The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Governor Chibuike Amaechi

  • Assembly approves N19b for Amaechi

    RIVERS State House of Assembly has empowered Governor Chibuike Amaechi to withdraw N19 billion from the state’s reserve account.

    This followed a letter sent by the governor to the Assembly requesting that he be allowed to access the fund to enable his administration complete  projects.

    When the letter was read on the floor of the Assembly yesterday, 23 lawmakers, who were present at the 93rd legislative day, including the Speaker, Otelemaba Dan-Amachree, unanimously granted the request.

    The Leader of the House, Chidi Lloyd, while speaking on behalf of his colleagues, said the request did not need to be debated because the government needed the funds to complete projects and pay bills.

    The Speaker noted that the government had incurred unpaid bills due to financial difficulties, adding that since the state had huge amount of money in the reserve funds, it was proper to approve the request.

    The Chairman, Committee on Finance, Josiah Olu, said the money would be accessed from the over N50 billion saved by the government.

    He explained that what led to the request was because the Federal Government had not released funds to the states through the Federation Accounts Allocation Committee (FAAC).

    Olu said: “It is important for us to tell Rivers people that this was necessary because we are all aware that it has dried up; the money we get from FAAC. The commissioner for Finance and accountant-general of Rivers State just returned from Abuja, telling us that there was no money to share to the states.

    “So, you know the number of projects we have that the government has embarked on. It is important we access this fund, so that we can be able to pay our contractors and so that government can function.”

  • Rivers compulsory savings hit N50b

    The compulsory N1 billion savings, initiated by the Governor Chibuike Amaechi administration in Rivers State, has generated over N50 billion.

    Commissioner for Finance, Dr. Chamberlain Peterside, who spoke in Port Harcourt yesterday, reiterated the commitment of the governor to better the lot of Rivers people.

    Peterside said the monthly savings were meant for the rainy day and would be utilised by the coming generations.

    Said he: “Rivers State has a mini-Sovereign Wealth Fund. We have saved more than N50 billion in that account for the future of the state and generations yet unborn. As you know, it is a compulsory savings meant for the future of the state.”

    The commissioner said Rivers State government was not against the controversial Sovereign Wealth Fund (SWF) or the idea of a commonwealth fund, but the funds should be sourced outside the Federation Account.

    He said it was wrong for the states to contribute in creating the SWF, while the Federal Government enjoyed the privilege of appointing members of the board, who would oversee the fund.

  • The hijack of democracy

    Aftermath the election of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) in which Governor Chibuike Amaechi of Rivers State was said to have won with 19 votes against 18 (some say 16) votes that Governor Jonah Jang won, the powers that felt they were greater than Amaechi have been beating him up and down. The annoying thing is that they do not want him to cry.

    Any attempts he makes to express himself, they award him with one penalty or the other, not minding the chagrin on the masses’ faces bemoaning that democracy that was supposed to be for democrats have been hijacked by traitors. Where has that happened before that a child was beaten and the beater does not want him or her to cry?

    The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), being the party that Amaechi is a member, is only concerned about its Constitution and, not the Constitution of the Federal Government (FG). The party has been abusing the Immunity Clause in the FG’s Constitution, which the governor was entitled to enjoy. In a conspiracy on April 26, the governor was molested at Akure, where his state’s aircraft that he sojourned with, was blatantly seized on an ‘order from above’.

    Since May 24 that the NGF had the election and Amaechi was elected to continue the piloting affairs of the forum, it has been one intimidation or the other meted out to him by his party. The party does not mind that he is a sitting governor. If anybody would say that this is not true, why was it reported that the National Working Committee (NWC) of his party has set up a committee to investigate the governor? Investigate him for what? Does he no longer enjoy the Immunity Clause or has PDP gone gaga with the prescription of Impunity Clause because of Amaechi?

    Regrettably, the cry that a smashed millipede was supposed to be crying, it was the person that smashed it that was crying. With what the PDP has been doing to Amaechi, it has now become very imperative to ask who the real violator of the PDP Constitution is. Is the constitution of the party supreme to what democracy entails? How come that an election said to have been won by the governor was hijacked?

    Yet, somebody is still calling Amaechi names and wants to send him to Golgotha. For what! If PDP continue like this, soonest, a sitting governor would be thrown into the prison, but let that person not be Amaechi.

    In a linear rear, it is not Amaechi that was caught in any anti-party activities, but those that do not want to uphold the tenets of Democracy. If there was any anti-party activities tag on Amaechi, from what that has been playing out of the party against him, it is a case of giving a dog a bad name in order to hang her.

    But what is this anti-party activity about Amaechi all about? Is it the rumour from the mischief-makers’ mill that he had a vice-president ambition with a northerner as president in 2015? And so what! Is he not a politician aspiring for a greater height in his political career? Although, he had ascribed the statement as a ruse from those who did not want him and his political career to grow.

    The height of violation of any Constitutions is the hijack of an election said to have been free and fair and won by Amaechi; for-this-reason PDP should abrogate the furtherance of its deceiving tactics where it had prescribed Amaechi in bad light before the unsuspecting and suspecting public that he was caught at a crossroad in an involvement in the violations and breaches of the party constitution. Hooey!

    With what the PDP is doing to Amaechi, it is no longer hidden that the PDP as a political party has not been setting any rightful precedence for the current democracy to have as its genuine base to spring from.

