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Tag: Amaechi

  • Jonathan, Amaechi embrace at Port Harcourt Airport

    Jonathan, Amaechi embrace at Port Harcourt Airport

    Barely seventy, two hours after security aides to President Goodluck Jonathan prevented the Rivers State Governor, Rotimi Amaechi, from exchanging pleasantries with the president in Abuja, they met yesterday at the Port Harcourt International Airport, Omagwa.

    And they embraced.

    The Abuja drama took place on Wednesday night at the Presidential Villa, at the mid-term dinner for the ‘Transformation Team’.

    On Friday morning, the President flew into Port Harcourt from Abuja and immediately moved to his Otuoke hometown in Ogbia Local Government Area of Bayelsa State, to inspect some development projects. He returned to Abuja yesterday afternoon through Port Harcourt airport.

    Minister of State for Education, Nyesom Wike, a former Chief of Staff, Government House, Port Harcourt and the Director-General of the Amaechi Campaign Organisation in 2011, who now wants to succeed the governor in 2015, was also at the airport.

    Publicity Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party in Rivers State, Samuel Nwanosike, in a telephone interview yesterday evening, stated that contrary to insinuations making the rounds, Wike was composed, calm and not humiliated at the airport.

    Rivers Commissioner for Information and Communications, Mrs. Ibim Semenitari, was contacted at 5:30 pm for her reaction to the development. She said: “I was not at the Port Harcourt International Airport today (yesterday). I will confirm what happened and get back to you,” but had not called as at press time.

    A senior aide to Amaechi, who would not want his name in print, said: “When President Jonathan arrived Port Harcourt International Airport in a presidential helicopter at about midday en route to Abuja from Bayelsa, he clearly embraced Governor Amaechi and members of the Rivers State executive, while he shunned the factional PDP opposition group in the state, led by Wike. This made Wike and his group confused and dumbfounded.

    “When President Jonathan alighted from the chopper, after shaking hands with Amaechi, the Managing Director of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) Dr. Chris Oboh, and a couple of others, he ignored the roll of Wike’s loyalists, who stood close to the helicopter.

    “When told who they (Wike’s loyalists) were, the President completely ignored them, but moved to the line where Amaechi’s executive members were standing, waiting to greet him.

    “The President and Amaechi could be seen talking to each other, with Amaechi pointing towards the direction of his state executive. Wike, who was also at the airport, was trailing behind them.”

     

     

     

     

     

     

  • Stop distracting Jonathan, Nwuche warns Amaechi

    A former Deputy Speaker of House of Representatives, ChibudomNwuche, has urged Rivers State Governor, Rotimi Amaechi, to allow President Goodluck Jonathan concentrate on his determination to transform the nation.

    Nwuche advised the governor from distracting Jonathan with unnecessary confrontational statements and activities.

    He said: “What I have sought to do is to urge our governor (Amaechi) to govern in a more competitive manner and to also understand that our people, the entire people of the South South zone, will prefer to have President Jonathan run for another term as our president.

    “He (President Jonathan) embodies our hopes and aspirations. Nobody should distract him or undermine his government. I want to urge governor Amaechi to deploy our resources in the state to touch our people.”

    Nwuche, an indigene of Ochigba in Ahoada east council, who is also the Acting Deputy National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), challenged Amaechi to face his primary assignment of delivering developmental projects to Rivers State.

    He added: “The people lack basic amenities; they lack water, no road. He should face those things. Rivers State is losing so much from the centre, because of governor Amaechi.”

    The governor, however, fired back, saying those fighting him are after their stomachs.

    “I hear the governor (Amaechi) said I met with him, two or three weeks ago. That is not true. I last met the governor about three months ago and it was in connection with the state of the road to my place.

    “I also understand governor Amaechi said I did not bring development to our people, when I was the deputy speaker, House of Representatives.

    “As lawmakers, there is little we can do. We do not control budget but I attracted many projects to the area, the Orashi region, from the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC). The projects are there for anyone to see.

    “I do not have personal problems with Governor Amaechi, but we probably only disagreed on principles.”

    Nwuche noted that his stay as the acting deputy national chairman of the PDP would be short, but assured that he would contribute his quota to move the party forward.

    But Amaechi, while addressing the people of Orashi region of Rivers State, comprising Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni, Abua/Odual, Ahoada East and Ahoada West council at the Government House, Port Harcourt, declared that he would place emphasis on good governance and not sharing government money.

