onathan, Amaechi in public show of affection In what appeared as a rapprochement, President Goodluck Jonathan and Rivers State Governor Rotimi Amaechi yesterday in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital shook hands and embraced each other. This came few days after bodyguards of the President reportedly prevented Amaechi from moving close to the former at a presidential dinner, in Abuja. As the President and the Governor greeted each other and exchanged banters, the Minister of State for Education, Nyeson Nwike, considered a political rival to Governor Amaechi, stood watching. The seeming drama took place at the Port Harcourt International Airport. Jonathan was on his way to Abuja from Bayelsa State where he commissioned a hospital and visited the federal university at his Otueke village. Before now, all has not been cordial between Jonathan and Amaechi. The rift between the President and the governor reached a head when Amaechi, despite opposition from some governors loyal to the Presidency won the Nigeria Governors, Forum election as chairman for another term. Plateau State governor, Jonah Jang, who contested the election with him and who was believed to have been backed by the Presidency, kicked after the election, saying he, and not Amaechi, actually won. Sources said the advancing rapprochement might be a fallout of some peace moves at a meeting of the National Economic Council, NEC, involving all the governors in Abuja on Thursday. The meeting was chaired by Vice-President Namadi Sambo. Also, frantic moves being made by the PDP leadership to resolve the festering crisis have been yielding some result, it was gathered. President Jonathan had arrived Port Harcourt International airport in a Presidential helicopter at about midday en route to Abuja from Bayelsa. Though he exchanged pleasantries with Amaechi and members of the Rivers State Executive Council, he walked past the factional PDP opposition group members in the state, which Wike is believed to be heading. When Jonathan alighted from the chopper, after shaking hands with Amaechi, the Managing Director of Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Dr. Chris Oboh, and a couple of others, he ignored the row of Wike’s loyalists who stood close to the helicopter. When told who they (Wike’s loyalists) were, the President still ignored them but moved to the line where Amaechi’s cabinet members were standing, waiting to receive him.  POST
Posted on: Sun, 30 Jun 2013 00:49:35 +0000
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