Without Amaechi, Jonathan’ll win 2015 election convincingly – Obuah Felix Obuah was declared chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Rivers State on Monday, April 15, by Justice Ishaq Bello, at an Abuja High Court. In this media interview with My Political Arena, Obuah spoke on the genesis of the crisis in the state PDP; why Governor Rotimi Amaechi refused to recognise him; the suspension of the governor and 27 members of the state House of Assembly from the party; the failure of series of reconciliatory efforts, and Amaechi’s unwillingness to support President Goodluck Jonathan’s second term bid. Excerpts: In May, you set up four committees, one of which was the Reconciliation Committee, led by Senator Adewari Pepple. What is the outcome of the committee’s effort? The reconciliation committee has turned out to be one of the landmarks of our executive. Many aggrieved members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Rivers State have come back to it. The immediate past governor of the state, Dr. Peter Odili, has come back to the party. Two former Deputy Speakers of the House of Representatives, Prince Chibudum Nwuche and Chief Austin Opara, have come back and are happily participating in the affairs of our party. Nwuche is currently the acting National Deputy Chairman of the PDP. Former senators and members of the House of Representatives; former lawmakers in the Rivers State House of Assembly; former local government chairmen; party chieftains and, most especially founding fathers of the PDP in Rivers State, who Governor Amaechi excluded from the party, have been pacified and reconciled and are participating fully in the affairs of the party. Chief Sergeant Awuse, a formidable grassroots mobiliser and leader, has also come back to the party. Former politicians who were elected on the platform of the PDP into national and state offices have also come back to the party. Most of our members were aggrieved and left the party because Governor Amaechi, excluded them from the party and his government. Amaechi became the governor of the state with the collective efforts of our committed party members, most of who he excluded from formal party affairs. Let me be frank with you, no one becomes a governor without the support of his party or the party structure. Those who really worked for Amaechi’s election as governor, in his first or second tenure, have largely been excluded from the party and his government. Many active members left the PDP because they were uncomfortable with Governor Amaechi’s domineering style of leadership. A good politician does not throw away the ladder with which he climbed to power. To many party members, Amaechi is running an exclusive government. The media may not know this: Governor Amaechi does not believe in due process. He believes in the imposition of candidates on party offices. He wants to always have his way, no matter the views, opinion or feelings of other influential party members. Most of those flocking around him now don’t know how we secured his first or second term as governor. Do you mean the reconciliation committee set up by the sacked Godspower Ake’s executive didn’t succeed in getting aggrieved party members to come back to the party? I don’t want to talk about Ake’s executive because whatever he did is illegal in the eyes of the law. How can someone who didn’t contest an election be imposed on party members as the state chairman of the party? He merely set up a committee to give the impression that they were keen on appeasing those who Governor Amaechi had excluded from the party by imposing a handful of selected people on it. Amaechi had used Ake and his fellow officers in his former executive to hijack the Rivers State PDP. You don’t run a party by hijacking the executive. Ake’s so-called reconciliation committee didn’t reconcile anyone because it was not interested in bringing back party members that were aggrieved. Ake is one of those Governor Amaechi used to hijack the PDP in Rivers State from the stakeholders. Therefore, Ake had no locus to reconcile aggrieved party members. In any case, Amaechi is indifferent to the feelings of those he had deliberately excluded from the state PDP. Come to think of it: How many founding fathers of the PDP in Rivers State are in Governor Amaechi’s camp today? How many prominent PDP members in the state are in support of Amaechi’s style of leadership? If his actions are truly popular, why then does he need people to pay him solidarity visits? Why has Governor Amaechi made it compulsory for all local government chairmen to lead a delegation of people from their local government to pay him solidarity visits? If his actions are popular with the people, why is he seeking the assistance of the human rights community to help shore up the democratic credentials of his government? Are you not aware that Governor Amaechi sought the assistance of human rights activists based in Lagos, to come and organise a solidarity rally in Port Harcourt? Are you not aware that four governors came from the North