    The NGF chairman said: “I met with Nwuche, two weeks before he went to them. He said, ‘look, I am your supporter.’ We had breakfast in my house. Ask him. He criticises other people very well. Let them remove me if they want to remove me.

    “My brother, ChibudomNwuche, said we are not running an inclusive government. My brother, the Governor of Ekiti State, Dr. KayodeFayemi, told me that they call it stomach infrastructure.

    “Part of the problems we are having is that our brothers, who have gathered in Abuja, have been hijacked by those who are not from Rivers State, to cause confusion in Rivers State.

    “We are trying to complete the road to Nwuche’s village and we must complete it. If we have done that, what else is inclusive? What they mean by inclusion is stomach.”

    He went on: “Governors in this country have two choices to make. You either stand by the people or stand against the people.

    “Nwuche said we are not performing. Ask him when you were deputy speaker, what did you do? Let him not do it in Ahoada, let him do it in Ochigba. As a speaker, I can show you the people I trained in the university.

    “I can show you one person, as a speaker, I took overseas to study in the university and he is back. He is working now. Let him (Nwuche) not say you are comparing because you are a governor. When he was deputy speaker, I was speaker. I can show you the people I paid their fees in the university.

    “If you want to be included in government, bring the ideas for development. Sit me down and criticise me for not developing your area. Tell me I am developing my village more than the other areas. Put facts. Let us argue. Let him (Nwuche) come for election.”

     

  • Presidential ill-grace

    Presidential ill-grace

    The Amaechi-led NGF chose the high road to avoid a crude power show from Aso Rock

    The so-called coincidence of meetings presaged a showdown. The President, Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, had scheduled a dinner to hold at the time the Nigerian Governors’ Forum (NGF) had set its inaugural meeting after the election that reaffirmed Rivers State Governor Rotimi Amaechi as the chairman.

    It set off a hubbub of a partisan flavour. Who was going to attend the meeting called by the governor and who was going to honour the President’s invitation? But it turned out to be a non-event to the extent that the expected clash of schedules was nullified by the attendance of some governors who met briefly and decided to honour the President’s invitation to a dinner.

    If it was a non-event because the clash did not generate headline, it told a loftier story. The governors of the forum chose the high road. They decided to deprive the president the low gloating of a fight. The governors were not invited to the dinner until about two days to the event whereas the event had long been planned. Foreign guests like the Malawian President Joyce Banda and Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, attended. It is obvious those foreign dignitaries were not served their invitation a fortnight before the event the way the governors were served via text messages. Why were they served an invitation after the governors had set a date for their meeting? No such collision of schedule happened when Governor Jonah Jang called his team of renegade losers for a meeting.

    It is obvious the clash was choreographed by the president and his team as a show of power. This is patently unpresidential. Secondly, it continues the malicious saga of the president in his role in the clash already going on in the NGF between governors loyal to the president and the others who are clearly sticking to the independence of the body.

    We also learned on good authority that when the so-called opposition governors arrived, they did not have seats waiting for them. They had to search for seats. Some of the top officers of the Jonathan presidency vacated their seats in embarrassed fashion for the governors. More embarrassing was that some of them sat in the back row with journalists. Obviously, the presidency did not expect the governors to attend.

    We know now that the invitation of governors to the dinner was an afterthought emanating from an obnoxious desire to display presidential brawn. The president has been showing in vicarious fashion his displeasure with the Governor of Rivers State. Only last week, his wife, Dame Patience Jonathan, defied all decorum and acted like an officer of state when she visited Port Harcourt, and breached the governor’s protocol in a show of unconstitutional power. She played the impostor. She also attended a wedding that she converted into a platform for uncouth mouthing and vituperations of an elected governor. It reinforces the lack of class that the president has displayed since the face-off with the Rivers State Governor started.

    It is the same lack of grace that encouraged the commissioner of police, Mbu Joseph Mbu, to bar local leaders from paying visits to the governor. It was a crude behaviour that defies all decorum and principles of the rule of law. We cannot defend the president for not calling both his wife and the commissioner of police to order. This shows that the president has embraced this lack of finesse and his presidential actions and inactions have endorsed them.

    For instance, his spokesmen said they did not take sides in the recently concluded NGF election. But the president, never one with the subtlety to disguise his mischief, endorsed Governor Jang, the renegade leader of the forum. This shameless contradiction has become a staple of a presidency now crippled by a lack of moral high ground.

