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Tag: Rotimi Amaechi

  • Mark, Fayemi, Ajimobi, Amaechi condole with Soyinka

    Mark, Fayemi, Ajimobi, Amaechi condole with Soyinka

    Senate President David Mark; Governors Kayode Fayemi (Ekiti), Abiola Ajimobi (Oyo) and Rotimi Amaechi (Rivers) yesterday condoled with Nobel Laureate Professor Wole Soyinka and his family on the death of his daughter, Dr. Iyetade Soyinka (48).

    In a statement, Mark said: “I received the news of Dr. Soyinka’s exit with shock. I earnestly share in this pain. Please accept my sincere condolences. I did not meet Dr. Soyinka personally, but her record of professionalism and excellent services during her short but eventful sojourn on earth gives eloquent testimony of a patriotic and committed Nigerian.”

    Mark urged the Soyinka family, the government and people of Ogun State to be consoled by the late Dr. Soyinka’s achievements.

    Fayemi, in a statement, said: “On behalf of the government and people of Ekiti State, I commiserate with the Soyinka family on the death of this precious jewel, who was snatched by the cold hands of death.

    “Although her death is painful, we take solace in the good work she did during her short but eventful life. I pray to God to console the bereaved and heal the wound inflicted on their hearts by the death of our vivacious sister, Iyetade, who was taken away in her prime.”

    Ajimobi, in a statement, said: “It was with shock and disbelief that I received the news of Dr. Soyinka’s death at the unripe age of 48. It is natural that her death at the prime of her life will be very painful to Prof. Soyinka. It is even more painful that she was snatched by the cold hands of death when she was most needed by the country.”

    Amaechi, in a statement, said: “The death of a young person like Dr. Soyinka is a shock. On behalf of my family and the Rivers State government and people, I commiserate with the Soyinka family. I pray they find solace and strength in God as they go through this difficult time.”

  • Amaechi: Wike, Opara betrayed me

    Amaechi: Wike, Opara betrayed me

    Rivers State Governor Rotimi Amaechi said at the weekend that Supervising Minister of Education Nyesom Wike and a former Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Chief Austin Opara, betrayed him.

    He said having made them to get to top positions, they connived with others to fight him for personal and selfish interests.

    All of them are of Ikwere, the largest ethnic stock in the state.

    Wike was Amaechi’s Chief of Staff.

    Amaechi, who is also the Chairman of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF), spoke on Sunday night at the 199th Convention of the Ikwerre Cultural Organisation, Wat Ahai Ogbakiri in Emohua Local Government Area.

    The Rivers governor told the Ogbakor Ikwerre Convention, the socio-cultural body of Ikwerre people in Rivers state, that both Wike and Opara were now leading the fight against him in the state.

    The NGF chairman lamented that in spite of his contributions to give the Ikwerre ethnic nationality a face-lift and a pride of place in Rivers state and on the national stage, he had been betrayed by his brothers.

    He said: “Gradually, we are beginning to wind up in government and I have started counting either my blessings or losses one by one as governor of Rivers State.

    “I have started asking what have I done for Ikwerre people and I’m convinced that the Ikwerre history cannot be complete if my name is not mentioned.

    “I am not saying this because I am the governor. As the Speaker of the Rivers State House of Assembly, I ensured that most parts of Ikwerre have roads. The ones that did not get then, when I became governor they got roads.

    “Only a few communities may not have roads in Ikwerre now, and before we go, I will make sure they have roads like most parts of the state. We will ensure that those communities have roads. As Speaker, I asked for the grading of this Ogbakiri road.”

    The Rivers governor also stated that he was aware that the basic thing needed in Ikwerre was basic empowerment.

    He said: “You will not recognise it, until you take the list of our scholarship programme in the state and know how many of our children are overseas studying. They are quite many and I have met them at different airports.

    “How I know them is because they greet me in Ikwerre when they see me. I have asked myself apart from those who are fighting me, many Ikwerre sons and daughters have one way or the other benefitted from me.

    “When you see Nyesom Wike, tell him I nominated him to be Minister. And I have one witness sitting here today. Chief Sampson Agbaru is my witness. He led other prominent sons and daughters of Ikwerre to see President (Goodluck) Jonathan and the President told them that he had not known Nyesom Wike from Adam, that when Amaechi brought Wike’s name, he (Jonathan) opposed it. The President opposed the appointment of my former Chief of Staff as Minister.

    “He (President Jonathan) opposed him (Wike) and I begged President Jonathan severally and consistently because I wanted Wike to be minister. But today, Nyesom Wike has betrayed me for selfish reasons.

    “Also, by the grace of God, I made Chief Austin Opara, Deputy Speaker of House of Representatives. God used me. Prominent politicians met me and told me that there could not be two captains in a boat, that if I made Austin Opara Deputy Speaker, I might not be the political leader in Ikwerre. But I said I wanted my people to benefit and I picked Austin’s name and we battled to make him Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives in 2003.”

    The NGF chairman also revealed how the ex-deputy speaker of the House of Representatives (Opara) allegedly masterminded his arrest and detention in 2006.

    Amaechi said: “In 2006, I was arrested through the machinery of Austin Opara and was detained for one day. Meanwhile, he was supposedly one of my supporters to be governor. Among those, I have also helped who are now fighting me is also Prof. Achinewhu, as Vice-Chancellor of Rivers State University of Science and Technology, Port Harcourt.

    “Achinewhu was sick and at the point of death. I flew him out of the country for medical treatment, but he is now one of those accusing me and writing against me in the papers. For those I gave contracts, they are so many for me to mention.

    “If they deny, call the Ogbakor Ikwerre Convention and summon them, I will come here and mention them one by one. For instance, Paul Nwonodi is one of them. He is now fighting me and writing and signing all sorts against me.

    He said: “We will survive the federal might and the way to survive it is to mobilise our people. We must prepare now to chase away those against our people. The President says he is an Ijaw man, he should not take the oil wells from the Kalabari people.”

    Amaechi also promised that he would remain a detribalised leader, until the expiration of his tenure in 2015.

    The President-General of Ogbakor Ikwerre Convention, Prof. Augustine Ahiazu, described the current wave of politicking in Rivers State as alarming, stating that it could cause permanent injury to individuals and the various communities.

    Ahiazu said: “Bitterness in politics can result in undue hatred among friends and relations. It can breed division and polarisation. It can also bring conflict and destruction.

    “Ikwerre sons and daughters should come together to fight any plans for violence in Port Harcourt, because any violence in Port Harcourt is violence in Ikwerre land.”

    The minister of state for education, in an interview in Port Harcourt, insisted that he never betrayed Amaechi, whom he supported to be governor in 2007.

    Wike, maintained that the NGF chairman did not recommend him to President Jonathan to be appointed minister. Opara also stated that change was needed in Rivers state, with the people and others in the crude oil and gas-rich Southsouth zone preferring President Jonathan’s re-election in 2015 to Amaechi’s alleged interest in being the vice-president during the next general election.

  • ‘Nobody can dictate to Amaechi on CJ job’

    ‘Nobody can dictate to Amaechi on CJ job’

    RIvers State government yesterday defended the right of Governor Rotimi Amaechi to appoint an acting Chief Judge.

    It accused a former president of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), O. C. J. Okocha (SAN), of double standards.

    It also described his comments on the matter as inciting and an invitation to anarchy and violence.

    Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Worgu Boms, in company with the Chief of Staff, Government House, Port Harcourt, Chief Tony Okocha and top government officials read a nine-page statement at a news conference in Port Harcourt, the state capital.

    Boms said nobody could dictate to Governor Amaechi on the appointment of the chief judge and he would never abdicate his constitutional responsibility.

