Rivers: Those That Would Abandon Amaechi

Rivers State Governor, Rt. Hon Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi

Governor Chibuike Amaechi of Rivers State was in his unafraid and freehand way of making comments recently. He said that President Goodluck Jonathan had abandoned Rivers State, development-wise. This was contained in an interview he granted a national daily.

Anyone who was not following Amaechi and the way he presents issues of such import might think that he was afraid or confused. But in earnest, he was not. As someone in Rivers State who has contributed his quota from afar for the government of Amaechi from 2007 when he was in court to reclaim his mandate (being that public opinion is part of government), I can confidently say that Jonathan has abandoned Rivers State today, likewise Amaechi.

My real fear is not that Amaechi has said that Jonathan has abandoned Rivers State, but those that work with Amaechi or are close to him that would abandon him very soon. Many have! The ones that are still around him could be said are just watching their wristwatches. You may call them sheep in wolf's clothing or whatever name.

From an observer's calculation, this set of people that would abandon Amaechi are those who would stop or end at nothing in making sure that they continue to make more money in his government to the detriment of a host of others who have in one way or the other been fans or faraway well-wishers and supporters of the governor. They have been sidelined and marooned to nothingness.

But for such people's love for the governor, they recoiled to their shelves and refused to vent their anger on the pages of the newspapers like many do. Needless to mention names, except condition permits. The question Amaechi should be asking himself today is how his once overwhelming popularity came to a sudden halt.

The popularity he enjoys today is on the off-putting that posterity would think that there was a governor of Rivers State called Amaechi who was always set for every kind of fight; they would not know that the wars that the governor was fighting were those he insignificantly knew were created for him by those who would abandon him. The dreadful news of militancy that once characterised the state is even a small thing to the disaster that sycophants have caused Amaechi Rivers State.

Around Amaechi are people one could call spoilers within. They are sharks that swallow both the small and big for the hunger of wealth. They make the government of Amaechi to sound mingy before the general public even though that Amaechi radiates of discoloration to wealth circulation, whereas they pocket whatever that was meant for those they should have lengthened their hands to.

They betray trust and hang their positions as the real 'His Excellencies'. They would prefer to build choice houses and acquire state-of-the-arts property than settle some of the customers of theirs they owed. From Lagos to Abuja, they now own enviable houses and property, whereas Amaechi is fighting a fight he was not certain the direction of the compass and how it would end.

Amaechi's once magnanimous forbearance in making sure that peace was returned in the state suddenly disappeared. This was a man who refused making an offer that could endanger Nigeria, to the militants, now referred to as ex-militants. In his face, those that would abandon him after would tarnish the image of those that Amaechi might want to assist for the lucre they enjoy in the government and as well preach the obverse to tarnish his image at back.

We have seen this from people of Rivers State origin residing in Abuja. In the real sense, Amaechi was never against Mr. President, but those who would abandon him could be fingered as the real source of his problems today. Amaechi was a man who once regarded militancy as an irresponsible move against the Federal Government of Nigeria, but didn't hide his voice for a true agitation for the emancipation of the Niger Delta region in Nigeria, where criminality would be sent on errand.

I've commented at a different time that Amaechi saw militancy as an act that was targeted against the Federal Government and as a bad policy that was capable of establishing lingering repercussion in the whole country if not checked with fierce measure. The fact was that he ignored to extend any olive garden to the people he described as 'criminals'. He refused to abide by their pressure so that posterity does not, in any form of future agitation, say 'unless you carry arms and use force, you would not be heard'.

The real turmoil around Amaechi today is that those he trusted are the ones deceiving him without him knowing that they are greedy for power; hence they make the government to look like one that is unimaginable. They have localised the governor's government, whereas Amaechi was a man who had made it his responsibility to take care of development in Rivers State.

But this could be said is no more within the previous years, due to fisticuffs here and there around him. They have made him to be spending more time thinking of the next strategy of the federal government against him than he would think about the progress of Rivers State or think about some unsung residents who had many times spread their backs for traducers of his government to match on instead of match on Amaechi's.

The responsibility the government thinks it has today is its obvious political fight with the presidency than making sure that it sees to the welfare of all the citizens of the Federal Republic of Nigeria dwelling in the state. Many of the places in the state are today glorified abyss occasioned by unsustainably development in those areas. Oyigbo LGAs is one abandoned abyss in Rivers State. Go to the place and imagine a war-torn environment!

Without mincing words, Amaechi has maintained his government by not allowing anything dumpy of the many brews he had encountered in the state seed for anarchy. But what is anarchy if not for the pauperisation of the led. And many of those around him are not helping matters for him in this stead. His media aides may be gluttons, as journalists in the state complain against them a lot. Amaechi should check if his media aides are like an over-fed baby elephant that has wasted a lot of weight for reasoning. More details, later.

Odimegwu Onwumere is Coordinator, Concerned Non-Indigenes in Rivers State (CONIRIV). Mobile: +2348032552855. Email: [email protected]