Politics

Mega Rally And Legacies Of Amaechi In Rivers

Published

11 years ago

October 27, 2014

Last Saturday, the Riv
ers State governemnt held a mega rally to mark the last lap of the present administration in the state. The rally was historic as it was the first political gathering in the state that attracted more than 90,000 party supporters at the Adokiye Amasiemaka sports complex at Igwuruta-Eli in Ikwerre local government Area of the state. The party supporters were there in their overwhelming number to celebrate the account and stewardship of Governor Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi.
Since 2007, a year after the supreme court judgment that ushered Rt.Hon.Chibuike Amaechi into the Brick House, the seat of power in Rivers State, the governor, had promised to annually present his stewardship to the people of the state and last Saturday was the last lap of a true progressive politician as a leader.
After assuming leadership of Rivers State, the governor has not failed to recognize the fact that politics and leadership are all about service to the people.
He holds the belief and principles that the people must express their wish and the wish of the people must be obeyed, hence leadership, according to him, must be centred on principle of service.
After many years as a member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), governor Amaechi defected to the All Progressive Congress (APC) due to a clash of ideology and the continued failure of the PDP to carry out the wishes of the people on service delivery. As a true progressive and democrat, the governor within the last seven years has invested massively in the development of physical infrastructure in the state. His efforts has since returned the city of Port Harcourt to the enviable status of Nigeria’ Garden City, a feat that has also accelerated urban and rural renewals.
The land mark achievement of Amaechi administration are not limited to the massive construction of network of roads and allied infrastructure,but also include the building of the first monorail in sub-sahara Africa. educational institutions at primary, secondary school and tertiary levels as well as the integrated urban and rural healthcare facilities.
Amaechi administration has completed more than 70 per cent of its 500 model primary schools while two out of 24 modern secondary schools have been built across the state. He upgraded facilities of the Rivers State University of Science and Technology and Ignatius Ajuru University of Education. His focus on education was complemented with the award of scholarship to deserving students to study at home and abroad. It is aso to his credit that he built about 160 healthcare facilities and three modern hospitals. Amaechi ‘s setting up of the Rivers State Sustainable Development Agency by law was designed to drive rural development. Added to this drive is the establishment of agro-based leadership and allied farms that provided diverse economic means for the people and the state.
In his speech at the mega rally, Amaechi said his administration organised the rally to evaluate his performance and the feedback from the people, adding that the overwhelming turn out has confirmed to him that he is on the right track.
According to him, “They have made too much noise, The President says we exist only on posters and billboards. So, we brought a large billboard for him. If the President is not watching (the rally) they will give him security report.
“This stadium has 45,000 sitting capacity; It was built by me. One of them campaigning for governorship was the contractor to do the roads. He abandoned the roads and took N3 billion and left. Now, he wants to be governor. A thief will not be our governor,’’ he said.
He challenged the members of the PDP to an integrity test, saying that “I have worked with them; I have their records and their records are in the Office of the Governor.”
“We were to give Port Harcourt water; as I am talking to you today, the Minister of Finance has refused to move the file again back to executive council for approval so that you can have water. They don’t care for you; they want you to die of water-borne diseases. Punish them with your votes; punish PDP with your votes. if Jonathan claimed to be our son, why can’t we have water,” he asked.
Amaechi said the problem the country has is that the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) is no longer working, noting that corruption is now at its industrial scale. According to him,’’ the business of stealing is thriving because “we now have an industry called corruption.”
The governor commended all members of the Senate from the state for standing by the state. “Let me also thank members of the House of Representatives from Rivers State. Eight of them came with us, the rest betrayed us and left. We are waiting for them during the election. We shall pay them with our votes. The eight of you that stood by us, God will bless you,” he added.
He was overwhelmingly grateful for Rivers people who stood and are standing by me, noting that “I have no choice, but to deliver on my services. I have to deliver on my promise and I can assure you that that is the task I have. So, I thank all Rivers people.”
“They said the reason why the President is not performing in Rivers State is because he is quarrelling with the governor of Rivers State. Okay, what is the quarrel between the Governor of Akwa Ibom and the Governor of Cross River that the roads from Akwa Ibom to Cross River is abandoned. Are they quarrelling too? It is more of lack of performance.
“So, if the President says it is because he is quarrelling with me, was he quarrelling with me in 2012? When he took our oil wells, was he quarrelling with me? He (Jonathan) took our oil wells in Kalabari areas. He took the whole of Soku; he went to Etche; he took 41 oil wells and he wants Etche people to vote for him. I am waiting for the election.
“He wants Kalabari people to vote for him. This is to show you that he doesn’t care. Even the Riverine people, he say he won’t give them governor that they should go to hell. Today when the President spoke in Benin, he spoke in a stadium that was less than 20,000. When TAN held their rally in Port Harcourt, they held it at the 16,000 capacity stadium and this was a South-South rally. The rally in Benin was South-South. The rally in Port Harcourt was South-South. This one (APC mega rally) is Port Harcourt rally.
“Did you remember Ebola? To show you how much the President hates, he visited Lagos, did he visit Rivers State? He did not care; he wanted all of us to die. But I took it as a challenge and said none of us would die. Whatever it will take, I will do what I can by God’s grace to protect Rivers people. I brought out the money to fight Ebola. It took the President the end of Ebola in Rivers State to give us ordinary N200 million. The commissioner for Health is here; I released N1.106 billion to make sure Rivers people did not suffer Ebola.
He also listed the poor functional nature of the Port Harcourt International airport as President Jonathan’s non-performance index. “We gave him the highest votes in the country and the punishment we got for giving him the highest vote is operation nothing, he said.
“So, APC is the solution to protect our interest. We must go there to vote out the PDP. It is not about our son. They tell you that you should not vote for these people because they are Hausa people; they are muslims. But the refinery in Rivers was built and commissioned by Tafawa Balewa; he is a northerner. Shagari started NAFCON, IBB commissioned.IBB started the Eleme Petrochemical, Abacha completed. They are all northerners; they are all muslims. NLNG was started and completed by Abacha and he is a northerner and a muslim. Bonny NLNG, NDDC, Niger Delta Ministry were established by northerners.
“In fact, when Yar’Adua was alive, Niger Delta Ministry was working, Now, it is only one item; East-West road and they say he (President Jonathan) is our brother. He is not my brother; my brother is the man who delivers on his services to the people. If the President says he is our brother, let him call one project he performed in the State.
During the solidarity speeches, the national chairman of the APC, Chief John Oyegun, Gen.Muhammed Buhari, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, Governor of Kano state, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, the Chairman of APC Governors forum and Imo state governor, Rochas Okorocha and the publisher of the Leadership Newspaper, Nda Isaiah all commended Governor Amaechi for the achievements in the state.
They also commended the Rivers people for the support resulting in a transparent leadership in the state.
According to them, we have come and seen, it is a confirmation that the governor has carried everybody along and urged the people to vote APC so that the good work will be sustained with more progress in the state.

