After months of bitter fighting and political intrigues, it seems that President Goodluck Jonathan and the Rivers State Governor, Rotimi Amaechi are beginning to put the previous disagreements behind them and make peace.
This was evident yesterday at the Port Harcourt International Airport, Omagwa, when President Jonathan landed in a military helicopter en route Abuja from his home state of Bayelsa as he embraced Amaechi and the members of his cabinet who were at the airport to receive him according to protocol.
He also ignored the members of the faction of the state chapter of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) led by the Minister of State for Education, Nyesom Wike, who was also Amaechi’s Chief of Staff in his first term.
Wike was Amaechi’s nominee to the Federal Executive Council when the going was good but, shortly after his appointment as minister, Wike fell out with Amaechi and has since pitched his tent with Aso Rock.
As the President alighted from the chopper, he shook hands with Amaechi, the Managing Director of the Niger Delta Development Commission(NDDC), Dr. Chris Oboh; and a couple of others but ignored the roll of Wike’s loyalists who stood close to the aircraft.
When told who Wike’s loyalists are, the President completely ignored and avoided them, but moved to the line where Amaechi’s exco members were standing, waiting to greet him. The President and Amaechi could be seen talking to each other with Amaechi pointing towards the direction of his council members. Wike, who was also at the airport, was seen frantically trailing behind them.
After Jonathan boarded the presidential jet, Wike and members of his group looked perplexed and dejected.
The minister had mobilised his loyalists who consist mainly of militants and the court-installed PDP state executive to the airport to welcome the president. One of them was heard saying, “It’s like we have lost out o!. Why have they been lying to us that Mr. President is with us? This has shown clearly that they have been lying to us.”
Meanwhile, the people of Ogoniland have expressed concern over the recent statement credited to Wike, as well as the PDP state chairman in Rivers State, Felix Obuah, claiming that the era of zoning in Rivers’ politics is gone for good.
Obuah made the declaration recently at a public function at Elele in Ikwere Local Government Area (LGA) of the state that the party’s executive council would no more honor any form of zoning in the forthcoming 2015 general elections with a particular reference to the governorship.
But the Ogonis have viewed the statement as a direct affront to their political dream of having a shot at the governorship position in 2015. They feel that, as the state chairman of the party, Obuah should be neutral on party affairs.
The vexation of the Ogonis is premised on the fact that, as the second largest ethnic group in the state, “we have never gone beyond the Office of the Secretary to the State Government (SSG), which Magnus Abe occupied during Governor Rotimi Amaechi’s first term in office,” lamented Tanee Bisong, a youth leader in Ogoni.
Tanee disclosed that the political “rascality” of both Wike and Obuah was becoming unbearable to the Rivers people, adding that the governorship of Ogoni in 2015 “will never be negotiated”.
Also, the President of KAGOTE, a Pan Ogoni Elites Organisation, Justice Peter Akere, vowed that the people of Rivers South-East Senatorial District would resist attempts to deny them the governorship seat of Rivers State in 2015.
In what political observers consider as declaration of his ambition to govern Rivers State in 2015, Wike was quoted as saying: “Amaechi is from Ikwerre North, while he is from Ikwerre South and constitutionally qualified to contest”.
But Justice Akere described the statements as “unfortunate and amounts to greed,” emphasising that Wike was at the vanguard of calls for a Rivers East governor in 2007.
“We are all Rivers people. We have contributed our quotas; Rivers West presented Odili, East gave us Amaechi, the South East must be allowed to produce the next governor,” the retired Justice cried out.
Akere, who was also Chairman of the old Bori Local Government Area, disclosed that the people of Rivers South East are not slaves to the other senatorial districts, warning that fairness, justice and brotherhood should be allowed to prevail in political calculations.
However, the former President of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP), Ledum Mitee, has differed slightly, saying that Nigerians should go beyond using the yardstick of where a person comes from to elect them to offices of responsibility. Rather, he added, competence of the person should be given focus.
His words: “Where you come from should not be an issue in electing a public officer. We should all strive for good governance. Nigerians need the basic things of life like good roads, standard schools, quality healthcare system and food on their table. That is good government.