Date Published: 02/12/10

AUTOCRACY IN RIVERS STATE By KorneBari Nwike

Rivers State one of Nigeria’s thirty six states was shocked three years ago when the Supreme Court ruled in a motion allowing Chibuike Amaechi a People’s Democratic Party (PDP) Governorship candidate to ascend leadership as Governor of Rivers State although he was not voted for in that years’ general election. The people did not revolt against the court decision because they were tired of bloodshed and militancy associated with his predecessors, Dr. Peter Odili, and Sir Celestine Omehia.  Although, Chuibuike Amaechi was inescapably a part of Dr. Peter Otunaya Odili’s administration that unravaged terror on Rivers State, the people still welcomed him with pomp and fanfare. He vowed to make a difference which he started strangely by rejecting the title of “Sir or chief “that precedes names and has become a nuisance among public office holders in Nigeria. His, was a semblance of a religious title “Rt.Honorable.” Little did Rivers State know that Rt. Hon. Amaechi was another politician in sheep’s clothing.  He soon turned democracy a “government of the people by the people, and for the people” into autocracy and now Rivers State has become a den of snakes. The antecedent practices of previous administration like corruption, racketeering and bloodletting also smell after him.

Hon. Chibuike Amaechi’s unilateral actions in Rivers State have left people talking behind closed doors whether his modus operandi is autocratic, fascist, or democratic. The people of Rivers State expected the self-proclaimed activist to study, modify, amend, and repeal laws that negates the development of the state. They expected their Chief executive officer to “weed out bad laws, strengthen weak ones and fine-tune good ones.” They expected electricity in their homes, manpower development, educational development, communication and transportation accessible among other things. Those within this school of thought are the most disappointed because Hon. Amaechi is tinkering with misplaced priorities.

First, his agenda is clannish. Upon ascension to the leadership of the state, without consultation with the representatives of the Rivers’ people in the State Assembly he started a fight with the Okrika people by threatening to demolish the shanty areas called “river front” part of which belongs to them. There was no negotiation with the Okrika people. The okrikan’s an arch rival of the Ikwerri people saw this as an affront. They headed to court and the project was stalled.

Second, the young governor through coercion is now embarking upon a massive rebuilding of the Ikwerri area of Port Harcourt tagged the “Greater Port-Harcourt project.” Rivers’ people are kept in the dark on this project even when it involves the people’s money. Did the Rivers State Assembly approved of this project? May be or may be not, because there are lots of twisting and breaking of hands in Rivers State. No what I mean? Money passes under the table in “Ghana must Go” sacks freely. According to the governor, 100 billion naira was budgeted for this project in 2009.Ironically Rivers State only saved about 104 billion naira the prior year 2008. Rivers’ people are at the moment pondering, based on this enormous cost why the project is not done in phases? Whether or not the transformation of Old Port Harcourt city is what the people want at this time? Why do we have to destroy a whole city causing internal refugee situation instead of building separate cities outside Port Harcourt like the Chinese. Governor Amaechi has suddenly closed his political senses because of clannish tendencies. It is not too late for the governor to be a listener because the Greater Port Harcourt project may be a political mishap.

On the Ogoni front, the governor has so terrorized the people that prominent Ogoni’s no longer feel secured to voice their disillusion with his rulership. They are now players who are either bought with hard cash, intimidated with arrest, or threatened with hired assassins. The situation is dicey and therefore Ogonis in government out of fear of reprisal or termination simply play along like members of a church choir. In April 2009, the Ogoni people heard through grapevine, Amaechi was surveying 700,000 hectare of land at Sogho for the relocation of military camp now situated at Port Harcourt. Sogho youths and chiefs rebelled and stopped him from encroaching on their land. He however vowed to relocate the military camp to the heartland of Ogoni. According to him, “It is only God that would stop him from relocating the military barracks from Ikwerri to Ogoniland.” His political scumbags in Ogoni like Magnus Abe (Secretary to the State Government), Barry Mpigi (Chairman, Tai), and Victor Giadum (Chairman, Gokana) helped him in his choice of Kpoopie. His agents are terrorizing the people of Deeyor (Gokana), Ue-Ken (Tai), Deken (Gokana) Yeghe (Gokana), Kaani II, and Bunu (Tai) that surrounds kpoopie. Governor Amaechi should not forget he needs the Ogoni people to win the next election in 2011. He has since forgetton the long cordial relationship that transpired between the Ikwerri and the Ogoni people even before 1967 when Rivers State was created by military fiat. Hon. Amaechi is pursuing a dangerous corporate agenda that may not augur well with his political career. Besides the Ogoni people are well aware that he has militarialized Ogoni area to appease his corporate masters.

History is such a good thing because from time to time we could refresh our thought with its lessons. Rt. Hon. Amaechi is a linguist and may have read about fascist leaders like Benito Mussolini, Alfredo Rocco of Italy, Nakano Seigo of Japan, and Adolf Hitler of Germany. He does not want to pursue clannish agenda to be labeled a fascist or an authoritarian. What he may not have realized is that he is pursing a right wing, fascist agenda. Let me leave him with the definition of fascism as propounded by Robert O. Parxon, a political scholar for him to decipher whether or not he falls within the category. “…. A mass based party of committed nationalist militants, working with uneasy effective collaboration with traditional elites, abandons democratic liberties and pursues with redemptive violence and without legal or ethical restraints goals of internal cleansing and eternal expansion.” Rt. Hon. Chibuike Amaechi has two choices, work with the Rivers State indigenes and their elected representatives in the state assembly as a democrat or rescind into history as an authoritarian, fascist leader. The result of the later may be catastrophic and so the Rivers people will like him to choose the former.

KorneBari Nwike , President, National Union of Ogoni Students’ USA, wrote this from the United States of America.2/09/2010.