Guardian

BY taking on his party, the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in his headlong rush to be the chairman of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF), Rivers State Governor, Rotimi Amaechi may have lost faith in the admonition by the celebrated writer, Prof. Chinua Achebe, that it is only a drunk who challenges his personal god, which the Igbo people called chi to a wrestling bout.

Like a loner, Amaechi has since chosen to maintain a splendid isolation from his colleagues in the South-South geo-political zone. In open defiance of the order by the party not to contest the position, he stood and reportedly won, an action that has resulted in his suspension by the party, of which he is a foundation member way back in 1988.

When he took potshots at fellow Niger Deltan and the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Elder Godsday Orubebe early this year, it was quite obvious that he was on a collision course with the powers that be. While some lionized him for lashing out at Orubebe for non-performance, especially over the slow pace of work on the strategic East-West Road, others took the faceoff with a pinch of salt, reasoning that the main target was President Goodluck Jonathan. The shots fired in anger by the governor were actually diversionary, some swore.

Going by his antecedents, Amaechi comes across as a loner and dogged fighter, an anti-establishment man who will always stand on his feet no matter how hard and high the obstacle may be.   Remember he was once lucky when he took on the PDP establishment way back in 2007 and defeated then Governor Celestine Omehia, to become the governor of the oil rich state. From being a pariah whose candidacy developed k-leg and was avoided like the biblical plague, he suddenly became the number one citizen.

Charity, they say begins at home, but as NGF chairman, it is quite obvious that apart from Edo State Governor Adams Oshiomhole of the opposition Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), the other South-South governors of Delta, neighbouring Bayelsa, Akwa Ibom and Cross River all PDP members were never on the same page with Amaechi. He seems unfazed as he laboriously paddles his canoe.

Ironically, it was a fellow South-South governor, Godswill Akpabio of Akwa Ibom State, who ordinarily should have had fellow feelings for him that mobilised against him.

At the recent conclave of the South-South and South East governors in the Delta State, Amaechi was noticeably absent. While deputy Governor Tele Ikuru stood in for Amaechi, all the others were present.

Even with the presence of other political heavyweights like like chief Tony Anenih, the chairman of the Board of Trustees of the PDP and frontline Ijaw leader, Chief Edwin Kiagbodo Clark, the beleaguered Rivers’ governor still kept away from his colleagues.

At the meeting, the unmistakable odour of 2015, which Jonathan seems to be interested in was at the heart of the meeting, yet Amaechi kept his distance from the gathering of his tribesmen.

At a similar parley organised by Uduaghan in Asaba on Sunday, January 2011 to drum support for Jonathan shortly ahead of the April 2011 election, Amaechi was personally present as the going was still good.

With the main opposition parties merging into the All Progressives Congress (APC), the calculation is that Jonathan cannot afford to have issues at home. Unlike Amaechi, the case of Oshiomhole who also stayed away from the meeting was fully understandable, as his party is currently spearheading the merger talks.

Uduaghan seemed to have summed up the feelings of the South-South governors last Wednesday during the Democracy Day celebration, when he made a passionate appeal for the people of the zone to rally round Jonathan.

Uduaghan let it be known that as a son of the South-South, it is out of place for fellow Niger Deltans to attempt to pull Jonathan down instead of supporting his transformational agenda fully.

Uduaghan said: “Jonathan has done well. As a state government, we are giving him our maximum support to succeed. The politics of Nigeria is still very regional. It is a game of interests. We must struggle for the interests of Delta State and the Niger Delta. We should give him our maximum support. He is human. We should not be in the forefront of those criticizing him. Nobody from the region should be in the forefront of the campaign to pull down our son, the president. It is not right and should not be encouraged.”

Hard fact is that the embattled NGF chairman has not been able to carry along his fellow Niger Delta governors in his battle of wits with the Presidency.