    Using the 2015 presidential election as defense, where some yesmen want to criminalize Amaechi for the incumbent president to contest, is an estrangement and, it is condemnable.

    How come that there is much desperation by the sitting president for the 2015, which has resulted in the PDP flogging Amaechi with an armoured cable, whereas in the past, the party was not intensively committed to consenting to the directorial and moral lapses on the part of its governors? The political hatefulness by the presidency against Amaechi is without doubt the return of totalitarianism in the country and it is creating opposition in the PDP, which is only beneficial to the opposition political parties if the later could make bet of the glaring opportunity.

    To Nigerians who are spiritual (not religious), it could be said that providence wanted to use Amaechi to expose the putrefaction that Nigerians have come to endure in the hands of this PDP for the past decade it has held power in Nigeria. What has been happening to Amaechi can be said is a life changing episode in the history of democracy in Nigeria. The bad news that PDP planned for Amaechi has made him to be relevant than ever.

    Odimegwu Onwumere

    Port Harcourt, Rivers State

  • CNPP celebrates Amaechi’s victory

    •Says APC merger is at work

    The Conference of Nigerian Political Parties (CNPP) has described the re-election of Governor Chibuike Amaechi as the chairman of the Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF) as a good omen for the nation’s fledgling democracy.

    The CNPP, in a statement by its national publicity secretary, Osita Okechukwu, congratulated Amaechi and the 19 progressive governors who voted for him.

    It said Amaechi’s victory is a plus for the All Progressives Congress (APC) merger, stating that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for the first time has been beaten in its own game.

    The statement added: “This means in simplicity that the latent and potent progressive forces and tendencies which coalesced to form the APC were at work during the Amaechi’s victory at the Nigeria Governors Forum’s election.

    “For the avoidance of doubt, 11 out of the 19 governors who voted for Amechi are the potent progressive forces currently in the APC while the eight are the latent progressive forces coming into the APC sooner than later.

    “We must as a matter of urgent national importance advise and caution President Goodluck Jonathan not to view Governor Amaechi’s victory as a personal loss. No, No, No, it is the triumph of true democracy.

    “As a statesman and democrat, Mr. President should recognise and accept the outcome of the Nigeria Governors Forum’s election.

    “He should not pander to the whims and caprices of bad losers, because of the collective interest of our dear country, and our fledgling democracy; especially now that he had secured Nigeria’s candidature, as Africa’s sole candidate for the UN Security Council.

    “We cherish and celebrate the victory sign as a harbinger of 2015 general elections and sign of good omen for our democracy.”

  • Plot against Amaechi

    Plot against Amaechi

    •President Jonathan must wade into the Rivers State allegation of plot to kill the governor and others

    The rumbling in Rivers State has jumped up many decibels. Otelemaba Amachree, speaker of the state House of Assembly and a prime actor in the squabble, recently raised an alarm. He claimed to have uncovered an alleged plot to assassinate some leading indigenes of that state. The plot, according to him, is allegedly targeted at Governor Chibuike Amaechi, some lawmakers and prominent government officials in the state. Because of this, Amachree is not just sitting with arms akimbo; he chose to write an open letter to President Goodluck Jonathan, urging him to come to their rescue so as to prevent the alleged planned assassination, reportedly being hatched in a neighbouring state and Abuja.

    Amachree gave a graphic picture of the modus of the plot when he wrote: “… there are strong indications that the Governor, Amaechi, some legislators and prominent government officials have been marked for assassination, following series of reported nocturnal meetings held in a neighbouring state and Abuja. The situation is exacerbated with the planned release, from detention, of 18 notable robbery and kidnap kingpins currently in custody, to carry out this planned mayhem on government officials, innocent citizens and residents of the state.’’

    He equally stated in the open memo that he is aware of ‘planned withdrawal of security personnel attached to various Rivers State Government establishments and officials, especially that of Governor Amaechi, the Rivers State House of Assembly, the ministries and the local government areas.’

    This open declaration for help by the speaker from the president should not be dismissed as the ranting of an inconsequential figure. Amachree, by virtue of his exalted position, is not expected to make frivolous allegations -especially of such weighty magnitude. Ordinarily, we would have dismissed the allegation as frivolous, but our experience dictates otherwise. We have had instances like this in the past that came to pass.

    So, without any prompting, we expect President Jonathan to look into the matter in view of the on-going altercations between the presidency and the governor over the proprietary of the state’s acquired aircraft on the one hand, and between the state’s chapter of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and Governor Amaechi-cum-majority members of the state House of Assembly, on the other. Amachree’s allegations give room for serious concern because Joseph Mbu, the state commissioner of police, is equally accused of taking sides in the matter.

    A situation where a man that is expected to maintain peace and security in a state is seen to be supporting a section of feuding parties is condemnable. The command’s denial of plan to “withdraw police protection from the governor or any government establishment or even any government personnel entitled to it” looks like an afterthought by its leadership. The police chief’s ability to dutifully do his job has been questioned in that state.

    The presidency should do everything to prevent bloodbath in Rivers State. Nigeria, in recent times, has had enough shedding of innocent blood emanating from the condemnable acts of the Boko Haram Islamic sect and some notorious cultists, especially in the northern part of the country. The president cannot afford to have another flashpoint now, especially in the aftermath of his declared emergency rule in Adamawa, Borno and Yobe states.