For some time now, the governor of Rivers State, Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi,
\nhas been in the news for all the wrong reasons. If he is not abusing or
\nmaking jest of the President of the Federal Republic and the First Lady,
\nhe is probably on a roadshow with the leaders of his new-found political
\nparty, the All Progressives Congress (APC) with brooms in hands sweeping
\naway in frenzy, perhaps, unwittingly their own shadows.
\nThe other day, Governor Amaechi was claiming that his name is the number
\none on the alleged list of enemy politicians that President Goodluck
\nJonathan is planning to eliminate with trained snipers, while in another
\nbreadth, he is being accused by the police of trying to assist a murder
\nsuspect, Chidi Lloyd, the majority leader in the Rivers State House of
\nAssembly, and the governor\u2019s handyman, to escape justice. Such is the
\ncomical low that governance has plunged in Rivers State.
\nSadly though, while Amaechi is fiddling, the people of his state are
\ngroaning under his abuse of power, lack of respect for the electorate and
\nutter irresponsibility. While Amaechi is too quick to point a finger of
\nguilt at lack of federal presence in in state, yet many wonder what the
\ngovernor is doing to make life easy for the people of his state especially
\nthose living in the capital city of Port Harcourt with the huge outlay of
\nresources available to him.
\nFor example, what ordinarily should be a ten-minute drive from Artillery
\nJunction to Mile 1 Park in Port Harcourt now takes a whole day to
\ncomplete. Thus an ordinary early morning school run in Port Harcourt city
\ntoday is now a whole day\u2019s job and the governor is only interested in
\nthrowing tantrums and making infantile allegations!
\nAlthough Amaechi has been one of the most vociferous critics of the
\nPresident and his former party, the ruling PDP as agents of impunity, yet
\nwhat confronts the public every day is Amaechi\u2019s intolerance to opposing
\nideas and his despotic disposition. This is the same governor who sacks a
\nduly elected local government council executive without due process; a
\ngovernor who has vowed not to respect a court decision that recognised his
\nstate\u2019s former party executives simply because he cannot control them; a
\ngovernor that dismisses school principals without hearing from them first;
\na governor who marches with thugs and his police orderlies to Rivers State
\nHouse of Assembly to do battle with a handful of legislators not loyal to
\nhim.
\nBut by far the Amaechi\u2019s greatest assault on democracy is his recent
\ntakeover and relocation of the Rivers House of Assembly. For those who do
\nnot know, the all-powerful governor of Rivers State has converted the
\nstate legislature to an annex of the state government house. Just a few
\ndays ago, the Sun Newspaper reported that the State House of Assembly,
\nsiting in Governor Amaechi\u2019s office, received and passed a budget of
\nN485.5 billion the same day. Just like that!
\nThough this may sound like a fiction in children\u2019s comic book, it happened
\nin an APC state that grandstands as epitome of democratic practices. Yet
\nthe trivialisation of democracy and the charade going on in Amaechi\u2019s
\nRivers ought to worry all genuine democrats-not just the PDP in Rivers
\nState. There are so many things fundamentally wrong with the impunity
\nthat Rotimi Amaechi is unleashing on his state.
\nFirst, in a democracy, of all the organs of government, the legislature is
\nthe one closest to the people in terms of representing the interest of the
\nelectorate. Beyond that, the legislature is the most democratic of all
\nthe arms of government, perhaps, due to the deliberative process through
\nwhich they arrive at decisions. It is therefore not surprising that the
\nmain law-making function in a democracy is assigned to the legislature.
\nOne of such laws that the legislature enacts is the appropriation act,
\nwhich the executive branch presents as a bill for the rigorous
\nconsiderations of the lawmakers. Given the importance of this Bill,
\nbefore it is passed into law, lawmakers must extensively cross-check what
\nis before them item by item in the interest of the people whose mandate
\nthey hold in trust. But when an Assembly receives a budget from a
\ngovernor and passes it into law minutes after as the Rivers Assembly has
\njust done, then democracy is in trouble. By the way, even the military
\nregimes of the past did better.
\nSecond, because it is a settled matter in political theory that the
\nexecutive branch is naturally inclined to arbitrariness, democracy evolved
\nthe principle of separation of powers, which allows each organ the
\nindependence in its area of jurisdiction. What is happening in Rivers
\nState with the relocation of the Rivers House of Assembly to the
\nGovernor\u2019s office makes a huge mockery of the independence of the
\nlegislature and consequently parodies democracy. The danger inherent in
\nthis development to democracy and the lives of the poor people of Rivers
\nState is grave enough. Already Governor Amaechi has shown the tyrant he
\nis but to now add the power of the legislature to his office promises hell
\nto the people of his state.
\nYes, the PDP executives in Rivers State may have one or two things to say
\nabout the matter of illegality in relocating the Rivers State House of
\nAssembly to the Government House, but the greater problem is in the
\ndenying of the citizens of some of the constituencies whose
\nrepresentatives in the House do not have access to or who feel very unsafe
\nin the Government House their rights. The fact that such citizens are shut
\nout, when the most important decision concerning their life chances this
\nyear, which the budget proposal represents, is unjust and antithetical to
\ndemocracy.
\nWhat is happening in Rivers State under Amaechi typifies the travails,
\nwhich democracy suffers in our system. A situation where members of the
\nstate assemblies are all in the pocket of the governor is as obscene as it
\nis dictatorial. Yet Amaechi is one of the governors who claim they
\ndefected from PDP to APC because their former party is undemocratic. If
\ndemocracy according to APC means the annihilation of the legislature and
\nthe enthronement of executive tyranny, then Nigerians must watch carefully
\nthose congregating under the aegis of APC. That the APC is even
\ncelebrating the shenanigans and charade going on in Rivers State, under
\nAmaechi, their celebrated catch, suggests that the party is preparing to
\nwage war on Nigerian democracy!
\nWest-Greene, a pro-democracy activist, wrote in from Port Harcourt.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
For some time now, the governor of Rivers State, Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi, has been in the news for all the wrong reasons. If he is not abusing or making jest…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5947,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21517","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles-opinions"],"yoast_head":"\n