(OPINION) Amaechi and the Ikwerre Challenge: What a legal practitioner said about Chief Tony Okocha, Others
By Sogbeye Eli Esq
Preamble
The treatise by Barr. Sogbeye is based on the ceaseless attacks against Rt. Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi erstwhile Governor of Rivers State and incumbent Minister of Transportation by one of his beneficiaries, Chief Tony Okocha whom he once appointed the Chief of Staff while he was Governor of Rivers State.
This irritant fellow showing how ungrateful he can be to a fellow who against all odds and advice appointed him the Chief of Staff, an action that ignited the ongoing misunderstanding between Amaechi and Wike.
Read and understand what Amaechi is going through in the hands of these villains and misfits that parade themselves as political leaders in Rivers State.
Eze Chukwuemeka Eze a key participant and observer of Rivers State politics quoted erudite Sobeye, “foolishness is a coin in the pocket of the fool”. He went further to state:
- The “Big man” they elect to insult today appointed Chief Nyesom Wike as Chief of Staff, Government House with unfettered powers. That was a pole position that made him dwarf all his colleagues elected Council Chairmen on December 5, 1998 and contemporaries in politics to this day. That was in 2007. If that CoS appointment was to pay back for Wike’s roles in Amaechi’s travails in his transition between Speaker of the State House of Assembly to Governor, it was a just and sufficient reward by every standard and sense of judgment. But No!
The same Amaechi withdrew an initial nomination of Tonye Cole as a Minister of the Government of the Federation to serve under President Goodluck Jonathan, a fellow Ijaw. That was in 2011. Wike took that appointment and from that day henceforth turned his fiercest blades and most fiendish daggers towards his benefactor. He has thrust his venomous spear into Amaechi’s heart so many times; Amaechi is only alive today because the God who created him has refused the wishes of his traducers to come to pass.
No Governor in Nigerian history has been dehumanised and subjected to the harassment Wike, the so-called 1st class Ikwerre patriot, put Amaechi through using President Jonathan and Patience, his wife. Not even a known vindictive President Olusegun Obasanjo turned the heat on Bola Ahmed Tinubu in Lagos when Tinubu proved to be the thorn in Obasanjo’s political conquest of his South-West. That Amaechi survived the Jonathanian kamikaze is a story to be told forever!! But in summary, may be Wike was not Ikwerre when Amaechi withdrew a Kalabari, Abonnema brother of Prof. Owunari Abraham Georgewill to send Wike to a cabinet position in the Federal Government.
Today, Ikwerre politicians who are hailing Wike’s nepotism in appointing Prof. Okey Onuchukwu Vice Chancellor of the Ignatius Ajuru University whilst insulting Amaechi as one who did not suck his mother’s breast for not appointing the same man over the University of Port Harcourt forget many things to our chagrin.
They forget, for instance, that the same Amaechi as a Minister of the Government of the Federation was instrumental to the appointment of Senator Andrew Igbonule Uchendu, OON as Pro-Chancellor and Chairman of the Governing Council of the University of Port Harcourt. That was the very first time an Ikwerre would ascend to that position in the history of the same University of Port Harcourt.
May be Senator Uchendu’s “Ikwerreness” is questionable. Or those local champions do not understand that under extant Laws of the Federation, particularly those dealing with “federal character” in the spread of appointments to the public service of the Federation, it is practically impossible to appoint two Ikwerre sons or daughters to hold the offices of Pro-Chancellor/Chairman of Governing Council and Vice Chancellor simultaneously.
They also forget that the Amaechi they love to hate upgraded the Rivers State College of Education to a full-fledged University and renamed it to immortalize the slain Ignatius Ajuru. He was Governor when he upgraded the COE and named it after Ajuru. May be Ajuru is not Ikwerre!!
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They forget that Amaechi as Minister was instrumental to the appointment of Dr. Chris Oyirinda as Executive Director, Finance & Administration at the Niger Delta Development Commission. Those who say Amaechi has used his position as Minister to undermine “his own people” should mention one Ikwerre-born who has held a position as exalted as EDFA at the NDDC before Oyirinda. Unless they have more than Affidavit evidence to prove that the young man from Isiokpo is not Ikwerre knowledgeable people would continue to dismiss their hypocrisy and treachery towards a man who God by His grace made the pathfinder to Ikwerre’s political ascendancy in modern and ancient Nigerian history.
They forget that Amaechi whilst serving his master Dr. Peter Odili in all faithfulness as Speaker and enjoying a latitude of powers no past or present Speaker of the Rivers State House of Assembly has ever experienced, extended same to uplift Ikwerre. He was instrumental to the emergence of Austin Opara as Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives in 2003 when the Ekpeye Prince Chibudom Nwuche challenged Odili for a shot at the governorship. Knowing what Nigerian politics is, Chibudom could have easily been returned to the House and to his seat as Deputy Speaker to compensate him once his bid for the governorship failed to materialize. OK, I see. Austin Opara is not Ikwerre too.
Amaechi was instrumental to the appointment of Chidi Wihioka as a National Commissioner at the Independent National Electoral Commission whilst still serving as Speaker and moved him to the House of Representatives in his final term as Governor. Wihioka is a non-Ikwerre perhaps or there were no Rivers people from other ethnicities qualified to sit on the Board of the nation’s election umpire.
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What is even more annoying is the tantrums thrown at Amaechi from the Ikwerre clan of ungrateful men are those from Tony Okocha and Worgu Boms. Amaechi continued with the unwritten code of appointing Ikwerre sons as Chief of Staff and Honourable Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice since 2007 once he took the reins of power. Those ones, not qualified howsoever beyond what was available at the time too, have the effrontery to hibernate in the demonic cocoons that throw darts at Amaechi. My goodness!!
Why should anyone in his sanity take those ones seriously when they too join the crucify him chant against Amaechi? Did Tony Okocha expect Amaechi to teach him how Wike utilized the same office he was given to harass, coerce and cajole opposition to Amaechi into absolute submission? Is the manifestly weak Head of the Governor’s political desk in his second term a stranger to the intimidation Wike unleashed on the likes of Abiye Sekibo and Celestine Omehia who floated guber tickets on the ACN and APGA platforms respectively? Would Worgu Boms say Amaechi hamstrung him howsoever when he churned out the weakest, zero resourcefulness and most unprofessional report card as Attorney-General in Rivers history?
Where were the tongues of these ones when the Wike who is the unmatchable champion of Ikwerre and can do Ikwerre no wrong FAILED to appoint another Ikwerre to succeed the late Chinwewo Emmanuel Aguma (SAN) to the position of Attorney-General when he passed on? If Nyesom Wike can overrule the Supreme Court and appoint Celestine Omehia to his position as former Governor of Rivers State with all the privileges thereto, why did he find Okey Wali (SAN) who as Omehia lost out in October 2007 re-appointable as Honourable Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice?
These guys make me puke with their characteristic treachery!!
Sogbeye Eli Esq is a Legal Practitioner and Public Analyst based in Port Harcourt and can be reached through gbeye67@gmail.com
