Rivers State Governor Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi has disclosed that he incurred the wrath of President Goodluck Jonathan because he was seen to be exposing a lot of corrupt activities going on in government. In an interview to TheNEWS magazine, Gov. Amaechi also gave the impression that the President and his wife can never keep to their promises, recalling how they held several meetings with him begging him to deliver the state to Jonathan during the 2011 presidential election with the promise that they would never trouble him again, a promise they did not keep. Gov. Amaechi listed many instances where his actions infuriated President Jonathan and the First Lady, whom he described as a de facto President. According to Gov. Amaechi, one of the main reasons for the battle to bring him down is the desperate ambition of Dame Patience Jonathan to see herself and be addressed as the political lord of Rivers State, her home state, despite the fact that she is even not recognised by the constitution and is not occupying any elective office. He recalled a recent accident which has occurred in the hometown of the First Lady, Okrika. Dame Patience snatched the microphone from Gov. Amaechi reprimanded him for saying he would buy off some buildings around a school and demolish it so as to create enough space for extracurricular activities for the school. Governor Amaechi attributed the crisis to three things: The first was the attempt by the wife of the President to control the Rivers State government. I remember when female senators came to me after she met with them. She said to them: I am the highest ranking officer from Rivers State and I wonder why the Governor of Rivers State does not accord me that respect. I said in law, I dont see the office of the wife of the President being superior to that of the governor…The resistance is what you are seeing. During Jonathans campaigns for 2011, he said the President and his wife pleaded with him since he (Amaechi) wanted to be assured that if Jonathan emerged, there would not be a multiplicity of presidents where you have the wife manipulating power, everybody doing one thing or the other. I wanted to make sure that I and the Rivers people are fully protected. I wasnt convinced. Now, within the period, the President had called me and the wife and we sat together and made peace. There again, they promised that nobody would hurt me, nobody would do this or that. Thats why this is a bit difficult because there is nothing new that they can tell me that they did not tell me in 2011 and they did not keep to their promise. He said the meeting was just between him, the President and Mrs. Jonathan and he secured their promise to protect him, but we had hardly won the 2011 elections when the wife descended on me and the Rivers State Government. Basically, the only way you can survive is if you then wake up in the morning to say: Good morning, ma. My name is Rotimi Amaechi, governor of Rivers State. Do I greet this person or that person? If she says no, then I dont greet you. But if you need to run the office of the governor the way it is supposed to be run, then you would certainly have a disagreement with the wife of the President. It is about power and control. She appears to be somebody who loves power. The governor also said part of the problem was that the President took about 41 oil wells from Rivers and handed them to Abia and Bayelsa, the Presidents state. He also said the President was not comfortable with the fact that he (Amaechi) speaks his mind whenever he had the opportunity. For example, he said he had complained many times about the rising poverty and corruption among public office holders in the country to no avail even as the countrys economy is in bad shape. Another incident that pitched Amaechi against the President was that the former accused the World Bank, during an event abroad, of aiding Nigerias lamentable corruption. He also lamented the increasing activities of oil thieves, adding that attempts by his government to subdue the thieves have also been scuttled by the President because of the problem between them, thus making the country suffer the consequence. My colleague, the governor of Benue State, told me that teachers are on strike in his state because of salary. And you would see more in the next few months. The country is broke. The amount of money being stolen is enough to run this economy. They set aside 455,000 barrels per day for local refining. We dont refine in Nigeria. Crude is refined overseas, brought back to Nigeria and then we pay subsidy on it, he said.
Posted on: Mon, 11 Nov 2013 21:34:54 +0000
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