Politics

LP Crisis: Ex-NWC Member Dumps Dumps Abure Faction

Published

1 week ago

March 2, 2026

The Tide

A former National Organising Secretary of the Labour Party (LP), Mr Clement Ojukwu, has expressed regret that the several legal cases brought against the party since the 2023 general elections have impacted the party’s performance.

Mr Ojukwu, who recently returned to the interim National Working Committee led by Senator Esther Nenadi Usman, noted that the party had 34 elected members in the House of Representatives, eight Senators, and 80 members at the state Houses of Assembly after the 2023 general elections.

“Now we lost all of them,” he said. “I don’t think we have as many as five members in the National Assembly.”

The former national officer of the LP talked to journalists in Abuja and said he chose to join the caretaker committee led by Senator Nenadi-Usman because they are now the officially recognized leaders of the Party.

“I chose to work with the caretaker committee to help save the Labour Party, for the benefit of the party. I also want to use this chance to ask my colleagues at the national, state, and local government levels to come together and help rebuild our party.

“Another election is around the corner. We lost everything we have. They have left to other political parties. So I’ll reach out to all my friends in the other group to get together and work on making this party stronger again.

“The caretaker committee has formed a reconciliation committee. Let’s come together and talk so that we can restore the first opposition political party in Nigeria.”

Mr Ojukwu, who was part of the Julius Abure’s group, said there are no more factions in the LP.

He added, “There is a court ruling, and since it is valid, the right people are in the correct positions.”

He urged Barr Abure and others to drop the legal cases they have filed because they are not helping the party.

“Litigations are killing political parties”, he said. “They’ve seen many political parties disappear because of legal battles, and the Labor Party is losing support every day, which makes me feel sad.”

Mr Ojukwu said he did not think joining the Senator Nenadi-Usman’s NWC was a betrayal of the Abure group, describing himself as “the oxygen” of that faction.

“I’m with this group because of the verdict. But I never betrayed anybody. Rather, I was betrayed,” he added.

Politics

2027: NIGERIANS FAULT INEC ON DIGITAL MEMBERSHIP REGISTER DIRECTIVE

Published

1 week ago

March 2, 2026

The Tide

A number of Nigerians have strongly criticized the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for its directive to all political parties in the country to submit digitalized membership register within 32 days.