    Okocha, a Port Harcourt lawyer, is the younger brother of Justice Daisy Okocha, whom Amaechi by passed in the appointment of a substantive chief judge.

    Following the retirement of Justice Iche Ndu as the chief judge, after 35 years of meritorious service, Amaechi appointed as an Acting Chief Judge, Justice Peter Agumagu, the President of the Customary Court of Appeal, which the National Judicial Council (NJC) frowned on.

    The NJC, headed by the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Aloma Mariam Mukhtar, wrote individually to the judges in the Rivers judiciary, warning them not to accept from Amaechi, appointment as acting chief judge. It insisted that Justice Okocha must be accepted by the Rivers governor.

    Boms noted that acting chief judges had been operating in Abia, Osun and Adamawa states, without heavens falling. He said he wondered why the special interest of the NJC in the Rivers matter.

    Rivers House of Assembly Speaker Otelemaba Dan Amachree and his deputy, Leyii Kwanee, approached the Rivers High Court, sitting in Ahoada, on the speakership of the Assembly, with the self-acclaimed speaker, Evans Bipi, restrained from parading himself as the speaker.

    The ex-NBA President (Okocha), who is a member of the NJC, asked Bipi not to obey the order of the Ahoada court, saying judges had been warned not to be granting frivolous exparte orders, which he said was not in line with their code of conduct. He said errant judges would be sanctioned by the NJC.

    Bipi, who represents Ogu/Bolo, later described the order of the Ahoada court as kangaroo (euphemism for fraudulent or illegal), which he said he would never obey, insisting that he remained the “authentic” speaker of the Assembly.

    The Rivers attorney-general, however, said there were attempts to politicise the judiciary, adding that the National Assembly was not a party to the suit filed by the speaker and the deputy speaker of the House of Assembly.

    He urged Okocha (OCJ) not to be partisan but to be objective and impartial.

    Boms noted that the 1999 Constitution was clear on the appointment of a state’s chief judge and acting CJ for three months, while other judges could still be appointed in acting capacity, until the state would have a substantive chief judge.

    The Rivers attorney-general said the NJC caused the Rivers judiciary’s succession crisis, by insisting on Justice Okocha, rejecting the acting appointment of Justice Agumagu and warning other judges to refuse being appointed as acting CJ.

    Boms said Amaechi was not anybody’s “boy” and would never accept being dictated to by the NJC.

    Rivers attorney-general said: “The Rivers governor will not abdicate his constitutional responsibility, as granted him by the constitution, in appointing an acting chief judge. He will not accept dictate from anybody.

    “If he (Amaechi) does something and you do not like it, there are places you will go, but do not dictate to the Rivers governor.”

    Boms also berated the former president of the NBA, stressing that he could have done better, as a member of the NJC.

    He said: “Subsequently, a senior advocate weighs in and states subtly that he is in support of the announcement to disobey the court order. That the order was not made in appropriate circumstances and that the appropriate court ought to be the Federal High Court and not the Ahoada High Court.

    “He said the matter should concern the National Assembly, in the controversy of the closure of the House of Assembly. The disobedience of the court order is supported that the parties have to be duly and properly served and that judges have been warned several times not to be granting Exparte Orders, when the parties are not before them.

    “Indeed, that the warning is contained in the judges’ code of conduct and that the order is frivolous. He said the parties affected should go to the same court to set it aside.

    “His conclusion was that the defendant was right in his insistence not to obey it (the order) on the grounds that the order was improperly made or to use his words, not made in proper circumstances. This is very unfortunate, coming from any lawyer at all, but more so, from a SAN.”

    The Rivers attorney-general also stated that criticisms must be constructive and not based on sentiments or nepotism.

    He said: “His (OCJ Okocha’s) inciting the defendant not to obey the court order must be seen in the wider context of the bitter politics of Rivers State to remove Governor Amaechi by any means whatsoever, of which who becomes the Chief Judge of Rivers State or who gets appointed now as the Acting CJ has been made a Sub-Text and has become a consuming passion for some.

    “The senior advocate is not bound to speak and he is never known to be speaking against any government of Rivers State. Now that he has finally found it imperative to speak, let him use his position, whatever he esteems that position to be, to speak impartially and objectively. If he is speaking on Law, let him direct the public to that Law.

    “The Senior Advocate was not right in Law, when he made the public to believe that anyone affected by an order of court and who esteemed that order to be wrong, fraudulent or improperly obtained and not made in appropriate circumstance or without jurisdiction, that such person was free or entitled to disobey it, even though he can also go to that same court to set it aside.

    “This is not only a dangerous statement to be made to the public; it is also irredeemably and irreconcilably in conflict with the position of the Law.”

    Boms also said emphasis must be placed on the rule of law, rather than self-help or criticising ignorantly.

    He said: “A person cannot sit in the comfort of his home and proclaim an order of court void or irregular and then subtly advise that no one should obey it, based on his or her own pronouncement.

    “It is unfortunate that our citizens are now being encouraged, indeed, educated by a senior advocate, who is a member of the NJC, to disobey court orders on the basis of his opinion. That call should be ignored, as it is an invitation to anarchy and violence.

    “To counsel disobedience to court order, in whatever guise, subtly or directly, is a sad throwback to the days of wanton impunity, with all its consequences for the polity and an attempt to reverse the gains of modern society, with its humanising influence.”

    The Rivers attorney-general also said since the judges must come under the discipline of the NJC, he asked the SAN (Okocha) not to use his membership of the NJC to confuse the public and attempt to infuse fear and timidity in the judicial process and the judicial officers.

  • How Patience tried to hijack Rivers, by Amaechi

    How Patience tried to hijack Rivers, by Amaechi

    •Blames President’s wife for ‘resuscitating’ kidnapping in PH

    •PDP can only win in 2015 through rigging

    •Amaechi has lost control, says Minister

    Governor Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State has given a fresh insight into why he fell out with President Goodluck Jonathan and the First Lady, Dame Patience.

    The governor, who doubles as the Chairman of the Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF), told reporters at an interactive session in Port Harcourt on Friday night that Mrs. Jonathan wanted to dictate to him how to run the affairs of the state but that he refused to dance to her tunes.

    Mrs. Jonathan, like Amaechi, hail from Rivers State.

    Their disagreement is at the core of the current political crisis in the state with the State House of Assembly shut down following the polarisation of its members along the line of those for or against the governor.

    The minority six members against the governor are widely believed to be receiving encouragement from the Presidency.

    He said: “The wife of the President wanted to macro-manage governance in Rivers State and I said no, you cannot. I was elected. If I fail, they will not say the wife of the President failed; they will say Governor Amaechi failed. I am accountable to God, men and women of Rivers State.

    “The wife of the President was not elected the Governor of Rivers State. I was elected. I am not in any way the wife of the President. I am the Governor of Rivers State, married to Judith Amaechi.

    “I am telling you why they want to crucify me. This fight is about change. It is about good governance. It is about accountability. They do not like Rivers State. They hate us. We are losing. Tell me one thing that Rivers State has gained from being part of the South South under Goodluck Jonathan’s Presidency.”

    The governor, who was elected on the ticket of the PDP but defected along with four other governors to the All Progressives Congress (APC) recently also blamed Mrs. Jonathan for resuscitating militancy and kidnapping in the state.

    “By the time the wife of President Jonathan brought out the militants, we had almost got to zero point of no kidnapping in Port Harcourt. Where we were witnessing kidnapping were villages near Bayelsa and Abia States. We were thinking of how to go there with military surge, to chase the criminals back to their bases,” he said.

    He said his principled stand has earned him scorn from the First lady who, according to him, is bent on removing him from office using government power.

    “She also held a Security Council meeting with them in Otuoke (President Jonathan’s hometown in Ogbia LGA of Bayelsa State), declaring that they would use federal ‘mighty’ (instead of might).But we have God Almighty.

