{"id":22114,"date":"2014-01-29T21:00:25","date_gmt":"2014-01-29T20:00:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/?p=22114"},"modified":"2014-01-29T21:00:25","modified_gmt":"2014-01-29T20:00:25","slug":"save-rotimi-amaechi-not-rivers-people","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/articles-opinions\/save-rotimi-amaechi-not-rivers-people\/","title":{"rendered":"Save Rotimi Amaechi, not Rivers people&#8230;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><em>By Godwin Sogolo<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>There is an African adage which says that it is the fly that refuses to<br \/>\nheed advice that follows the corpse into the grave. Before the APC rally<br \/>\nthat took place in Ogoniland on Saturday, 25th January, 2014, elders from<br \/>\nfour Local Government Areas, under the aegis of the Concerned Ogoni Elders<br \/>\nForum, had advised Rivers State Governor Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, to<br \/>\ncancel the planned rally. The advice fell on deaf ears.<\/p>\n<p>But, when eventually the Governor had the opportunity of addressing his<br \/>\nsupporters, his message to them was simply that he had insisted on<br \/>\nattending the rally to tell them that they: must not run away from<br \/>\nviolence; should defend and protect themselves, and must be prepared for<br \/>\nmore violence as long as the Commissioner of Police, Joseph Mbu, remains<br \/>\nin Rivers state. Ironically, Amaechi was speaking at the rally under the<br \/>\nheavy protection of well-armed policemen, deployed by CP Mbu.<\/p>\n<p>If the Save Rivers Movement, the organizers of the rally, were genuinely<br \/>\ncommitted to saving anybody, that person should be Amaechi himself. They<br \/>\nmust save Amaechi first from his own death-wish and then from all those<br \/>\ngoading him into self-destruction. How the Governor got himself to his<br \/>\nnow pathetic psychological disposition, is difficult to explain, except<br \/>\nthat it calls to mind the classical quote from Greek literature that \u201cthey<br \/>\nwhom the gods wish to destroy they first make mad.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Those who have pushed Amaechi to the precipice and who are now urging him<br \/>\nto fight on and die for a non-existent cause are mainly strangers to his<br \/>\nlife, politically and socially. What, for instance, could have brought<br \/>\nAmaechi and Sam Nda-Isaiah, publisher of Leadership newspaper, together?<br \/>\nYet, it was this total stranger who devoted a section of his weekly column<br \/>\nto praising Amaechi for having the courage to tell the people of River<br \/>\nState \u201cnot to run away in the face of violence\u201d but be prepared to bite<br \/>\nthe bullet that might come from \u201ca Commissioner of Police sent to the<br \/>\nstate by the president to create instability\u201d (Leadership of 27 January,<br \/>\n2014, back page). Nda-Isaiah called on Rivers people to heed the warning<br \/>\nof their leader that \u201cthere will be more violence in Rivers State as long<br \/>\nas the commissioner of police, Mbu Joseph, remains there.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Casting one\u2019s mind back to the PDP\u2019s Special Convention of August 2013,<br \/>\nwhen some political leaders walked out, Governor Amaechi was very much in<br \/>\nthe mix of strange bedfellows. He looked confused and harassed, and we<br \/>\nknew immediately that something had snapped. Since then, his condition has<br \/>\ndeteriorated, either when welcoming APC leaders to Rivers State or reading<br \/>\nout communiqu\u00e9s of his own faction of the Governors Forum or merely<br \/>\nstanding in solidarity with his newly found friends, such as Nasir<br \/>\nel-Rufai and Lai Mohammed. Today, Amaechi does nothing but sing war songs,<br \/>\nindulge in hate-mongering and throw missiles at the Federal Government,<br \/>\nPresident Jonathan, the First Lady, his own people who happen to be PDP<br \/>\nsupporters and the Police, all of whom he accuses of planning to destroy<br \/>\nthe people of River State. He was friend to these people not long ago.<\/p>\n<p>Amaechi\u2019s case is now beyond political rascality. What has become certain<br \/>\nis that in his misadventure, it is Rivers State that is suffering. It is<br \/>\nthe people of that State that are being psychologically tortured in this<br \/>\nneedless war. What benefits does the average Rivers man, woman or youth<br \/>\nderive from the threat by the APC to shutdown the Federal government?<br \/>\nAbsolute nothing! Yet, Governor Amaechi is excited by this prospect<br \/>\nbecause he has nothing to lose!<\/p>\n<p>The people of Rivers State have a collective responsibility to protect<br \/>\nthemselves from being drawn into a war that is of no concern to them. How<br \/>\ncome that suddenly, Muhammadu Buhari, Bola Tinubu, Bisi Akande, Lai<br \/>\nBalogun, El-Rufai and others, now love the people of Rivers State more<br \/>\nthan they love themselves? Why are they prepared to destroy the Federal<br \/>\nGovernment in order to save Rivers people? Only these men can explain how,<br \/>\nexactly, the problems of Rivers State have become the greatest challenges<br \/>\nfacing the Nigerian state. Be extremely careful when a stranger comes to<br \/>\nyour house to declare that he loves you and your family more than he loves<br \/>\nhimself.<\/p>\n<p>Outside Rivers State, Nigerians have a responsibility to save Governor<br \/>\nAmaechi from himself. In his current state of mind, the Governor has lost<br \/>\ncontrol and appears to have lost touch with reality. If Amaechi were not a<br \/>\ngovernor and he displayed the kind of character, conduct and utterances<br \/>\nthat we have observed recently on a daily basis, he would have been<br \/>\ntreated differently. The Save Rivers Movement must retool its strategies<br \/>\nand save Governor Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, first, before doing anything<br \/>\nelse.<\/p>\n<p>Sogolo is a Professor of Philosophy and Public Policy Analyst.<\/p>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Related Posts generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Godwin Sogolo There is an African adage which says that it is the fly that refuses to heed advice that follows the corpse into the grave. Before the APC&hellip;<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on wp_trim_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on wp_trim_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Related Posts generic via filter on wp_trim_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21825,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22114","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles-opinions"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Save Rotimi Amaechi, not Rivers people... - Pointblank News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/articles-opinions\/save-rotimi-amaechi-not-rivers-people\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Save Rotimi Amaechi, not Rivers people... - Pointblank News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Godwin Sogolo There is an African adage which says that it is the fly that refuses to heed advice that follows the corpse into the grave. 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