    When the governors showed up at the dinner, Governor Amaechi decided, out of courtesy, to walk for a handshake with President Jonathan. He received a curt rebuff from his security aides. The reason? It was out of sync with protocol. Since when was it out of protocol to say hello to the president at a public event? This has happened several times. Lesser mortals have been shown on national television to go through the so-called impregnable protocol wall with the chief security officer and ADC to pump hands with the head of state. We have seen governors do that as well. Why was it different in the story of Amaechi?

    The president has failed to recognise that the office, once elections are over, is not a partisan haven. It is the seat of the nation’s integrity. The higher spirits of the land – pride, honour, truth, fairness, balance, justice, empathy – should exude from its cathedral pores.

    Rather, what we have seen is a serial disregard for justice and even the rudiments of dignity. We commend the governors for lightening the tension by putting off their meeting to another day. But the president needs to be cautioned against turning the same body that buoyed him to power into a theatre of division, fuss, malicious ill-grace and vengeance.

  • Nigerians must protect their votes,says Amaechi on condolence visit to Tinubu

    Nigerians must protect their votes,says Amaechi on condolence visit to Tinubu

    Chairman of the Nigerian Governors’ Forum (NGF), Mr. Rotimi Amaechi,says the time is ripe for Nigerians to protect their votes after every election with a view to safeguarding democracy.

    The Rivers State governor, on a condolence visit yesterday to Asiwaju BolaTinubu in Lagos,on the death of his mother,Alhaja Abibatu Mogaji, said voters should discard the idea of leaving the protection of their votes to other people.

    “Things should be done in such a way that the electorate defend their votes, not just leaving them in the custody of the police alone or leaving the place after voting,” he told reporters at the end of the visit.

    He remarked that if the people keep watch over their votes, it will be difficult for anyone to manipulate the result.

    Only by so doing,he insisted, can their votes count.

    Amaechi described the late Alhaja Mogaji as a mother who gave all her best to the society and urged those she left behind to emulate her virtues which the whole country is now celebrating.

    Business tycoon, Mr. Jimoh Ibrahim, also visited Asiwaju Tinubu.

    He said the news of Alhaja Mogaji’s passage came like any other one but the ripple lingers on.

    He described the deceased as an indefatigable supporter of the downtrodden and astute manager of human resources.

    “She left a bold and permanent print in the sands of time and her lifetime was a glorious and memorable one,” he said.

    Honorary Consul of Switzerland, Chief Marlies Allen, in a message, urged Asiwaju Tinubu to take heart because the transition is a celebration to eternity,saying: “I was so sorry to hear the sad news that you recently lost your darling mother. My thought and prayers are with you at this sad and difficult time.

    “Mothers are very special and truly nothing ever really prepares one for this loss. May her gentle soul rest in peace.”

    Daughter of the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo,Dr. Tokunbo Awolowo-Dosumu, showered praises on Alhaja Mogaji for her services to humanity and prayed for the repose of her soul.

  • You can’t see Jonathan, guards tell Amaechi

    You can’t see Jonathan, guards tell Amaechi

    It would have been an opportunity to mend fences – they are widely perceived to harbour some differences.

    But, Wednesday’s “mid-term dinner for transformation team” at the Presidential Villa was for President Goodluck Jonathan and Rivers State Governor Rotimi Amaechi a missed opportunity to pump hands and flash some smiles.

    Amaechi entered the venue of the dinner and went straight to the President’s table – apparently to exchange pleasantries. He almost got to the President when a group of security aides blocked his way, fencing him.

    The Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) Chairman was unruffled. He went to take his seat.

    A source confirmed yesterday that a security operative blocked Amaechi because of “a protocol breach”.

    There was anxiety in the governor’s camp following alleged mumbling of some words by the operative.

    A source, who spoke in confidence with our correspondent, said: “The governor meant well in trying to meet with the President as a sign of deference to the nation’s leader.”

    “Acting on alleged intelligence report on the utterances and disposition of the governor, the security operative, in a stern manner, told Amaechi: ‘You cannot see the President; you cannot see him.’ The tone suggested a pre-meditated action.

    “The same operative started mumbling words which sounded like threats. I think the incident did not allow Amaechi to wait till the end of the event,” the source said.

    Another source said as Amaechi entered the dinner venue, he went straight to the President’s table, but “the ADC and the CSO” blocked him.

    The source said there was no exchange of words. “As soon as they blocked him, he got the message and turned back.

    A minister who shared a table with the governor saw it all,” the source said.

    Amaechi could not be reached for comments last night.

    But a security official, who pleaded not to be named because be is not permitted to talk to the media, said: “There was a breach of protocol by the governor and the operative politely asked the governor to tarry a while.