    “Is there any governor that has passed through what I passed through that is still alive? I am still talking as the Governor of Rivers State because there is God. They can use their federal ‘mighty,’ but I depend on the Almighty God.”

    He said that President Jonathan has not helped matters by trying to under-develop Rivers at the expense of his (Jonathan’s) home state of Bayelsa.

    He cited the Zonal Air Force originally earmarked for Rivers by the late President Umaru Yar’Adua but which was relocated to Bayelsa and the transfer of Soku oil wells to Bayelsa.

    “The Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas Company (on Bonny Island in Rivers State) is even the worst. The members of the board and management of the NLNG came to me and pleaded with me to speak with the NNPC (Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation) to allow them to do Train Seven in Bonny, that will employ 10,000 Rivers people,” he said.

    “I approached the NNPC and I went to the Petroleum Ministry. I do not want to call names, because most of them are my friends. They told me no. I thought it was a joke. That time, there was no quarrel between me and President Jonathan, because we had just finished elections (2011) and we were still chummy-chummy.

    “I met with President Jonathan to kindly speak with officials of the NNPC and the Petroleum Ministry to allow NLNG to build Train Seven. President Jonathan said he wanted them to finish Brass LNG in his Bayelsa State, before they could build Bonny NLNG’s Train Seven. Mr. President said no and that he directed the officials of the NNPC and the Petroleum Ministry to say what they said.

    “Mr. President said right from when he was the Deputy Governor of Bayelsa State, he had been trying to get the Brass LNG and wants to get it now that he is the President. You cannot force investors. So, we must wait for Bayelsa State before Rivers State can grow.

    “The implication is that Rivers State will not grow until Goodluck Jonathan finishes his Presidency. Is that a good government? Is that a good party? Should I remain there? If I was lying, they would have replied me. What is Southsouth President? There is only one thing in politics, which is interest. You cannot play politics of Nigeria with religion or ethnicity.”

    He added: “They took Soku oil wells from us and they took 41 oil wells from Etche to Abia State. Should I remain in that kind of party that is denying Rivers State its resources?

    “When I said they could not account for N2.3 trillion for oil subsidy, they said what is your source? I was in a meeting with President Jonathan. Nigerians never knew that governors went on strike for three months. We refused to collect our monthly allocations, because we told President Jonathan that under Yar’Adua late Umaru under Gen. Obasanjo (former President Olusegun), the total oil subsidy was N300 billion.

    “The first year of President Goodluck Jonathan, in 2011, oil subsidy became N2.3 trillion. Did we buy more machines, more human beings in Nigeria, we had 24 hours power supply, things have changed in Nigeria, that we now consume N2.3 trillion from N300 billion?”

    He also denied subverting the administration of a fellow Southsoutherner.

    His words: “Who is a South South President? For me, a Southsouth President is the man who feels for me and cares.

    “For them to be doing the East-West Road (from Oron in Akwa Ibom State, through Ogoniland in Rivers State to Bayelsa, Delta, Edo, Ondo and Ogun States, terminating in Lagos State), I had to fight the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs (Elder Godsday Orubebe).

    “They said they would borrow money. They borrowed money and are now doing the East-West Road. The Southsouth President should have borrowed the money since 2011 that he came in and completed the East-West Road.

    “Unfortunately, Yar’Adua is not alive to speak for himself. I was part of the people who sat down with Yar’Adua to start the designing of coastal rail from Cross River, Akwa Ibom, Rivers, Bayelsa, Delta, Edo, Ondo and Ogun States, up to Lagos State. Have you heard of it again?”

    He recalled a meeting he had with the late President Yar’Adua who, he said, asked what the Federal Government could do for Rivers State to stem militancy.

    Amaechi said he suggested the provision of a skills’ acquisition centre and the then President proceeded to award contracts for the project to ‘prominent Rivers people’ only for President Jonathan, on replacing Yar’Adua, to sack the contractors.

    The contracts, he added, were then re-awarded to other people.

    “For four years, the Federal Government’s skills’ acquisition centre is yet to be completed. It is not about the contractor not working. They are not funding the contractor, because the project is in Rivers State,” he said.

    Amaechi said that the PDP is fast drowning ahead of the 2015 elections.

    According to him, more of PDP governors will defect to the APC and that the PDP could only win in 2015 by rigging.

    He described the APC as the change agent Nigeria needs at this point in its history.

    He said that by March 2014 the APC would have become the majority party in the Senate.

    “Amaechi said, We are gradually forming government. We have taken over the House of Representatives. Before March (2014), we will take over the Senate. Just watch out.

    “The pressure will mount so much that they (Senators) will move from the PDP into APC. For now, it is narrowing down closely everyday and we are counting. Watch out before March, if we will not have the number we are looking for.”

    He dismissed the Nyesom Wike-led Grassroots Development Initiative (GDI) in the state as irrelevant and its members as hungry people.

    Wike, the Supervising Minister of Education is the arrowhead of the opposition to Amaechi.

    Amaechi said of the group: “I do not talk about those people who call themselves GDI. For me, they are not important, because that is not the fight. Those people do not even have the same agenda as the President. Their agenda is they cannot survive poverty.

    “What they (GDI members) are trying to do is how to win Rivers State and share the money. They are not fighting for President Jonathan. What is driving them mad about Obio/Akpor LG Council? I did not know that individuals working in my government were sharing Obio/Akpor LG council’s money and they were not ashamed.”

    He debunked reports that he had abandoned his wife, Judith, for another woman, saying: “I read a story that I impregnated Prof. Wole Soyinka’s (Nobel laureate’s) daughter. That she is living in my house and my wife has ran away. The story was bad. I had to call back my wife, so that they would know that she had not divorced me. She was not planning to do Christmas in Nigeria.

    “She (Judith Amaechi) is back to see her husband, spend time with the husband, do some of her functions as wife of the governor, so that they will know that I am still married. Not just that I am still married, I am a Catholic.

    “My marriage is as solid as a Catholic marriage. There is absolutely no room for divorce. What you have is room for annulment. There is only one ground for annulment of marriage in Catholic Church that is the marriage never took place. That means the woman either deceived him to marry her or the man deceived her into marrying him. Any other thing is called for better, for worse.”

    The political camp of the Supervising Minister of Education, Chief Nyesom Wike, Grassroots Development Initiative (GDI), said yesterday that it was wrong of Amaechi to refer to its members as hungry people.

    Speaking on telephone from Lagos, the Secretary-General of the group, Mr. Samuel Nwanosike, who doubles as the Rivers Publicity Secretary of the PDP, said the governor is confused and incapable of delivering the State to the APC in 2015.

    He said: “It is not new to us that Amaechi is saying GDI members are hungry. Amaechi’s father was not the Managing Director of Shell or Agip or owner of any bank in Nigeria or West Africa. He is of a humble beginning.

    “It baffles me whenever Amaechi says GDI members are hungry. It is unbecoming of a governor.

    “Amaechi has lost control of Rivers State. It is unfortunate that Amaechi could describe PDP as chop-I-chop party. PDP made him Speaker of Rivers State House of Assembly and Rivers Governor. He is an ingrate. He is involved in anti-party activities.

    “PDP is not a drowning party. Amaechi, now a member of the APC, cannot win any election in his Ubima Ward 8 (Ikwerre LGA). Amaechi is involved in a show of shame. Amaechi cannot deceive Rivers people.”

    He said that Rivers State would never belong to the opposition, stressing that the PDP would continue to win the Niger Delta State.

  • Amaechi: I’ve never said I want to be president

    Amaechi: I’ve never said I want to be president

    Rivers State Governor Rotimi Amaechi said yesterday in Port Harcourt that he had never told anybody he wanted to be president in 2015.

