Governor
of Rivers State, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi has opened a can of worms on the
frosty relationship between him, President Goodluck Jonathan and the
First Lady, Dame Patience Jonathan.
Amaechi, who is Chairman of the Nigeria Governors Forum, NGF, told
journalists at an interactive session in Port Harcourt, the Rivers
capital weekend, that while the First Lady wanted to rule the state by
proxy, her husband, President Jonathan, wanted to cripple the state
economically to the advantage of his home state, Bayelsa. But he refused
to allow both of them have their way, hence, the once rosy relationship
turned sour.
Mrs. Jonathan, like Amaechi is from Rivers State.
Bayelsa was also part of the old Rivers State.
The frosty relationship between the governor on one hand and the
president and his wife on the other hand is at the root of the present
political crisis in the oil rich state with the State House of Assembly
under lock and key following the polarization of the Assembly along the
line of pro and anti-Amaechi lawmakers.
The state Assembly, comprising of 31 members is unevenly divided with
six lawmakers purportedly encouraged by the presidency attempting to
hijack the legislative arm of government from the majority, who are
considered pro-Amaechi and are 25 in number.
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 platform of the Peoples
Democratic Party but defected along with four other governors to the All
Progressives Congress (APC) recently, also laid the blame for the
resurgence of militancy and kidnapping in the state at the doorstep of
the First Lady.
“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.
Amaechi added that his principled stand has earned him reproach from
the president’s wife, who, according to him, is bent on removing him
from office using federal 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 also accused President Jonathan of not helping the situationby trying to under-develop Rivers at the expense Bayelsa State.
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 as some of the perceived
ill-treatment the state got from Mr. Jonathan despite voting massively
for him in the 2011 presidential elections.
“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 the allegation that he was working against the administration of a fellow South-southerner.
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 also looked at the party he left and declared that PDP is fast drowning ahead of the 2015 elections.
According to him, more 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 also used the opportunity to debunk reports that he impregnated
Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka’s daughter and that his wife, Judith,
had run away from Government House, Port Harcourt, saying the rumour
was spread by his political detractors.
“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 run
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”, he asserted.