    “The dinner was already on when Amaechi and some governors came in. In protocol, there was no way a presidential guard or security operative would allow anyone to exchange pleasantries with the President in the middle of an event.

    “It was not a slight but a protocol norm. I think the security operative lived up to his job.”

    A Presidency source, however, disputed the alleged encounter between an operative and Amaechi.

    He said: “All the governors were well-treated at the event. They were all sitting either on the second or third row to the President. Everything went well – by the reckoning of the Presidency.

    “I also sat very close to the governors; I cannot remember such incident happening at all.

    “Governor Amaechi has not spoken about the alleged incident. I do not know where those writing about it got this story.

    “If it was true, Amaechi would have disclosed this when he spoke with the State House Correspondents on Wednesday night at the Villa.”

    A source in the NGF said: “I think the President should look into the alleged mumbling of some words to the governor. The mumbled words sounded like threats.

    “The incident goes beyond protocol issue.”

    The Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) yesterday urged President Jonathan to probe the report.

    In a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party said the President should ensure that whoever is behind such a condescending treatment of a governor is properly sanctioned to serve as a deterrent.

    ‘’We are making this call because we do not believe that, in spite of the reported frosty relations between the two, President Jonathan – as the

    father of the nation – will lend the weight of his high office to such a demeaning action as exhibited by the presidential security personnel.

    ‘’To believe that anyone occupying the esteemed office of the President of one of Africa’s most important nations will be a party to a situation in which any security aide will willfully fence a state chief executive from paying his respect to the President at such an open gathering will be to think the worst of the occupier of that office. That is why we have chosen not to believe that this indeed occurred, and why we are calling on Mr. President to tell Nigerians that ‘it ain’t so’

    ‘’We shudder to think of what efforts are being made – including the use of national institutions – to undermine Governor Amaechi if the treatment reportedly meted out to him at the dinner has the approval of the powers that be. We are even more worried at what will happen to a governor from the opposition who falls out of favour with the President, if a governor from the same party as the President can be so publicly humiliated,’’ it said.

    The ACN said it was particularly incumbent on the President to clarify the report because Amaechi, the authentic Chair of the Nigerian Governors’ Forum (NGF), extended an Olive Branch to President Jonathan by attending the dinner along with the other governors who voted him into the NGF chairmanship, despite the fact that the President is publicly supporting the losing faction of the NGF, in what is being seen as a democratic faux pas.

    The party said the President must learn to separate politics from governance by rising above petty partisanship as he steers the affairs of state.

    ‘’At this point, we have no choice than to call attention to the recent speech by the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon, Aminu Tambuwal, to welcome back the honourable members from their short break.

    ACN quoted the Speaker thus: “I am strongly persuaded to state once again that from the little that we know, there is a dichotomy between politics and governance. Thus there is a difference between a candidate in electoral contest on the platform of a political party and in an elected official who has assumed a non-partisan responsibility and taken oath to protect and preserve the constitution, to serve the people and the nation.

    “Needless to say that generally, whenever partisan interests conflict with national interest, it is partisan interests that must be sacrificed in the preservation of the national interest. The oath we took is that of constitutionalism and national service and not of suffocating partisanship.”

    The party urged all political office holders, irrespective of their party affiliation, to eschew the kind of pervasive and petty partisanship that led to the reported disrespect shown to an elected State Governor by a security agent being paid with taxpayers’ money.

  • Drama as Amaechi, Jang greet, sit side-by-side

    Drama as Amaechi, Jang greet, sit side-by-side

    Rivers State Governor Rotimi Amaechi and his Plateau State counterpart Jonah Jang were seated together during the National Economic Council (NEC) meeting yesterday. Governors were made to sit alphabetically, according to their States’ names.

    The sitting arrangement was unlike those of the NEC meetings before the acrimonious Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) election. Amaechi used to sit close to the Chairman of the NEC meeting, Vice President Namadi Sambo. Amaechi always spoke for the NGF.

    Since Amaechi won re-election in May by beating Jang 19 votes to 16, Jang has led a faction of the NGF.

    Besides, opening a parallel NGF office in Abuja, Jang has declared himself chairman of the forum, His proof: he was the consensus candidate of 19 governors before the election.

    The NEC meeting was the first opportunity for the two governors to sit at a round table.

    Amaechi, who arrived at the meeting before Jang, on getting to his seat, said: “So, we are sitting together; authentic and the fake chairman.”

