I Can Go To War For Amaechi – Nwuke Hon Ogbonna Nwuke is not a happy man! In this interview with UCHENNA AWOM the member representing Etche/Omuma federal constituency in the House of Representatives bares his mind on wide range of issues from his stance on President Goodluck Jonathan’s re-election bid, intrigues in Rivers House of Assembly to his position on the new Peoples Democratic Party. He also exonerates Governor Amaechi of any wrong doing. Do you think President Jonathan has the right to run for a second term? It is the right of anybody to aspire to become president of Nigeria. That right is enshrined in our constitution and democratic precedents anywhere in the world allow it. But should President Jonathan run again? My answer would be no in the real sense if you ask me. I will give you my reasons. The question of who becomes President, especially against the background of an ongoing campaign by some persons to guarantee another term for the outgoing leader, has generated so much tension, so much acrimony and so much passion, such that the future of the country and what is likely to happen to our common unity are tied to it. Never have we been so badly divided and so vulnerable as a nation. And I am worried that due largely to the aspiration of one man, we are at the crossroads. In the northeast, the insurgency proclaimed by Boko Haram is spiralling out of control. countless number of people are being killed daily and there appears to be no solution despite the declaration of a state of emergency and the attempt by a group within the presidency to secure amnesty on behalf of the sect. In the Niger Delta, the spate of oil theft has reached frightening levels, with the Federal Government under the watch of our son unable to arrest the drift. All of these are happening under the President’s watch and the natural question to ask would be, what solutions will he proffer to these problems that have been staring him in the face should he become a second tenure president? Besides, whether we like it or not, power has been shared in this country on the basis of some form of power rotation. And we know how power came to lie in the hand of the incumbent president. It would seem to me that inspite of our deep appreciation of this factor, there are people who are encouraging this president to swim against the tide and endanger the unity of this great country. If the country says Jonathan should run, I will not be against that, but I am thinking our constitution is very clear that one does two tenures of eight years. My fear is that the president is already doing four years now. He will add the remaining two years that he served after Yar ‘Asia’s death to it and if he does another four years, he will be doing more than the prescribed limit that our constitution allows. As a member of the New Peoples Democratic Party, what are your grievances? The grievances are many. The fact that there are interferences from the centre in the affairs of my state and the party; the fact that we appear to suppress opinion and opposing views within the PDP; and the fact that under the guise of maintaining discipline, we are shutting the door in the face of change and in the face of attempts to deepen democracy within our party. So, you can understand the concern of many of us who want to see a more liberal party, who want to see our party men adapt to better civilized ways of playing the game, and who think that in playing the game we should be more accommodating of each other. There is equally the fact that there was apparently a gentleman’s agreement that is being thrown overboard, which is the commitment to do one tenure. Governor Rotimi Amaechi had said the President did not make such a commitment… They are our leaders and we listen to them. But there is a general feeling that there were attempts at reaching some basic understanding. One thing is basic in politics: there may be no signed document, but commitments could have been made. I imagine that there was a commitment. The commitment could be oral or written. I was not part of that meeting. But as a Nigerian, I just look at the future of this great country which I consider bright. I imagine that the interest of an individual should not be such that it can jeopardize the interest of all. Do you think the way Gov Amaechi is going in pursuit of getting back the oil wealth of Rivers state is proper? Amaechi is a democrat. These issues have been placed at the doorpost of the courts. We went to court against Akwa Ibom state when our oil wells were wrongfully and brazenly ceded to that state. We have also gone to court in every area where there have been problems of this nature. So I don’t know why the issue is being misunderstood; except as a people, we don’t believe in the rule of law. The judiciary remains the last hope of the common man. Rather than engage in a shouting match with the president, what we have done is to go to court. Just like the way they took our party exco through the backdoor, and we also went to court. Who is your party chairman in River state? He is Ake until the court process says no. As very law-abiding persons, we did not interfere with the takeover of the party apparatus in the state. We went to court to say that we were not satisfied with the judgement of the court below. That is where we are. There will be a ruling at the end of the day. If the court says Obuah is the person, we shall abide by it. Governor Amaechi is a product of the court, and today the same court that brought him as governor has declared somebody as the state chairman of the party, yet Amaechi does not want to abide by it. How do you interpret it? The two cases may look similar, but they are different. Amaechi ran in the primaries of the party in Rivers State until the k-leg saga occurred. It is not the same as the Obuah case. Courts are involved in this matter, but let us look at the history behind it. Nobody faulted the fact that Amaechi ran for the primaries; nobody has said that Amaechi did not win the primaries. When Amaechi went to court to ensure that his right as winner of the primaries was not taken away, the court in its wisdom established that he was the elected candidate of the PDP whose name was placed on the ballot by INEC. As you will probably note, those who were behind the plot yesterday and who are part of it today, were the very forces at the PDP that wanted to strangulate the democratic culture of the party. I was in the congress, and everybody knows the truth that Felix Obuah was never on the ballot in that state congress. It was not even the case of somebody who has been cheated in an election. He was not there. He came from no where. There is the issue of the dissolution of Obi Akpor local government area in Rivers state. The other faction, led by Nyesom Wike, is saying that Governor Amaechi has a hand in that dissolution. The constitution says in section 8 that it is the responsibility of the state house of assembly to oversee the operations of councils. When you are under investigation for fraud, international best practices insist you need to step aside. The chairman of Okirika local government council was accused of fraud. He was suspended. He returned to office after it became clear that the allegations against him could not be substantiated. So, what has happened at Obio/Akpor shouldn’t be blown out of proportion. There were petitions against the way the operatives there were carrying on and the Rivers State House of Assembly in its wisdom suspended all connected to the alleged mismanagement of taxpayers’ money. We should wait to determine if the allegations against him were not true. I do know that what was handed out was suspension, not a termination of the life of the council. It was a case of investigation of the matter. Why would a mere investigation generate so much tension? Are there people who are above the law and hiding some thing? Are there people who are using the councils for other things? Are there people who are afraid that if the investigation should continue, they will be exposed? There was nothing irregular in the legislature doing what was needful at the time. The time wasted in going back and forth would have been spent on investigations. If there was no merit in that accusation, the council chairman Timothy would return to his office. I am not saying that he is corrupt, but if there were petitions against him, and the legislature suspended him to pave way for investigations, it should not generate tension. Will you advise the state assembly and Gov Amaechi to reinstate Timothy and members of his council as a way of finding solutions to the crises in the state? We need to establish whether or not there were acts of corruption in the council. If I were Timothy, I would solicit the investigation to clear my name forever. Atiku Abubakar was severally investigated. At the end of the day, he was vindicated. There is some necessity in getting to the root of this matter in the interest of all the sides. It is not a question of looking for peace to the detriment of the truth. There are other issues in the state: the fact that a policeman is operating as a governor; the fact that law enforcement officials now go around breaking up gatherings in the state; our people can longer gather in one place, and nobody is saying anything even when some people are going around launching GDI uninhibited. I have earlier drawn attention to the take over of our oil wells. Whatever Amaechi has done or has not done cannot encourage anybody to take the oil wealth of the state. It is an effort to stop him from completing the projects that he has started by removing the revenue of the state. Can somebody from Bayelsa, a state carved from Rivers, allow his tenure to be used to achieve this end? I don’t know why this is happening. Leadership.
Posted on: Sun, 20 Oct 2013 21:33:19 +0000
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