    He noted that he was only fighting to change the situation in the country.

    Amaechi, who is also the chairman of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF), urged the military not to be involved in politics.

    He enjoined them to remain neutral in the struggle by politicians for 2015, stressing that any involvement would have consequences.

    The governor spoke when addressing legionnaires and representatives of the Service chiefs in the state, for the 2014 Armed Forces Remembrance Day, whose emblem appeal launch took place yesterday at the Alfred Diete-Spiff Civic Centre.

    The NGF chairman hailed the military for remaining neutral. He prayed that God would bless them for their decision to remain neutral in the country’s politics and advised the police to remain neutral too.

    Said he: “I will join you to preach peace. You will see us fighting politically. Why we are fighting is because Nigeria is too big and too rich to remain the way we are. If anybody tells you we are not too big and too rich, the person is lying.

    “We are too big and too rich not to be able to provide education for our children. We are too big and too rich not to be able to provide health for our children.

    “They say I am fighting because I want to be President. I’ve never told anybody I want to be President. I am fighting just one cause: can we change the cause of Nigeria?

    “If the naval officers were here, they would tell you about a ship that is directionless. We cannot continue that way. I am not saying the President is doing well or not doing well. I am talking about the entire political class.”

    Amaechi also acknowledged the military’s contributions to unity and nation building. He urged them not to allow their contributions to collapse in the current political debate.

    He said: “I will say to you (military men) today that all of you, both serving and retired, in one way or another, contributed to the unity of Nigeria and that you cannot afford to allow disunity.

    “I have a very faint idea of what the civil war looked like, because I was born in 1965. My children do not have any idea whatsoever of what the civil war looked like and I do not want them to have any idea at all and God will not allow us to get involved in such a situation.”

    The governor also lamented the absence of good leadership, security, water, power, health and other essential needs.

    His words: “The greatest source of unity in a country is the military and you have suffered enough to fight for the unity of this country. Do not be involved in politics.”Nigeria is too complicated for the military to be involved in politics. Nigeria, as we are here, we have many ethnic groups. I tell people, I am not Ijaw, I am Ikwerre. There are people who are from Ijaw, there are Hausa, there are Yoruba, there are Isoko and there are Fulani.

    “We are too many that if the military should get involved in politics, the consequences will be too much. We thank you for remaining neutral. God will bless you for remaining neutral.

    “We urge the police to remain neutral, because the consequences of taking sides will be too much. 2015 is a watershed in the country. All of us seated here must contribute to peace in the country.”

    The NGF chairman enjoined well-meaning compatriots to join the race for a better Nigeria.

    He was decorated by the State Chairman of the Nigerian Legion, Col. Philemon Chinda Omunakwe (rtd.), who lauded him for identifying with the Rivers legionnaires.

    The event was attended by the representatives of Service chiefs, including Commissioner of Police Mbu Joseph Mbu.

  • Party faults arrest of Kano lawmakers

    Party faults arrest of Kano lawmakers

    •’It’s political vendetta’

    The All Progressives Congress (APC) yesterday described the arrest of the Speaker, Clerk and nine members of the Kano State House of Assembly by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) as “political vendetta by a hurting presidency, whose target is the governor”.

    In a statement by its Interim National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, APC said: “Since the arrest of the lawmakers for approving a budget cannot be justified by any law, it is clear to all discerning Nigerians that the only motive is to harass and intimidate the lawmakers of a state that recently escaped from the hell-hole called the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to join the APC.

    “The politically-motivated arrest marks the beginning of the long-expected series of persecution by a desperate Federal Government of APC states, especially those that recently ducked the cascading PDP plague.

    “We call for the immediate release of the legislators by the malleable EFCC, which has suddenly found enough resources from its dried-up coffers to go after innocent men, when the same commission looked the other away while monumental corruption stalked the land, whether it is the Oduahgate, the fuel subsidy scam or the SURE-P heist, to list a few.

    “Nowhere in the world are lawmakers arrested for carrying out their constitutional- role of approving a budget. The world must be having a good laugh at the lack of ingenuity by a government that is so eager to extract a pound of flesh from supposed political enemies that it would orchestrate arrests for offences unknown to law.

    “The allegation that Governor Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso’s supplementary budget was meant to cover-up a dubious transaction, due to a budget review request to the Assembly to the value of N28 billion from the initial budget of N24 billion, is as spurious and laughable, just as the EFCC’s claim that the arrest followed a petition by a stakeholder in the state is questionable.

    ‘”The tragedy of the unfolding scenario, which will surely extend to other APC states in the days ahead, is that a democratically-elected government is toeing the well-worn vindictive path of a military dictatorship by harassing and intimidating supposed opponents and stifling the opposition.

    “The Gestapo-style siege on the Kano Assembly is a throwback to what Nigerians thought was a bygone era of military dictatorship. We hate to say it, but we have been proven right in our warning in October that the President was using Rivers State to test-run fascism. Now, he seems ready to roll.”

    It vowed to use all constitutional means to resist any attempt to use state institutions against the opposition; to use trumped-up charges to victimise perceived political opponents and to curtail the citizens’ right of free association

    APC said: “From the moment our party’s National Leader, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, was dragged before the Code of Conduct Tribunal over a case that lacked merit to the arrest of Jigawa State Governor Sule Lamido’s sons and the grounding of Rivers State Governor Rotimi Amaechi’s plane, the Jonathan administration has not relented in its search for any crude measure to badger the opposition and perceived opponents to submission.

    “But if history is any guide, no force is good enough to stop an idea whose time has come. For us in the APC, the cheap shots from a diminished presidency and the evil machinations of a crumbling behemoth called the PDP can only strengthen our resolve to rescue Nigeria from the clutches of entities, which are steeped in medieval tactics of coercion, even as governance has suffered a crushing neglect.”

  • 2015: I’m on Jonathan’s watch list, says Amaechi

    2015: I’m on Jonathan’s watch list, says Amaechi

    Buhari, Akande, Tinubu, Masari, Jaja, others storm Port Harcourt

    Rivers State Governor Rotimi Amaechi joined yesterday the raging controversy sparked by former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s letter to President Goodluck Jonathan.

    The former President accused Dr. Jonathan of training snipers and putting 1,000 Nigerians on a watch list ahead of the 2015 elections. Jonathan denied it all, saying Obasanjo should prove the allegations.

    “I’m number one on the list. They want to kill me,” Amaechi told a huge crowd at the Liberation Stadium in Port Harcourt, the state capital.

    It was at an exciting rally organised by the Save Rivers Movement – a political group backing Amaechi’s stand on the state’s political future.

    Amaechi dumped the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for the All Progressives Congress (APC).

    Listening to Amaechi were many APC leaders, interim National Chairman Chief Bisi Akande; former House of Representatives Speaker Aminu Bello Masari, who is the party’s interim Deputy National Chairman; interim National Vice Chairman (Southsouth) Chief Tom Ikimi and Dr. Sam Sam-Jaja.

    Edo State Governor Comrade Adams Oshiomhole was represented by his deputy, Dr. Pius Egberanmwen Odubu. Also there were the interim National Publicity Secretary of the APC, Alhaji Lai Mohammed; two senators from Rivers State – Magnus Abe (Rivers Southeast) and Wilson Ake (Rivers West)- as well as a member of the House of Representatives from Rivers state, Dakuku Peterside (Andoni-Opobo/Nkoro constituency). There were many other eminent personalities.

    One of the leaders, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari described the Jonathan’s administration as “lawless” vowing that the main opposition party will deliver Nigeria democratically in 2015.

    Gen. Buhari, a former Head of State, also promised that he and other stakeholders, especially of the APC, would do everything constitutional, to ensure the 2015 elections were credible.

