RIVERS State Governor, Mr. Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi stands out as one of the state governors who promote reading culture in the country. However, becoming the centre of the buzz, nay whirlwind of the NGF commotion, questions his power of comprehension. Some analysts have tried to fathom why Amaechi did not remember Chinua Achebe’s wisecrack that ‘those whose palm kernels are cracked by a benevolent Chi should not forget to be humble.’ And being a Christian, the Rivers State strong man ought to reflect and note that the scriptural promise that faithful believers ‘should know more than their teachers,’ is a blessing that carries with it a great burden! Yet as a politician whose metamorphosis runs from being made a Speaker of the State House of Assembly, through a miraculous restitution to a governorship, to the national turf as major player via the NGF, Amaechi ought to be well versed in the Nigerian political mischief dictum that ‘if you Tarka me, I Dabor you’.

Still as a graduate of present day Nigeria University system, His Excellency should not have forgotten that the nation’s political party system simulates a campus cult, where ‘odas is odas’. And as a lawyer, Amaechi should know that when the Nigeria Constitution excludes courts from prying into the internal business of political parties, that amounts to an ouster clause of sorts.

Putting behind the moderating influence of the above scenarios, Governor Amaechi insisted on re-contesting the post of NGF chairman, even against the designs of his immediate constituency, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP). And having taken the plunge to make a political statement and recreate history, PDP, like the Octopus, has fought back; stinging the Governor with politically life- threatening venom. To every discerning observer of the unfolding power play between the Rivers State helmsman and the PDP, (read the presidency), the current travails of the governor was a showdown waiting to happen. First, emboldened by his exalted position as the number one governor in the country, by virtue of his chairmanship of the NGF, Amaechi used the contest for some oil wells between his state and the home state of President Goodluck Jonathan, Bayelsa, to parody the first citizen.

Then there was the (in)famous altercation between the NGF chairman and wife of Mr. President, Dame Patience Jonathan over the former’s demolition of Okrika waterfront, (Her Excellency’s community). But if those could be excused as domestic affairs mutual to the frontline Niger Delta political actors, the issues surrounding the establishment and management of the Sovereign Wealth Fund (SWF) betrayed Amaechi’s acts of ‘rebellion’ to the thought stream of his party, PDP.

May be too, the governor disdains the news media. If not, he should have heeded British Broadcasting Corporation’s (BBC’s) demand on activists and public intellectuals to speak “your truth quietly.” It is still open to conjecture, whether his ascendance to the position of NGF chairman opened the Rivers State chief executive to the ‘forbidden fruit’ of Southwest opposition politics, such that he held no scruples talking ‘his truth’ to power (PDP). Hence, despising the implications of his actions and utterances, Amaechi continued his activism replete with Southwest ideology.

In all these (rascality?), it was evident that the chairman of NGF drew inspiration from the National Assembly politics, especially the strategy that threw up Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, as Speaker of the House of Representatives. Standing on the shoulders of members of Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) and a few ‘rebellious’ PDP legislators-elect, with a sprinkling of their colleagues from the All Nigeria People’s Party, (ANPP) Tambuwal emerged Speaker at the expense of the PDP anointed candidate, Mojisola Adeola- Akande.

Amaechi, by his actions on the chair of the NGF, therefore seem to relish the way Tambuwal and his supporters rubbished further the PDP power sharing arrangement a la zoning. It does not take rocket science to note that that development put the Jonathan’s presidency on the canvass of political weakness!

Enter the APC!

The mobilisation of some political parties to forge a merger, to ostensibly supplant PDP and Jonathan’s presidency, had some impact on the Amaechi-Presidency face-off. Feeling that they were shortchanged by the death of late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, not long after President Jonathan mounted the saddle as President, northern politicians in PDP began fresh moves to assert their right to return of the presidency to their zone. As the subtle campaign gathered momentum amidst fears that Jonathan might most likely seek a second term mandate, Amaechi presented himself as an ally of the North. Sooner than later, permutations linking him as possible Vice Presidential material gained currency. Unconfirmed reports said the Rivers State governor once approached Vice President Namadi Sambo with the suggestion that if he decides to run for the 2015 presidency, he should count on his (Amaechi’s) tacit and financial support. Whether Sambo passed the information to his principal is neither here nor there, but before long, Amaechi’s excesses laid credence to his pernicious propaganda against Jonathan’s second term ambition. It was against this background that words started making rounds that Amaechi and other dissident PDP governors, alongside Speaker Tambuwal had finalized plans to move en masse into the inchoate All Progressives Congress, (APC). The warp and woof surrounding the APC amalgamation threw up new political thinking within the PDP. Efforts were made to moderate Amaechi’s tough stance against the Presidency. A nocturnal visit by the troika of Chief Tony Anenih, Alahaji Bamanga Tukur, the PDP Board of Trustees, national chairman and Prof. Jerry Gana, to Amaechi at Rivers State Governor’s Lodge failed to wean the governor away from his opposition to whatever Jonathan stands for.

It became evident that the northern governors seem to understand the scriptural saying that, ‘one’s enemy should be those of his household’ and saw in Amaechi a good source of distraction for Jonathan. And to heighten the show of political wickedness, PDP went to the same Niger Delta to select a chairman for the newly formed PDP Governor’s Forum to take the fight back to the NGF chairman. Hence, Amaechi saw the NGF election as a golden opportunity to perfect the Tambuwal strategy, just as some PDP governors from the North gave him the necessary support to shame Jonathan.

What is yet to dawn on Amaechi and his group is that vilified as he is, Nigerians still see Jonathan as a civil President and not a bully. Not even the cloud surrounding the grounding of Amaechi’s (Rivers State’s) aircraft diminishes that. On the other hand, the Rivers State governor may as yet, fully understand his public perception as a man desperate for power for its selfish, rather than group interest. Amaechi, by losing sight of the geo-ethnic coloration of the power play has made things easy for his traducers. For instance, many now see his stand against the declaration of state of emergency as clear evidence that he had long lost interest in the progress or public approbation of PDP. How can the North not laugh away their joke that after all, Niger Delta cannot play as a team or handle power? “Sick as he was, did any northern governor show brazen interest to upstage Yar’Adua,” they assert.

Relishing his ‘victory’ after the recent NGF election, Amaechi showed off his ‘conquest’ by metaphorically driving himself, in a gesture suggesting that, “I am back on the driving wheel and in charge.” But his suspension from the PDP, which some insiders say is to pave way for full investigation into the governor’s many instances of anti-party activities is PDP’s way of telling him that, “we own the road, where is your driver’s license?”

Suddenly, the governor has become a king without a “kingdom”. His vocal lieutenants must have seen the futility of their braggadocio.

Back in the Alhaji Shehu Shagari era, the Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN) threatened fire and brimstone should Abdurahman Shugaba be deported. The gentle Shagari went ahead and deported Shugaba to Chad.

As 2015 turns the corner, more intrigues will certainly play out. But could Amaechi actualize his APC dreams or fight to retain his membership of the PDP? The choices are grim and such as only him can make!