to pay Governor Amaechi a solidarity visit at the Government House, Port Harcourt? Are you also not aware that eight governors also came on another round of solidarity visit to Amaechi at the Government House, Port Harcourt? What is wrong in paying state governor solidarity visits? Apart from Governor Amaechi, is there any state governor in Nigeria, as we speak, receiving solidarity visits for antagonising his party or President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan? So, why is Amaechi’s different? A governor that is working does not need a solidarity visit from anyone or groups to shore up his popularity profile. The truth must be said: no formidable grassroots political leader in Rivers State is supporting Governor Amaechi. Perhaps, a few band of politicians who are benefitting from his government do. Governor Amaechi should use our collective resources to develop the state rather than host solidarity visits that will not impact on the human capital development of the state. Are you not bothered that the Ake-led executive continues to refer to you as a factional chairman of the Rivers State chapter of the PDP? Those who call me a factional chairman of the PDP in Rivers State are doing so out of malice. What else can they do? A court of competent jurisdiction in Abuja declared that I am the authentic chairman of the Rivers State Chapter of the PDP. Until a superior court of justice gives a contrary judgment, I remain the only legally recognised chairman of the party in the state. In 2007, when the Supreme Court declared that Amaechi should be sworn in as the governor of Rivers State, even when he did not contest the governorship election as the candidate of the PDP, nobody in state or the entire country, as far as I can recall, referred to Amaechi as a factional governor. We all closed our ranks to support him. So, why is my victory at the court being treated differently by Governor Amaechi and all those he has empowered by virtue of his is very proud of his electoral victories at the courts. So, why is Governor Amaechi basking in the glory of his judicial victories, but yet, vindictive towards the judicial victory of his fellow party man? Why do Amaechi and his cohorts feel that the judicial victories against them in court of competent jurisdiction should be trivialised? Governor Amaechi has gone to court to stop the Performance Evaluation Committee that we set up from evaluating the performance of his government. He wants the court to stop us from evaluating his commissioners and political appointees in his government. We in the PDP are surprised because Amaechi has often claimed that he is running an accountable and transparent government. None of the human rights activists who claimed to be championing the institutionalisation of democracy has seen anything wrong with Amaechi’s refusal to take the opportunity given to him by our party executive in Rivers State, to give account of his stewardship to the electorate whose interest he claims to champion. What is wrong in evaluating the performance of an elected government? What is wrong in evaluating the performance of elected politicians, who occupy their offices in trust for the electorate who voted for them? We want to evaluate the performance of our members in government so that we can commend those of them that are doing well, as well as urge those who are not doing well to step up their game. After all, it is the party that will be castigated by the electorate during elections. As we speak, Amaechi has up to four cases in court. He would not have gone to court to seek for the protection of the court if he did not have confidence in the judiciary. So, why would a man who has so much trust in the ability of the judiciary to uphold the truth and dispense justice, suddenly turn full circle to treat with disdain a decision of the court that is not favourable to him? As a person, I am getting increasingly uncomfortable with Governor Amaechi’s double standards. What is sauce for the goose should also be sauce for the gander! Governor Amaechi should not be seen to only respect judgments that are favourable to him. After all, judgments that are unfavourable to him are also delivered by judges in Nigerian courts, in who he has so much trust and confidence. Amaechi refers to me as a factional chairman because I am not the sort of chairman that can be easily manipulated. I am not the sort of chairman that will exclude key politicians from the party. I am not the sort of chairman that will turn my back on our electoral foot soldiers after an election has been won. What most people don’t know is that Governor Amaechi has so alienated members of the party that PDP Rivers State was already reduced to functions presided over by the governor at the Government House. If not for the court judgment that enthroned the truth, our party was already being disunited by Amaechi’s domineering tendencies. What exactly do you have against Governor Amaechi? Frankly, I think you should direct that question to Governor Amaechi. Please ask him: why