    Another national leader of the APC, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, said the party would sweep away evil, corruption and abuse of power from Rivers State and other parts of Nigeria.

    Amaechi, who is also the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) chairman, said: “Today (yesterday), I am not declaring. I said I would declare at the new stadium. The reason for gathering today is to remind Nigerians that the current Federal Government is carrying on with impunity. There is no rule of law in Nigeria. They are using police to molest us. Where police fail to molest us, they are using thugs to shoot dynamites and guns against innocent people.

    “I read the President’s (Jonathan’s) letter and he said ex-President Obasanjo should prove the 1,000 names on the watch list. I am number one on the list. They want to kill me, but they have no God. The God we worship will protect me. Before the end of the year, I will address the state.

    “They will shoot you. They have no fear for your blood. They want the position at all costs. Whether you all die, they do not mind governing just the land. You must know that if you read the story of revolution, you must sacrifice. Somebody said my son should come to the front. If you want my son tomorrow, I will produce him.

    “If I have surrendered myself and I am ready to be in front, let them shoot. Anytime you start a street march and you do not see me in the front, you must know something must be wrong and you must know that they have arrested me. I am not a big man governor. I am a governor that is on the streets with his people.

    “One other thing that is bothering me is that all those who are on the other side, saying they want Southsouth President, I agree with them, they want Southsouth President. In politics, you are not here today (yesterday) because you like Amaechi; you are here because of your own political interest. If a Southsouth President refused to give you water, you will push him out.

    “We gave the President (Jonathan in 2011) nearly two million votes, let him tell us one project he has done for us. I have challenged the President that I belong to the APC. If he wants Rivers people to vote for him, let him give Kalabari people back their oil wells and I will come back (to the PDP). He cannot. The President cannot. Instead, he will take more.”

    Amaechi also admonished the people, especially his teeming supporters, to be prepared for the struggle ahead, stating that on elections’ days, the “oppressors” would come with tanks and policemen, but urged them to stand and watch their votes.

    The Rivers governor said: “They said Buhari is not a Christian. Buhari is a Muslim. We are not preaching religious politics. Everybody in Nigeria has the right to worship where he wants to worship. I am a Catholic and I will worship Christ. I will die a Christian, but do not bring politics into good governance.

    “It is only when there is bad governance that they begin to look for who is an Ikwerre man, who is an Ijaw man, who is an Hausa man, who is a Yoruba man. If there is good governance, you will be talking about schools. Have I told you I am an Ikwerre man? I told you I have done schools, health centres and roads. I am facing power. They should tell us what they are doing. We are prepared for a debate with them.

    “In Etche, they have taken our 41 oil wells across (to Abia State). They are denying us our rights. We have suffered enough. I was a students’ leader. I learnt in the University of Port Harcourt (UNIPORT) that nobody should trample on your rights. If I did not fight for my rights, I would not have been governor. I suffered and my children suffered, but today we are in government.

    “If you listen to them closely, our brothers, who are on the other side, they are hungry. They have been out of power for nearly eight years. If you vote them into power, what will happen? They will steal all the money. They are broke. The ones that are not broke, that are in government, they are busy stealing and building mansions everywhere. They have no fear. I have never seen corruption like this in Nigeria before.

    “President Jonathan said in his letter that former President Obasanjo should apologise on the issue of $49.8 billion. Right on television, a debate between the Minister of Finance (Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala) and the CBN (Central Bank of Nigeria) Governor (Sanusi Lamido Sanusi). The CBN Governor said they had reconciled, but they had not found $12 billion, but the Minister for Finance said it was $10.8 billion. Even if it is $1 billion, it is stealing. $1 billion is N170 billion. There are some states that their budget (annually) is N130 billion. Bring our money. I have never seen corruption like this.

    “They are busy pursuing us with the EFCC (Economic and Financial Crimes Commission), they have never pursed any federal agency with EFCC. I will quote the Governor of Edo State (Comrade Adams Oshiomhole); he said if you write examination and you score 26 per cent, have you passed? If you score 52 per cent, have you not passed? The Federal Government is holding 52 per cent of our money. EFCC should pursue the 52 per cent and leave 26 per cent. If EFCC succeeds in doing that, have we not succeeded?”

    Amaechi also stated that President Jonathan, in his reply of ex-President Obasanjo’s letter said the African Development Bank (AFDB) was carrying out the process of giving Rivers peoples water.

    The NGF chairman said: “Tell Mr. President that World Bank, not AFDB. Two banks are involved. One is AfDB’ the other is World Bank. We were told by the staff of the World Bank that they are ready. Tell the President (Jonathan) to give us our water.

    “If it is the President, I can understand, because the President has not served in any international organisation, but what about the woman (Finance Minister, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala), whose job it is to sign off, to give the water project.

    “The Minister of Finance has refused to sign off, despite the fact that she served in the World Bank. She wants you (Rivers people) to die of water-borne diseases, in the name of politics. Holy Ghost fire.

    “They are quarrelling with Amaechi and they want you (Rivers people) to die the death of Amaechi. I will not die. I drink bottled water. You do not drink bottled water. So, the best I can do for you and the best that the President can do for you, because he is your President, is to ask the World Bank, we hereby sign this document, that in 40 years, Rivers State will pay you your money, but they have refused to sign, just because of politics.

    “If they tell us that it is AFDB, tell them I said it is both AFDB and the World Bank and we have completed everything we need to complete. All parties are ready, including the AFDB and the World Bank. They do not want to sign. They want you to die of water-borne diseases.”

    The Rivers governor spoke also of the metaphor of the broom – Amaechi studied Literature at the University of Port Harcourt (UNIPORT) – stressing that the broom would sweep out dirt, but while sweeping, the sweeper must bend down.

    He noted that the sweeper must suffer a bit and in suffering, the broom would be sweeping, but at the end, the house would be clean. He urged his teeming supporters to prepare to suffer under the current government, but assured them that come 2015, things would get better.

    Amaechi said: “One of our sons, a Kalabari son, said that the oil wells were taken under Rufus Ada-George (former Rivers governor, from Okrika). Tell him I said he is lying. He has never been in government.

    “I served in Rufus Ada-George’s government. There was no oil well taken from Rivers State. I served in Dr. Peter Odili’s government. The oil wells were taken in 2006. They put the money in an escrow account.

    “By 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010, they took all the money from the escrow account and gave to our brothers (in Bayelsa State) and they converted Soku to Bayelsa. My friend and brother in Bayelsa (Governor) said we do not want Soku, we just want the oil wells.”

    The Rivers governor also stated that he was determined to continue to develop the state, adding that truth would prevail at the end.

    The Chief Felix Obuah-led Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the state, through the Special Adviser to the Chairman on Media, Jerry Needam, however, alleged that Amaechi was no longer relevant in the Niger Delta state’s political calculation.

    Gen. Buhari said: “I congratulate the people of Rivers State for moving to the APC. The fundamental thing is one Nigeria. In spite of our differences, we have found ourselves as one people. Nigeria is a country with tremendous resources and talented people, but we are unable to organise ourselves to raise this country.

    “The efforts we are making is for Nigeria. We have to put the party firmly on the ground. We will do everything constitutional to make sure that 2015 elections are credible.

    “We are in an extremely difficult position, where a government is lawless. Courageous Amaechi has done well. Let us support him. We are behind his government. We are going to deliver our country democratically come 2015. Nigeria will survive.”

    The interim National Chairman of the APC (Akande) also stated that the last time the leaders of the opposition party were at the Government House, Port Harcourt, they came to persuade Amaechi to join the APC, while describing Rivers as an APC state.