    Amaechi and Jang only greeted and shook hands with each other when Jang arrived a few minutes later.

    When Edo State Governor Adams Oshiomhole arrived, he said jokingly while facing television cameras and pointing to Amaechi: “This is my Chairman.” Pointing to Jang, he said: “This is PDP extension faction chairman.”

    Noticing the sitting arrangement for Rivers and Plateau governors, Niger State Governor Babangida Aliyu said: “This is nice o. Somebody is trying to be diplomatic here.”

    The meeting began as soon as the Vice President arrived.

  • Niger Governor: recognise Amaechi as NGF chair

    Niger Governor: recognise Amaechi as NGF chair

    Niger State Governor Babangida Aliyu yesterday called for the recognition of Rivers State Governor Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi as the Chairman of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF).

    He said Amaechi was duly elected at the May 27 election and wondered why any other person would be laying claim to victory in the association’s election.

    Aliyu, who is the Chairman of the Northern States Governors’ Forum (NSGF), debunked the claim by Plateau State Governor Jonah Jang that he was betrayed by his colleagues from the North, who picked him as the consensus candidate of the North only to dump him during the NGF poll.

    Speaking in Bida at the turbaning ceremony of his deputy, Ahmed Ibeto as Wali Raya Kasar Nupe by Estu Nupe Alhaji Yahaya Abubakar, Aliyu said the election was conclusive and a leader was elected.

    He said: “We were united and elected a chairman. If another people recognised another person as a chairman, we will solve our problem. The fact is, we must recognise Governor Amaechi as Nigeria Governors’ Forum Chairman”.

    Aliyu insisted that in democracy, superior argument and people’s wish must prevail, saying there must be room for negotiation and dialogue.

    Giving an insight into the emergence of Jang as the candidate of the North, the NSGF chair said the undercurrent between Bauchi State Governor Isa Yuguda and Katsina State Governor Ibrahim Shema forced them out of the race to pave the way for Jang.

    Admitting that the northern governors agreed on Jang’s consensus candidacy, he added “when the election took place, the conscience of the people prevailed over consensus”.

    He said, “Thirty-five governors voted. Nineteen for the other and sixteen for a particular candidate. Those who go around destroying reputation should just bury the hatchet; we cannot go to 2015 with a faction and disunited. There will be no progress, we must unite and come as a group.”

    He advised his colleagues, especially those from the North, saying; “we must articulate our position as a state, region and as a people. Whoever offer us the best we will go with him, that is beauty of democracy; recognising the equality of other people”.

    Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Sa’ad Abubakar stressed the need for good leadership and followership as the guarantee for a better society.

    He advised leaders at all levels to work for the good of the common man and avoid any form of intimidation and harassment of the common man.

    Delta State Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan said yesterday that the governors are full of regrets over the crisis that followed its election.

    Speaking during a phone-in programme on Delta Rainbow Television, Warri, on Tuesday evening, he said: “What happened in the NGF election is very unfortunate and I think every governor, not just the 35 but the 36 governors, owe Nigerians apology, all of us, not just one person, because all of us collectively did not handle the issue properly.

    “It should not have gotten to where we are now if we actually thought about the implication of what we are doing, so we owe Nigerians apology.

    “I want to emphasise that there is no need for us as governors to make statements that are inciting, either to incite the public or incite others.”

    Uduaghan recommended a way forward, saying: “I think what we should do and what some of us are trying to do is to see how we can bring our forum back as one. The truth is that the way we are now, it is difficult to get things properly done.”

    He denied that President Goodluck Jonathan had any hand in what is happening in the NGF.”

  • Amaechi to Rivers CP: shoot me if you wish

    Amaechi to Rivers CP: shoot me if you wish

    ALTERCATIONS between Rivers Governor Rotimi Amaechi and State Police Commissioner Mbu Joseph Mbu continued yesterday, with the former challenging the latter to shoot him if he so desires.

    Amaechi’s challenge came in the wake of allegations by local government chairmen that the police stopped their people from paying solidarity visits to Amaechi at the Government House in Port Harcourt, the state capital.

    Recently, Amaechi accused the police chief of compromising the state’s security by allegedly leaking secrets to outsiders.

    Mbu described the governor as a tyrant, who lacked respect for constituted authority.

    The governor, who spoke yesterday in Port Harcourt where he hosted some supporters, led by Senator Wilson Ake from Orashi zone, vowed to defy the ‘no-rally order’ made by the police.