does he detest our current executive with so much venom? A court of competent jurisdiction declared me the authentic chairman of the PDP in Rivers State. Yet, he has refused to recognise us. Rather, he is sponsoring media war against us. I have written severally to Governor Amaechi to allow us pay him a courtesy visit as the new state executive of our party, but he has not responded to any of our letters. Why would a man who became a governor through the instrumentality of the court, bluntly refuse to recognize the decision of a court declaring me the authentic chairman of the party through which he became governor? Our problem with Governor Amaechi sprang from our state congress. We were not his anointed candidates. We were not among those he handpicked to lead the party. But members of our party felt otherwise and demonstrated their choice for a change by voting for us. Amaechi’s major political setback is that he has no temperament for change. He wants to continue to run the party as an arm of his government, but majority of party members are saying no, enough is, indeed, enough! We have come to liberate our party. We have come to open up opportunities to all members of our party. And such opportunities must go round! Amaechi wants to run an exclusive party and government and we are saying no to that form of politics. How many elders or prominent PDP members in Rivers State are publicly in support of Governor Amaechi? Apart from those he has empowered, he is largely on his own, and that is the truth. Your executive and members of the PDP that are favourably disposed to your leadership as chairman of the state PDP. Let me say this: for the avoidance of doubt, there is only one group in the PDP in Rivers State. And that group is the party itself. Any other group or any member that claims to belong to another group is on his or her own. The PDP of which I am the chairman in Rivers State has no other group that can form an opposition. So, why were you angry about that visit? They came to Port Harcourt to aggravate the situation by taking sides with Governor Amaechi. They said democracy was being endangered because the political disagreement in Rivers State could threaten democracy. I wonder why they were worried about Rivers State that is peaceful. They should, rather have concentrated on how to effectively checkmate the activities of the Islamic terrorist group, Boko Haram, that has become a major national challenge. You commended the eight progressive governors who visited Governor Amaechi after that of the four northern PDP governors. Why? Clearly, the eight governors wanted peace. They publicly asked Governor Amaechi to seek for an audience with President Jonathan and brief him of the security situation in Rivers State. In your opinion, why did the progressive governors ask Amaechi to visit the President? They asked Governor Amaechi to meet the President so as to bridge the gulf that currently exists between the two of them. You think President Jonathan would have granted him audience? Yes, yes, yes! The President would have seen him. In any case, those governors would have accompanied him to see the President. You can tell from their conciliatory tone when they spoke at Government House in Port Harcourt. They said the President was the father of the nation, the leader of the nation, and so they are all the President’s governors. They surely wanted to give Governor Amaechi a soft landing. So, what happened thereafter? Did the meeting hold? I was not supposed to be a party to the meeting; so I may not be able to give you the details. Surprisingly, hours after the governors left Port Harcourt, Governor Amaechi granted an interview to the Financial Times of London, during which he claimed that the President was running the PDP like his personal fiefdom. Personally, I was dumbfounded when I read the interview. The way Governor Amaechi spoke, shows clearly that he has no respect for the President, and for a PDP governor to refer to the President who is also elected on the platform of the PDP, in such disparaging terms, shows clearly, that Amaechi’s heart is no longer with the PDP. Barely four days after the Financial Times interview, Governor Amaechi granted another interview to the BBC, where he, again, accused and the President and his wife, Dame Patience, of trying to remove him from power, before his tenure elapses on May, 29, 2015. Are you suggesting that Governor Amaechi has closed the door to any form of reconciliation with the President, going by his utterances? Hmmmm! Well…Eh..You see, Governor Amaechi will have to change his attitude towards the President. You cannot talk about the President of your country just in any manner that you like. No! Is it because the president is a man of peaceful demeanour and candour? Governor Amaechi says the President is unhappy with him because he contested for the chairmanship of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) against the President’s will, and because the President feels the chairman of the forum could either rally his brother