    Akande also presented the opposition party’s flag to the interim Rivers Chairman of the party, Chief Davies Ibiamu Ikanya, a former Rivers Commissioner for Special Duties, while asking him to ensure that the PDP became totally dead in the state.

    While also speaking, Tinubu, a former Governor of Lagos State, described the Rivers governor as a “wonderboy,” while disclosing that it was only on Sunday that Buhari was communicated about yesterday’s journey to Port Harcourt, while he (Buhari) was in Lagos, but rushed back to Kaduna to have a change of clothes and was in the Rivers State capital yesterday morning, ahead of most leaders of the party.

    Tinubu also stated that Akande planned to travel, but because of yesterday’s rally of the APC, he decided to postpone the journey, while lauding the leaders of the party, particularly the members of the House of Representatives, whom he said at the threat of the fraudulent declaration of their seats vacant, pulled the courage together and were strongly determined and got into the progressives camp, for the progress and good of Rivers State and Nigeria.

    The former Lagos governor assured the people that members of the House of Representatives who defected to the opposition party that they would “never” regret joining the APC.

    Tinubu said: “The great quality of leadership is the ability to convince his followers and admirers that courage and determination are omnipotent. Amaechi, thank you. Few weeks ago, we came and we said we wanted you in our party, because of your courage, achievements and strong determination to liberate humans from the shackles of oppression, mismanagement and misgovernance.

    “Thank you, for overcoming the primordial blackmail, all the plans and punishment available in the rank of the oppressors. We salute Rotimi Amaechi, because without your courage, determination, perseverance, degree of honesty and the prominent level you are, we will not witness today (yesterday) in Rivers State. You are no chicken; you are an eagle.

    “The great people of Rivers State, the Save Rivers Movement and many other movements, today is the launch of the broom revolution. We want to sweep the evil away from Rivers State. We are here to sweep corruption away from Rivers State. We are here to sweep the abuse of power away from Rivers State.

    “We are here to be with you, to help you clean the cobweb of lies, the cockroach of destruction, the termites of democracy, the enemies of progress and usurpation of power. Your courage is the answer.”

    The APC leader (Tinubu) also urged members of the opposition party in the state not to submit to intimidation, stressing that he had experienced it before, but he is a very proud man today.

    The ex-Lagos governor reiterated that the APC now has 16 governors. More will join the camp of the progressives and the challenge would be for the leaders to liberate the people, he said.

    Ikimi, who is also a patron of the Save Rivers Movement, in his remarks, noted that Amaechi was fully in charge of Rivers State and had taken a giant step forward, while embracing change.

    The national vice chairman, Southsouth, of the APC, stated that the NGF chairman had given Nigerians the opportunity of having an idea of what would happen in the country in the next few months, declaring that there would be fundamental change in Nigeria, describing the APC as a true national party.

    He assured the people that more states in the Southsouth would soon be taken over by the APC, to bring about the desired change in Nigeria, thereby putting an end to misgovernance in the country.

    Ikimi declared that persons parading themselves as leaders of the Southsouth were hangers-on and impostors, who were deceiving and taking money from President Jonathan, while asking him (the President) to chase them away.

    The APC’s national vice chairman, Southsouth, later inaugurated the 37-member interim executive of the opposition party in Rivers State, with Chief Davies Ibiamu Ikanya as the chairman, while urging them to ensure that the opposition party was firmly rooted in the state.

    Ikanya, earlier in his welcome address, stated that Amaechi’s entrance into the APC had brought the entire Rivers State into the opposition party, while declaring that the PDP no longer existed in the state.

    The chairmen of the 23 local government areas of Rivers State, led by the Chairman of the Association of Local Governments of Nigeria (ALGON), Rivers chapter, Chimbiko Iche Akarolo, came with thousands of their supporters to the stadium, and were singing, drumming and dancing.

    Akarolo, who is also the Chairman of Port Harcourt Local Government Council, described Amaechi as the symbol and pillar of democracy in Nigeria, assuring them that the people would continue to support him.

    The Chairman of the Steering Committee of the Save Rivers Movement, Igo Aguma, stressed that the Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) was to secure the future of Rivers people, while insisting that Soku is in Rivers State.

    Aguma noted that he and other leaders of the PDP decided to move to the APC to get the Soku oil wells back to Rivers State, while lamenting that the Amaechi’s administration had so far spent N130 billion on Federal Government’s roads in Rivers State, without refund, while similar funds were being refunded to other state governments, describing it as double standard and injustice.

    The Save Rivers Movement boss also lamented the refusal of the Federal Government to release the $1 billion for Ogoniland’s development, recommended by the United Nations’ Environment Programme (UNEP), in view of the four LGAs’ (Khana, Gokana, Tai and Eleme’s) years of pollution and marginalisation.

    Aguma described the list of injustice done to Rivers State and its people as very long, while assuring that they would continue to support Amaechi and fight with him.

     

     

     

     

    The Rivers PDP, yesterday in an online statement, titled: “Port Harcourt APC Rally: An Eye Opener To Amaechi – PDP,” alleged that the near empty stadium that greeted the Rivers governor’s guests, whom it said were mobilised to witness his official declaration for the APC, was enough counsel that Amaechi was no longer relevant in the Rivers political calculation.

    The PDP said: “The poor turnout of supporters that marked the APC’s rally, which left the only 14,000 capacity stadium yawning for occupation, should be a source of worry to Governor Amaechi, who had earlier boasted of over 40 million crowds.

    “Even with the scanty turn-out, those that attended the rally were mainly a rented crowd, who were pad N30,000 each by Amaechi’s council chairmen under duress.

    “The surprise package has forced a bewildered Amaechi to claim that today’s event is no longer a declaration rally, but to announce that the Federal Government is ruling with impunity.

    “Is mere observation or announcement of one’s assumption enough reason to bring the national executive of the APC, including a former Head of State, to Rivers State, for a rally at this busy period of Christmas?”

    The Rivers PDP also described as a contradiction, in 2011, while Amaechi was addressing a political rally in Port Harcourt and openly declared that those who were carrying brooms were night soil-men and juju priests, stating that a juju priest should have no place in a Christian state like Rivers.

    The Obuah-led PDP also advised persons allegedly rented to fill the empty stadium as APC’s supporters, with the promise of monthly salaries through the SURE-P, to beware of a man, who would allegedly change his statements every minute.

  • ‘Why I want second term’

    ‘Why I want second term’

    Shortly after he hosted this year’s Nigeria Media Merit Awards at the Ikogosi Warm Water Spring Resort, Ikogosi-Ekiti, Ekiti State, Governor Kayode Fayemi spoke with reporters on the defection of five Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governors to the All Progressives Congress (APC), the defection of Hon. Opeyemi Bamidele from the APC to the Labour Party (LP) and his second term ambition. Assistant Editor ADEKUNLE YUSUF was there.

    Do you really trust that the five PDP governors, who recently defected to the APC, are bringing something good to your party?

    Political parties, by their very nature, always evolve. And in every political party, you have people who constitute a broad choice – some are left of center, some of right of center, you have the good, you have the bad and you have the ugly. What every political party aspires to everywhere that I know in a democratic dispensation is to have the dominance of the good and the dominance of the people who really adhere strictly to the vision of the party and can contribute positively to its development in order to attract the trust and earn the confidence of the populace. If you look at the five governors that have come to us, as broad as the ideological spectrum in Nigeria is, what really is it that I do here (in Ekiti State) or that Governor Fashola does in Lagos or that Governor RaufAregbesola does in Osunor any of our government that Governor RotimiAmaechi is not doing – free education, free health care, infrastructure development in Rivers State? So you could argue that although he was in the PDP, he was in the left of center of the PDP. If you take Governor Kwankwaso and look at his infrastructure development agenda or you look at his micro finance scheme, it is first of its kind in the country. Or you look at some of his focus on education, as I speak to you, Governor Kwankwaso has about one hundred people studying medicine outside the shores of the country – all sponsored by his government. Everybody who made a first class in Kano State gets an automatic scholarship to study abroad. This is the kind of thing you will associate with us because that is our mantra. Broadly speaking, in situations where ideologies blur, personalities become critical and the commitment to the people in their own agenda become central to the equation.And just as you have that in the PDP, even in the APC, we are not a monolith. We have people who are on the extreme right wing of our broad choice who may even pass for conservatives, just as you have people who are in the extreme radical bent of our politics. To answer your question, the five governors are now in our party. And the nature of our political processes is such that governors are not unknown quantities by virtue of office they occupy and the incumbency that is associated with it. They have what we politicians call structures.