    Amaechi said yesterday, while receiving Orashi people: “You (people of Orashi region of Rivers State) are by far stronger than me. I got a report yesterday (Monday), very late at night that police planned to stop you. You should have recorded them, so that we can show to the world, how much a tyrant the commissioner of police is.

    “Let us assume you are coming to protest; the commissioner of police cannot say he banned protest, when it is part of your fundamental human rights, which are in the constitution. His personal order is now superior to the Constitution.

    “We have been suffering. We are now in a police state in Rivers state. If they blocked the entire Orashi region, and not allowing more than a million persons, from Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni, Abua/Odual, Ahoada East and Ahoada West LGAs. All policemen in Rivers State put together are not more than 17,000. With their guns, they tried to stop you. What you showed them is called people’s power.

    “That you came out, despite the fact that the police blocked all the roads, looking for people in buses and stopping them from driving out. That you still passed that road and came here, you are stronger than me. You are more courageous than me.

    “Part of the fight we are getting now is because of our desire to protect our oil resources. There are politicians who have played politics with us. In the past eight years, they have not been part of government and poverty has set in.

    “The danger in letting them to take power is that for four years, they will not be able to do anything, because for eight years, they have got nothing. By the time they finish chopping and remember that you are alive, it will be four years. They have been out for eight years and they cannot wait to come in. Promise me, we will stop them.

    “They can bring 50 commissioners of police. They can bring 50 Mbus. Mbu can live in their house. Just promise me that the people’s power will defeat them the way you defeated them this (yesterday) morning. It does not matter, how much they want to come in. Only the people can defeat them.

    “They have not taken your (Orashi) oil wells yet. They have taken oil wells from Etche people. They have taken from Kalabari people. They have taken from the Andoni. There is a claim by our sister state in Egbema and we also have boundary with Delta state. How do we know they will not claim from the Delta area?

    “How do we know that if we close our eyes, the ones they are claiming in Egbema, they will not take them from us? You can never tell, how we will be losing our oil wells everyday.

    “If I speak, they will say we are against government. Should I sleep as governor of Rivers State and be watching them?

    “Orashi region, for now, is one of the highest producers of crude oil in Nigeria and we ask the Federal Government to do something around there. What have they done? That is our argument.

    But the Rivers police yesterday denied stopping people from paying solidarity visit to the governor.

    Spokesperson Mrs. Angela Agabe, said the allegation that supporters of the governor were barred from entering Port Harcourt, was incorrect.

    She dismissed the allegations by the state government and some council chairmen that policemen stopped indigenes of four local government areas from paying solidarity visit to Amaechi.

    “After God, you (people of Orashi region) are the next set of people that came out to support me, including your son, Dr. Peter Odili.

    “There is no personal quarrel between me and anybody. It is the quarrel between Rivers State and the rest. We just have to defend our rights.

    “We have a right to be Nigerians and Nigeria has an obligation to make us to be responsible citizens of Nigeria. We will forever be Nigerians. We will go nowhere else, because we believe in Nigeria. Nigeria must make us happy too. So that we can say to the world, ‘we are proud Nigerians’.

    “My brother, Chibudom Nwuche (former Deputy Speaker of House of Representatives), said we are not running an inclusive government. My brother, the Governor of Ekiti State (Dr. Kayode Fayemi) told me that they call it stomach infrastructure.

    “Part of the problems we are having is that our brothers, who have gathered in Abuja, have been hijacked by those who are not from Rivers state, to cause confusion in Rivers state.

    “We are trying to complete the road to Nwuche’s village and we must complete it. If we have done that, what else is inclusive? What they mean by inclusion is stomach.

    “Governors in this country have two choices to make. You either stand by the people or stand against the people. How do you stand by the people? Many people have been here and we have been hungry, in the midst of plenty. We have not had infrastructure. No employment. I am not saying it has improved, but we are moving towards improvement.

    “I will not stand against you, just because I want to share the money. Everybody should read history. Once you leave office, all those who shared money with you, will forget you.

    “You will be so lonely in your house. You will call one of them, I have not seen you for some time. Your Excellency, I am a bit busy. I will see you next week. Next week, he will not even come.

    “If you stand with the people and respond to their yearnings for development, when you walk the street, you will see them behind you. We must stand together and resist them. The era of rigging must stop now.

    “Why politicians do not care about you is because votes do not count. If they know that if you do not perform, you will not win, then the will be responsible.

    “Nwuche said we are not performing. Ask him, when you were deputy speaker, what did you do? Let him not do it in Ahoada, let him do it in Ochigba (his village). As a speaker, I can show you the people I trained in the university.