It would be recalled that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), following it’s reversed timetable, directed all political parties in the country to submit their digitalized membership registers within 32 days.

Speaking on the reversed timetable in an interview with The Tide in Port Harcourt, respondents said the directive amounted to disqualifying opposition political parties from fielding candidates in all the elections next year.

They said if the directives by the commission is implemented, only the All Progressives Congress (APC) would participate in the elections since it started it’s digital membership registration since February, last year.

Responding, an elder statesman in Rivers State, Chief Sunnie Chukumele, said the revised timetable was okay, but the timeframe for submission of digital membership register was being made at the wrong time.

Chief Chukumele said, for the past two years, all opposition political parties have been battling various issues in court, adding that they did not have the time to embark on membership drive, talk less of digitalizing their membership registers.

“My reaction is that the only issue with this revised timetable is the timeframe given by INEC for parties to submit digitalize memberships register in all the states of the federation, while giving notice of Congresses and convention. That is not possible”, he said.

He said only the ruling APC is likely to meet up with the directive, since it began its registration since last year.

Chief Chukumele, who is also the National Coordinator of Coalition of Rivers State Leaders of Thought (CORSLOT), alleged that the directive of the electoral body may have been targeted to prevent other parties from fielding candidates for the elections next year.

“When you say all the parties should submit digitalized registers of membership in 32 days, how will that be possible to conclude it in 32 days”, he queried.

He noted that “APC used one year ago to do, so APC has one year in the kitty plus 30 days. This is highly regrettable”.

The CORSLOT national leader urged the election umpire to do away with stringent conditions that will make it hard for opposition political parties to field candidates in the elections.

Also speaking, Mr Jacob Enware from Edo State queried the rationale behind the directive, especially when some opposition political parties are still having cases in court.

In his words, ”What opposition political parties are you talking about, is Labour Party not in court or PDP that is yet to resolve their issues?

”For me, INEC should provide a level playing field for all, because aside the APC, no party can meet up this criteria.”

In his own response, Mr Nathaniel Ebere said he was not prepared to vote for anybody whether INEC provides a level playing field or not.

He alleged that his vote would not count, “so I will not waste my time”.

By: John Bibor

Politics

IT’S A LIE, G-5 GOVS DIDN’T WIN ELECTION FOR TINUBU – SOWUNMI

Published

1 week ago

March 2, 2026

The Tide

A chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Convener of The Alternative, Otunba Segun Sowunmi, has expressed reservations about the political stance of Oyo State Governor, Seyi Makinde, while calling for reconciliation among key party figures.

Otunba Sowunmi made the remarks during a television interview on Saturday, when asked about the relationship between Gov. Makinde and the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Chief Nyesom Wike.

He said, “I don’t believe Seyi Makinde. Because I know them all. I’ve been in this party since it was registered. And I’ve been loyal, faithful, diligent with this party from the get-go, and I’ve never left.”

He underscored his longstanding commitment to the PDP, referencing prominent figures who had exited the party at different times: “I’ve had the grace, and the honor, and the dignity of watching even my father, Obasanjo, shed his card. As much as I love him, I didn’t leave the party”.

He added, “I’ve had the privilege of watching my beloved senior brother, Governor Gbenga Daniel, leave the party a few times. As much as I respect his vision and his ideas, I’ve never left. I’ve watched my former principal, Atiku Abubakar, leave a few times. I’ve never left.”

Otunba Sowunmi stressed that his comments were rooted in deep involvement with the party: “So when I talk about PDP, I’m not talking as an outsider, I’m talking as one of their totems, who was actually carrying them.”

He disclosed that he wrote to Makinde during the governor’s last birthday, urging reconciliation among a bloc of five governors who had formed a movement during the 2023 elections.

“At Governor Seyi Makinde’s last birthday, I wrote him a letter where I tried to say, look, you guys, the five of you, succeeded to the extent of creating a movement of your own”, he said.

He added, “And you fought very hard to make a point in the 2023 election. Although I don’t believe you won the election for the president, that’s a lie. They contributed, but I hate when people take the glory of other people’s work.”

Otunba Sowunmi warned that unresolved differences among the group could weaken the party: “You guys, you must go back to your four friends, your five friends, and you guys go and sort it out. Because not sorting it out with your five friends is going to leave the party worse off.”

He added, “But now that you’re fighting, or you’re not agreeing with yourselves, why don’t you go back to that same energy that allowed you to agree, so that you can use that energy inside to agree, and then we can lead the party.”