governors in support of his second term bid or plot against his emergence as the candidate of the PDP at a special presidential convention in 2015? Well, we are in a democracy; so, I can say Governor Amaechi is entitled to his views. But mark my word, with or without Amaechi, President Jonathan, will win the 2015 presidential election convincingly. Can President Jonathan still garner as much vote as he did in 2011 in Rivers State? You make me laugh! President Jonathan will win Rivers State with a landslide. The Rivers State government has reacted angrily to your public invitation to Governor Amaechi and the Minister of State for Education, Nyesom Wike, to come to your palace at Omoku, for you to settle the protracted crisis that led to the fracas that occurred in the chamber of the state House of Assembly on Tuesday, July 9. You have been accused of being disrespectful to the governor. Couldn’t you have gone about it In a different way? I have written severally to Governor Amaechi to allow our executive to pay him a courtesy visit at the Government House, but he has not given any response. However, as the chairman of the party in the state, I have the right to invite the governor for a reconciliation meeting. Amaechi has visited me at my palace at Omoku while he was not a governor; so, why does anyone think Amaechi can no longer come to Omoku because he is now a governor? I am a traditional ruler in my community. My invitation was made through the press because Governor Amaechi has turned down all entreaties for us to meet and reconcile our difference amicably. I deliberately didn’t ask Governor Amaechi and the minister to come to our party secretariat at Aba Road, in Port Harcourt, but chose to invite them to Omoku so that all parties can feel free and relaxed at my palace. I want everybody to drop his or her political toga and talk openly as much as he possible wants to. I am not sure the governor is aware of what his aides are saying: how can anybody say my invitation to Governor Amaechi , using the media as a point of contact, was done to disrespect the governor? I am the leader of the party in the state by virtue of my position as chairman. No member of the party is bigger than the party, including Governor Amaechi. Most people don’t know this: I am among those who nominated Amaechi for the position of governor. I was the chairman of the Inter-Party Reconciliation Committee during his campaign for a second term. I contacted and convinced other governorship candidates in other parties to step down for him. We also campaigned vigorously for him all through the 23 local governments in the state. All Amaechi did was to make some ceremonial presence and address a handful of rallies, just for the records. Governor Amaechi, speaking seriously, is not a politician. We know those of us who campaigned for him. As I speak with you, the real politicians have come back to the PDP and are now in charge of the party. Collectively, we will determine the direction of the party in 2015. Will Governor Amaechi and the 27 members of the Rivers State House of Assembly that are currently suspended from the party attend its forthcoming special convention in Abuja? If you belong to an organisation and you suspend one of your members, will he or she be allowed to attend meetings? You know your party, the PDP, grants waivers to his members, especially privileged members. Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar was granted a waiver. Former Governor of Ekiti State, Ayodele Fayose, has also been granted a waiver. Are you granting them such waivers, too? Until they show remorse and apologise to the party for what they have done, they will not attend the convention or any PDP function for that matter. Governor Amaechi and the 27 lawmakers remain suspended from the party. What exactly do you mean when you say they should show remorse? They were suspended for anti-party activities and the party has not seen any sign that they are individually or collectively remorseful of their actions. Do you really think Governor Amaechi is against the second term bid of President Jonathan? I know Governor Amaechi is not in support of President Jonathan’s second term bid. For us in the PDP in Rivers State, we will work tirelessly for Jonathan to be re-elected in 2015. We in the South South believe that President Jonathan deserves a second term. And I am very sure that our resolve to return President Jonathan for a second term cuts across all political parties in the South South. We will not accept the position of vice president. In any case, why should the South South leave their son and brother who is President to vote for a candidate seeking for the vice presidential slot? No, that is not a wise thing to do. Simple common sense dictates that we should advance our collective political interests, rather than choose to slide down the political ladder. I will not allow that to happen during my tenure as chairman of the PDP
Posted on: Sat, 10 Aug 2013 21:08:47 +0000
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