    “I can show you one person, as a speaker, I took overseas to study in the university and he is back. He is working now. Let him (Nwuche) not say you are comparing because you are a governor. When he was deputy speaker, I was speaker. I can show you the people I paid their fees in the university.

    “If you want to be included in government, bring the ideas for development. Sit me down and criticise me for not developing your area. Tell me I am developing my village more than the other areas. Put facts. Let us argue. Let him (Nwuche) come for election.

    “The fact remains simply that once the governor chooses to be on the side of the people, he must know that the rich people will come against him. Because the elite will come and ask you, since we put you there, what about the outcome. I assure you and our people that I will continue to stand by you.

    “We are looking for a date we will demonstrate against what the Federal Government and the commissioner of police are doing in Rivers state. We have told our chiefs to get ready. Once we get a date, once we get people from overseas and Nigeria that will join us, we will give you the date. I have told the commissioner of police to be ready to shoot me. I will be in front.

    “I will not sit here (Government House) and wait for you to march here and give me letter. Instead, we will put SSG here.

    “Then, I will march in with the people. We will give SSG letter to give the Federal Government. So, that if they want to shoot me, they can shoot me, because we have the right to express our views.

    “You have the right to criticise me. There is nobody that is a perfect man in the world. When you criticise me, my own job is to sit down and listen. If you are not talking from the stomach infrastructure, you must be making sense.

    “I met with Nwuche, two weeks before he went to them. He said, ‘look, I am your supporter’. We had breakfast in my house. Ask him. He criticises other people very well. Let them remove me, if they want to remove me.”

    From the accounts of the local government chiefs who made it to Government House, the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) in Abua/Odual, may have been disciplined by the police commissioner for allegedly ‘working’ with the Amaechi loyalists.

    Udi Odum of Abua/Odual, who made the allegation, said the only option left to the people was to take their security destiny in their hands against invaders, since the DPO in his area has been removed.

    According to the council chiefs from Ahoada East, Ahoada West, Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni and Abual/Odual, the DPOs in their respective domains had stormed their local government areas to stop their solidarity trip to the governor in Port Harcourt.

    The council chiefs also reported that kidnapping, which the governor had reduced to the barest minimum, has become a thriving business in the state again.

    Ahoada East council chair Cassidy Okegbidi said the abduction of National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) members was causing a panic in his domain.

    Okegbidi said: “Right now, there is no single NYSC member in my area.”

    Some supporters of the governor claimed the area commanders of their localities came to their councils’ headquarters and aborted their scheduled trips to Port Harcourt.

    Explaining the mission of the people for Orashi, Leader of Rivers State Caucus in the House of Representatives Asita Honourable Asita told the governor that they were at the Government House to show solidarity to him in the face of the on-going crisis within the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

    Ake said: “Our sons and daughters are beneficiaries of your human capital development. Governor Amaechi’s people oriented projects in the Orashi region cannot be compared to any past administration in the state.

    “The workers of iniquity will not see you. The people of Orashi region and Rivers people will see the last day of the expiration of your tenure. Amaechi, please count on our support at all times.

    “Our towns and villages are riddled with multiplicity of your high-impact developmental projects, spanning from Kubor in Abua/Odual Local Government through all the nooks and crannies of Orashi region down to Ndoni, at the Northern tip of the region.

    “Finally, we are here as a people, united to salute your courage, which often times is misunderstood by your detractors. Your vision, forthrightness and indeed, your unparallel accomplishments in governance are worthy of emulation.”

     

     

  • Jonathan, Amaechi in battle to host governors

    Jonathan, Amaechi in battle to host governors

    President’s planned dinner clashes with NGF meeting

    The battle for the control of the Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF) resumed yesterday, with elected Chairman Rotimi Amaechi summoning a meeting of members for tomorrow in Abuja.

    In what was seen by observers as an apparent bid to frustrate the meeting, President Goodluck Jonathan yesterday invited all governors for what a source termed as a “curious” dinner.

    The timing of the presidential dinner coincides with the NGF meeting’s time. The agenda remained unclear, as at press time last night. But there was the suspicion that it was meant to break the rank of the 19 governors who re-elected Amaechi.

    But the Amaechi group has vowed to go ahead with the NGF meeting instead of the “emergency” presidential dinner.

    This is the first meeting Amaechi is calling after last month’s disputed NGF election.

