst, if the disagreement continued, from the point at which there was clear indication of the one being favoured, the other soon gave up and planned for the next election.
The question is thus, why is the 2019 Governorship election different from all the rest? Why can’t the one honourably accept defeat and begin to plan for 2023, or beyond, as the case may be? Why must the 2019 election be a do-or-die affair?
In answering the stated questions, what becomes more worrisome is the acrimonious manner in which the leadership of the All Progressives Party (APC), as represented by the Honourable Minister of Transportation, and former Governor of the State, Chibuike Amaechi, has been going about it.
The former Rivers State Governor, who had before then been the Speaker of the State House of Assembly for eight years, seemed to have set the tone of what is panning out now on February 12, 2019, when the APC held its Presidential rally at the Adokiye Amiesimaka Stadium, in Igwuruta-Ali, Port Harcourt.
According to him, ”Whatever PDP wants in Rivers State, we are equal to the task. In 2015, the army tried to arrest me as a sitting governor. Now, we have a Governor, who is trying to negotiate with us, asking us to give him Governor and in return, he will support us for President. He is afraid, isn’t it? We will battle him till the last.
“On Saturday, we are ready for them. They used Federal and State institutions against us. They used to kill our people every day. Because they want to deny us the right to choose our leaders, they ran to a state High Court judge to give them judgment. Saturday is our day.”
Retrospectively, in 2015, Amaechi, as Governor of Rivers State, was the Director General of the Muhammadu Buhari campaign organisation. He did everything possible to conquer the entire nation for the APC. At the end of the day, Buhari emerged President. Unfortunately, he could not conquer his home state for APC, as incumbent Governor, Wike, defeated the APC candidate, Dr Dakuku Peterside.
The APC, especially Amaechi, never ceased to lay the blame of its loss in Rivers State on Wike, and then President, Goodluck Jonathan. And, from what has transpired so far, it would require more than mere say to convince keen observers that this grudge is not what is playing out presently in the stalemated Rivers Governorship and House of Assembly elections.
Just as genuinely concerned citizens of the State, the country, and the world at large tried to truly appreciate the scenario in the State’s political space, another bubble got busted last Monday by certain declarations made by the Deputy Governorship candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC) party in the State, Akpo Bomba Yeeh.
In a letter stating his resignation from the AAC, and defection to PDP addressed to his principal, and Governorship candidate of the AAC, Biokpomabo Awara, Yeeh said his decision to dump the party was due to ”complete hijack of the structure and administration of our party by a faction of the APC in Rivers State led by the Minister of Transportation, Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, for his personal political ambition”.
The letter further read in part: “Furthermore, the RotimiAmaechi-led faction of the APC is not letting in its determination to subvert the will of Rivers people and cause crisis in the state, using the platform of our promising party.
“In the circumstance, I cannot in all conscience continue to lend support to the selfish political venture of the Minister of Transportation, which does not mean well for the progress and development of the people of Rivers State.
“As a budding and promising politician, I also appeal to you to accept the reality of your crushing defeat and liberate yourself from being used by Rotimi Amaechi to cause unnecessary political crisis in our dear State”.
Addressing journalists at his home in Port Harcourt the same day, Yeeh said, ”The March 9 Governorship election in Rivers State has been lost and won; lost by my party, African Action Congress (AAC) and its candidate, Biokpomabo Awara, and undoubtedly and overwhelmingly won by the Governor of Rivers State, the candidate of PDP, Nyesom Ezenwo Wike.
 ”… The collated results further showed that contrary to the false claim of fictitious lead by the AAC/APC alliance, the PDP overwhelmingly won all the elections in 18 out of the 19 LGAs, culminating in the declaration and return of the party’s 26 House of Assembly Constituencies by the Constituencies’ Returning Officers.
“This fact was confirmed on March 13, 2019, when INEC stated, as a matter of fact, that it had in its safe custody collated results for 17 Local Government Areas as well as the declaration of the PDP candidates for 21 state constituencies.”
He went further to narrate how the Amaechi-led faction of the APC had two days to the March 9 elections sought an alliance with the AAC with a promise to provide whatever it would take to remove Wike from office as Governor, and make Awara the Governor of the State.
The catch was for an agreement that Amaechi will make 90 per cent appointments in the proposed government under Awara as Governor amongst others. He also alleged that he was made to sign an undated resignation letter as Deputy Governor, which he did, for fear of his life, having seen Amaechi’s desperation to execute his plan.
But for the fact that politics in Nigeria seems to have become ridiculously synonymous with stark lies, these are too serious declarations that should not be wished away as mere spurious, coming from a key actor in the fold of a Deputy Governorship aspirant. If for nothing else, they greatly affirm Amaechi’s threat on the 12th of February 2019 to cause mayhem during the 2019 elections in Rivers State.
It would be recalled that the Amaechi-led APC officially adopted Awara, a relatively unknown Governorship candidate of the AAC, two days to the elections as its candidate of choice, and directed its supporters to back the AAC candidate. This was after the legal battle that put paid to the APC’s participation in the 2019 elections in Rivers State.
In addition, the APC and its supporters mounted a campaign: “Operation Kick Wike Out”, with a declaration that if the APC candidate would not get it, Wike must not be allowed to remain as Governor. As it has played out, while the APC wanted to oust Wike and appropriate the state for itself to redeem its image, the PDP was also set to resist at all costs.
From what has played out, and given the experience of the preceding Presidential election, result for which was hurriedly announced, pundits and close watchers of the political situation seem to be unanimous in the belief that if, in reality, the APC-supported AAC had been in lead in the result available to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), collation and announcement of the results would not have been put on hold on the 10th of March, a day after the election.
As glaring as the reasons for the state of affairs in the 2019 elections in Rivers State may be, the compelling question right now is why the Amaechi-led faction of the APC would rather let the good people of Rivers State perish in unwarranted turmoil than accept the fact that the reason for their failure this time around is their wrong permutations from the onset? What wrong have Rivers people done for according him the power he now wields against them, in addition to their sufferings since 2015?

Soibi Max-Alalibo