    Talking about these five governors, your party alleged recently that there are plans to declare their seats vacant and probably remove them from office.What is your own take on that?

    If you were in the shoes of the leadership of the PDP, although they say good riddance to bad rubbish and that they won’t miss them and all those statements, they know what it means to be a governor.Governors are in control of paraphernalia of power in their states. The PDP will try everything within their powers to subvert that, but the question to ask is: what law are they going to hold on to in order to declare the seat of any governor vacant? A government or a party in power is deemed to be owned by all the citizens of the state once the person becomes the governor. Before you become the governor, you can say you are card-carrying member of any party and this voted for me and that did not vote for me. So it (removing these governors from office) is not going to happen. I don’t see it happening. Let look at our history again. How many people have been recalled in our National Assembly that has that provision that if you move from one party to another without evidence of a split in the party you are moving from, automatically you lose your seat?

    For example, Hon. Bamidele Opeyemi recently defected from your party and joined the LabourParty where he wants to run for governor. Does your party have any plan to recall him or ask the National Assembly to declare his seat vacant?

    Really, the case of Opeyemi is a case for his constituency. It is not really a party matter.

    But your party can ask the National Assembly to declare his seat vacant because there is no faction in the party is defecting from…

    That is not a matter we have given a serious consideration. I understand that he is saying that he is running in another party, but he is yet to formally inform his party that he has left the party. When he does that, there are two ways he has to do that to make it formal: it is not enough be rumoured that he is doing this or he is doing that. He has to formally notify the leadership of the House of Representatives that he has crossed to a purported party. He also needs to inform us that he is no longer a member of our party. When he does that, we will cross the bridge. And to the best of my knowledge, he has not done that.

    Is it not a bad omen that a prominent member of your party (Opeyemi Bamidele) has chosen to run against you?

    What is wrong with that?

    At what point did you disagree with Opeyemi Bamidele?

    You don’t need to disagree to be ambitious. Ambition does not necessarily require any reason; just an ambition. I have not had cause to disagree with anyone, not least Opeyemi. If Opeyemi wants to run for office for whatever reason, the endorsement is not tantamount to refusal to run or not to run. Has he approached anybody in the party that he wants to run? Has he approached his ward? Has he approached his local government party leadership? Has he approached his state party leadership?

    Maybe, he feels he does not need to do that, since you have been endorsed by the powers that be in the party…

    For goodness sake, recall our history.Adekunle Ajasin was endorsed by Chief Obafemi Awolowo. Chief Josiah Olawoyin was endorsed by Chief Obafemi Awolowo in the UPN. The party primary took place and C. O. Adebayo, who was not endorsed, won that primary against Josiah Olawoyin, a close pal of Chief Obafemi Awolowo. He was publicly endorsed, but Chief Obafemi Awolowo said all the candidates of the party at the time should be allowed to run in the primary. In Ondo State, Omoboriowo ran against Chief Adekunle Ajasin in the primary and lost. That was why he left the party. In Kwara State, C. O. Adebayo ran against Olawoyin and won.

    In essence, are you saying there is going to be governorship primary in Ekiti?

    As far as our party is concerned, there is a process. If you choose to run for governorship on the pages of newspaper, that is your own prerogative. This is a party that has process. Everybody who belongs to this party is fully aware of what the constitution of this party says. I am in this state, at least, no fewer than thirty aspirants have gone to PDP secretariat in this state to formally notify the leadership of the party that they are in the gubernatorial race in their party. How do you declare gubernatorial ambition in newspapers and you do not inform your party that you want to run?And then, you claim you have been debarred from running and say there is no internal democracy. Yet all you have a problem with is what the leadership of the party –both at the state and national levels – said that by what they have seen and the feedback they have got from people in the state,they don’t want to change a winning team. They want the governor to run again but they never at any point debar anyone from running.

    But, if the leadership of the party said they don’t want to change the winning team, it is a clear message that nobody should run against you at all?

    No, no, no. I just gave you an example from the same progressive camp. C. O. had no chance in the air if you go by the parameters of the politics of Kwara at the time. He won the primary in Kwara.

    Are you saying you could be beaten in a primary?

    It is about internal democracy. It is about allowing the people to have a say; it is not about portraying that you have support, you need to test the support you claim to have. That is what I am saying. I am not saying I could be beaten and I am not saying I could not be beaten. I am saying it is a democracy and I am a passionate democrat. If you believe that you have the popularity you often claim in the press that you have, test it with the people. And there is a process to do that. That is what I am saying.

    Why do you think you deserve a second term of office?

    In very simple terms, you were in my inauguration and you were here before then. All anyone needs to do, at the risk of sounding arrogant and immodest, is to take the Roadmap to Ekiti Recovery, which is my campaign promise, and take my inaugural speech on October 16, 2010, and mark it paragraph by paragraph. What I said I was going to do for Ekiti people and what I have done in three years. If you want to mark me on what I have done and how I have done it, you can judge whether I have passed the test of leadership or not.

    Are you jittery anything could go wrong at all?

    Am I am jittery? Not with the people of Ekiti.

    What with the quality of candidates that may be coming out from other parties?

    The quality of candidates will enhance our democracy, it will not diminish it. I really want a lot of good candidates to come up. But don’t forget that I ran for primary in this party in 2006 against some popular names you can imagine in Ekiti politics and I won when I was nobody. In fact, I was not known. I was an unknown quantity and a lot of people said I was a foreign candidate who just appeared from nowhere and came to run in the state. Compare that to now that I am seen across the length and breadth of this state as a promise keeper; a man whose word is his bond. He said he was going to do social security that has never been done anywhere in this country and he did it. He said he is going to do free education in a qualitative manner and he did. And the result in secondary school jumped from twenty percent pass rate to seventy percent pass rate. A man who said he was going to do free health care and he has done it.That’s what I want to be judged on. Of course, there are people who will want to judge me on other parameters. There are people who will say we don’t see him at parties, that we don’t see him eat booli by the road side, that he is not a populist noisemaker and he does not share money and that their personal infrastructure has been addressed, even though he is building Ikogosi and building roads and fixing schools and hospitals all over the state. He does not throw money at people, and in politics money is the oil of politics. But I will say that I share money. It is just that I have a different philosophy of sharing. When I give social security, the N5,000 old people collect at the end of every month is sharing. It is institutional sharing backed by law. It is not N200 thrown at people on the street that diminishes their self-esteem and dignity. I don’t share money as baba rere, baba ke, owomeji fun baba. I don’t come from that school of politics, and I am not apologetic about that. But it is a marketplace of ideas. Those who come from that line of politics will also come to the people. They had an opportunity and for seven and a half years, they were in this state. People knew what they did. It was one week one trouble. It was six governors in seven and a half years. So, why is it that we don’t deserve stability that others have had, especially where you have evidence that nobody has done what this governor has done in this state?

    So, based on your work in the three years, are you confident of victory, if an election is held today?