    Amaechi won 19 votes to beat Plateau State Governor Jonah Jang, who got 16 votes. Yobe State Goveror Ibrahim Gaidam abstained from voting.

    But Jang has continued to lay claim to the chairmanship, claiming that he won because Northern governors chose him as their consensus candidate. He has the backing of the Presidency and the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

    Jang, who has rented an office in Abuja for his faction of the NGF, last Monday called a meeting. Only 16 governors attended.

    A Press Officer of the NGF Secretariat, Chidimma Onyenalim, in a notice of the meeting yesterday, said: “There will be a meeting of Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) on Wednesday 26th June, 2013. Time: 8.00pm prompt. Venue: Rivers State Governor’s Lodge, No. 5 Justice Mohammed Bello Street, Asokoro, Abuja.”

    The agenda of the meeting: Chairman’s brief on NGF in the news, fresh and subsisting litigations; visit to the NGF secretariat, update on Federal Accounts Allocation Committee (FAAC), Excess Crude Account (ECA) and Sovereign Wealth Fund (SWF), update on State Peer Review Mechanism (SPRM) and other issues.

    The meeting will also deliberate on polio eradication initiative: Structuring a programme to address emerging challenges, Post election disagreements, NGF and its partners, NGF strategy plan 2013-2015 and AOB.

    A governor told our correspondent last night that the Governor’s Forum meetings are held once a month on the eve of the National Economic Council (NEC) meeting.

    He said there was no need to meet “until it is time, which is now”. Those calling meetings every week are those looking for legitimacy,” he said.

    The NGF meeting will precede the NEC meeting on Thursday.

    Following a likely boycott by some governors branding Jang as their leader, some pro-Amaechi governors, who went on official trip abroad, have been recalled.

    Another governor, who spoke in confidence, said: “This is our major meeting after the election of the NGF chairman, Governor Rotimi Amaechi and we will make sure that all of us are there to prove that we are standing by Amaechi.

    “As a matter of fact, some G-19 members scheduled to travel abroad have suspended it. And those currently overseas for investment drive have been recalled. For instance, Jigawa State Governor Sule Lamido is expected to fly into the country tomorrow to be part of the meeting.

    “The sacrifice we are making underscores our agitation for untainted democracy, not only at the NGF level, but in all facets of our national life.”

    Another governor said: “When they heard that the authentic NGF meeting would hold, all the 36 governors have been invited to the Presidential Villa for a curious dinner. The dinner is fixed for the same time we are expected to start the NGF session. No governor can really say the motive of the dinner.

    “Well, we prefer the NGF meeting to a dinner. The Presidency is trying to use the dinner to divide the Forum. We know the other 16 governors following Jang may opt for the dinner but we will prefer to go hungry to protect the nation’s democracy than go for food.”

    To the governor, the Presidency is being jittery that the Amaechi group will have the majority of the NGF members at our meeting. The design is to deplete our ranks with dinner but it will not work,” he said.

    “Well, we see the NGF meeting convened by Amaechi as our normal session on a monthly basis before the meeting of the NEC. Until the Presidency meddled in the affairs of the NGF, we used to meet normally once in a month,” he said.

    Asked whether the NGF meeting could disrupted by forces opposed to Amaechi, the governor replied: “We do not envisage that; they won’t go to such a ridiculous level. But if they do so, Nigerians will now know their intention.

    “You know they have been sponsoring some suits against the authentic NGF but they cannot go far. All the 19 governors backing Amaechi will be in Abuja on Wednesday.”

     

  • Amaechi calls for NGF meeting on Wednesday

    Amaechi calls for NGF meeting on Wednesday

    Rivers State Governor and Chairman of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF), Rotimi Amaechi on Monday fixed the first meeting of the Governors’ forum after his re-election in May for Wednesday in Abuja.

    Despite Amaechi winning the election last month by beating Plateau State Governor, Jonah Jang by 19 votes to 16 votes, Jang had gone ahead to lead a faction of NGF as he claimed that he was the consensus candidate of 19 governors prior to the election.

    While the Amaechi group was yet to call a meeting, the Jang faction called a meeting of NGF last week, Monday 17th June, 2013, which was only attended by 16 governors.

    But the Amaechi’s invitation for tomorrow’s meeting issued by a Press Officer of the NGF Secretariat, Chidimma Onyenalim reads: “There will be a meeting of Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) on Wednesday 26th June, 2013. Time: 8.00pm prompt. Venue: Rivers State Governor’s Lodge, No. 5 Justice Mohammed Bello Street, Asokoro, Abuja.”