    Of course, yes. You know Ekiti people are very discerning. They are very educated and fastidious. It is difficult to please our people and I know. But once they discover the sincerity of purpose and they see that what you say is what you do, that you walk your talk, our people are generally passionate about that. And that is why we were more passionate about Awolowo here than in Ijebu. If you check the history, we were. It is because there is a connection. I was discussing what happened in Anambra with a couple of my friends and I said it cannot happen in Ekiti. In Anambra, you have non-governmental organizations, people who have more money than the government of Anambra, people who will run Governor Peter Obi out of the state because their own convoy is twenty times longer than the governor’s convoy.Here we all are very interested in governance and who governs. That is why you cannot take our people for granted. It was not fun for me to travel in the last one month to 131 communities as I do every November. In every single community that I went, people have their criticisms, they have their praises for government; they have what they will like me to do. I commissioned projects in 85 of those communities. So there is a direct connection because some of the projects are projects from our community government. The town unions run them – all we just do is to give them money because they decided on the projects themselves. There is no community you get to in Ekiti that people will not tell you that the government has just done this or that or that they gave us money to do this. And that is the greatest challenge anybody who is going to run against me in this state will have. That is why they resort to what they said I don’t do – the personal infrastructure that I don’t take care of. We will cross that bridge when we get there. We will define personal infrastructure the way we should.

  • APC is on course, says Obasanjo

    APC is on course, says Obasanjo

    •Meets Buhari, Akande, Tinubu, APC governors

    •Proclaims self political father of all

    •We’re not wooing him, Tinubu explains mission to ex-president

    The All Progressives Congress (APC) got a rare endorsement yesterday from former President Olusegun Obasanjo.

    He hailed the party as being on course in enhancing democracy in the country.

    He said, “As an opposition you are enhancing democracy, you are at home, you are welcome to being at home,” Chief Obasanjo told a high power delegation of the APC at a meeting at his Abeokuta residence, last night.

    On the APC train were the party’s national chairman, Chief Bisi Akande, former military leader, General Muhammadu Buhari, APC national leader Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, Alhaji Kawu Baraje, Governors Ibikunle Amosun (Ogun), Rochas Okorocha (Imo), Abdulfatah Ahmed (Kwara), Rabiu Kwankwaso (Kano), Rotimi Amaechi (Rivers), Abiola Ajimobi (Oyo) and Murtala Nyako (Adamawa) as well as the interim national publicity secretary of the party, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, Senator Bukola Saraki, former Governor of Borno State, Alimodu Sheriff and Chief Bob Effiong.

    However, Obasanjo advised his guests to play “politics without rancour, without bitterness, with decency, that has Nigeria at heart.”

    He described himself as an ‘incurable optimist about Nigeria.’

    “I am totally committed to Nigeria and nothing will divert me from that commitment,” he said.

    He said he was honoured by the visit to “come and present your party and tell me the objectives. But let me start somewhere. I am a card carrying member of the PDP but the politics I play traverses Nigeria, Africa and world in that order. I am a democrat and one of the essential ingredients of democracy is opposition, a democracy that has no opposition built into it is not a democracy.

    “In whichever party for whatever office that a person contested or aspired in Nigeria since 1999 such a person young or old man or woman can claim to be my political child and I can claim to be by virtue of political office I have held I can also claim to be political father.”

    Chief Akande who led the visiting team said they were in Abeokuta to introduce APC, its leaders and governors among others to Obasanjo.

    Akande also said the party was in support of the 18 – page open letter the former president recently wrote to President Goodluck Jonathan, adding that he (Obasanjo) acted in the best interest of the country.

    Also speaking, Tinubu told their host: “You have come out of tribulation and held the highest position in this country. We are here because of your courage .Nobody can claim that he has information more than you. You have surmounted a number of crises.

    “Nigeria is divided (now), more than before, to realise a stable Nigeria we want to encourage you to continue to speak the truth. We’re resolved and determined to rescue Nigeria, we want you as navigator.”

    Governor Okorocha who spoke for the Progressives Governors said many of them passed through him politically and that the task to rescue Nigeria from its challenges is not only for the benefit of upcoming generations but also a task that must be accomplished.

    The APC delegation started arriving Obasanjo’s mansion on Segun Osoba Hill – Top at about 5.23pm when a convoy of three jeeps carrying Chief Femi Fani – Kayode and former anti – graft Czar, Mr. Nuhu Ribadu, came in.

    They were followed at 5:50pm by a convoy of over a dozen vehicles including buses. In the convoy were most of the governors, Chief Akande and Asiwaju Tinubu.

    General Mohammadu Buhari, followed six minutes later.

    Governor Rotimi Amaechi (Rivers) drove in at 5.59 with ex-FCT minister, Mallam Nasir El – Rufai on the passenger seat with Governors Ajimobi and Amosun trailing them

    The APC leaders had arrived Abeokuta at around noon and met with Governor Amosun, at the Government House, Isale – Igbein, Abeokuta, strategising before proceeding to see Chief Obasanjo who had earlier in the day flown to Akure to commiserate with the chiefs and people of the town on the recent passing away of the Deji of Akure, Oba Adeniyi Adesida.

    Chief Obasanjo and the APC delegation emerged from their meeting at 7pm for a photo session with newsmen.

    The meeting ended at about 8pm with Asiwaju Tinubu telling reporters that the APC visit was not to woo Obasanjo but one borne out of “patriotism, dedication and commitment to Nigeria.”

    Tinubu said: “It is to be able to set Nigeria on the right path and for all men of goodwill to come together to rescue Nigeria. It is not a matter of wooing (him), an elder statesman.

    “Yes, he is a very unique person in his own way based upon the experience of life, tribulations one way or the other, he saw power, tribulations and then back to power. If you want to grasp the life of this man from zero to grace, zero again and then to grace. And then you will see what you get in such a person.

    “And you will need that wisdom not necessarily to join our partisan politics, but just to draw from the experience of an elder statesman.”

  • Wike dares Amaechi over quit order on PDP

    Wike dares Amaechi over quit order on PDP

    •Minister is acting with impunity, says PDP faction

    The Supervising Minister of Education, Chief Nyesom Wike and Governor Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State are locked in a fresh battle over the order issued by the state government to the local chapter of the PDP to quit its Port Harcourt secretariat, forthwith.

    Wike, who is the arrowhead of the PDP opposition to the governor vowed on Friday night that the party would not obey the order to quit the Aba Road building, in Port Harcourt.

    The Governor recently defected from the PDP to the APC along with his supporters, citing undemocratic practices in his former party.

    The property belongs to the state government.

    Speaking in Port Harcourt, Wike said the governor’s directive was in vain as the PDP would not obey it.

    The PDP, he added, would continue to occupy the building until the 2015 election and even beyond.

    He said the order was another evidence of the governor’s arbitrariness.

    This attitude, he claimed, has made it difficult for the state legislature and judiciary to function.

    The minister spoke on the occasion of the conferment of the award of Man of the Year on him by National Network newspaper.

    The media outfit’s anniversary, which had as theme: “X-Raying the Nigerian Democratic Process: The Rivers State Experience,” was chaired by Chief Dumo Lulu-Briggs and attended by a former Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Chief Austin Opara and the new Managing Director of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Dr. Henry Ogiri, among other eminent personalities.

    However, an ally of the governor, George Ukwuoma-Nwogba, dismissed Wike as the real dictator, who has been acting with impunity.

    The minister, he said, schemed out Chief Godspower Ake from his position as PDP chairman in Rivers State, using the instrumentality of the court.

    Ukwuoma-Nwogba, who is the Publicity Secretary of the Ake-led faction of the PDP, said the truth would prevail and the NGF chairman would soon be vindicated, not minding the gang-up against him.