Chibuike Amaechi’s dictatorial godfatherism

Posted by admin Headlines, Rivers, State News Friday, January 2nd, 2015

By Ishaku Adamu

A visitor to the capital of Rivers State, Port Harcourt, will be struck by the presence of large billboards bearing full length pictures of the state governor, Chibuike Amechi. It would have been ordinary and not inspire any interest or question if these billboards, and the images they bear, were not recently positioned. They would have just been natural legacy of the governor’s almost eight years in office. They would have been a carry-over from his earlier campaigns for election and re-election and the works of sycophants ingratiating him in the nearly eight years he has been in office. But these billboards are brand new. He is putting up these new oversized posters of himself all over the state. He is a second term governor, and is therefore, constitutionally, unqualified to seek re-election. And he is to leave office in less than five months.

Then, the question is why is a man not running for a political office and has a very short time to remain in office, as governor, erecting new billboards with his pictures all over the state? It is megalomania and untrammeled dictatorial tendencies. Normally, for the All Progressive Congress (APC), it is the gubernatorial candidate, Dakuku Peterside’s pictures that should be ubiquitous in the state. But in his narcissism, to Amaechi, the issue is not about Peterside but about him, the all powerful political godfather. Peterside is running for the office of governor not on his own merit, but on Amaechi’s coattail.

Governor Amaechi is replicating Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s styled political godfatherism in Rivers State. Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the former governor of Lagos State, is APC national leader and a notoriously corrupt and dictatorial, even, tyrannical political godfather. Just as he totally scuttled internal democracy in APC (in the Southwest), Amaechi razed it in Rivers State APC and imposed his own gubernatorial candidate on the party.

Tinubu wants to reduce the Southwest to his personal political fiefdom. He imposed his preferred candidates as governors in all the APC controlled states in the Southwest. In 2007, he foisted Governor Raji Fashola on Lagos state, and till date, Fashola remains under his tight rein. For the most part, Fashola did not appoint his commissioners. They were mostly carry-overs from Tinubu’s administration. A significant part of the revenue generated in Lagos State finds its way into Tinubu private pocket. Ostensibly, he uses the money to run the political party, APC. On a few occasions that Governor Fashola tried to assert his political independence, Tinubu roused his acolyte -dominated Lagos House of Assembly to impeach him. Each time, to avoid impeachment by the House of Assembly, he withdrew, once again, into Tinubu’s political confines.

Tinubu’s interference in Ekiti State APC contributed to the electoral defeat of the former APC governor of the state, Kayode Fayemi. Some APC party members aggrieved by the process that resulted in the re-nomination of Kayode Fayemi left the party for the Labor Party. In the election, the Labor Party collaborated with the main political opposition in the state, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP); the PDP candidate, Ayodele Fayose, won the election. Again, many Lagosians are peeved by the manipulated primary that nominated Tinubu sponsored candidate, Akinwunmi Ambode, as the APC gubernatorial candidate for Lagos State.

In the just concluded APC governorship primary in River State, Amaechi preferred contender, Dakuku Peterside, emerged the candidate. It was so flawed that it was, essentially, not an election but a coronation. Earlier, a number of APC politicians, including Magnus Abe indicated their interest to run for governor. Magnus Abe was the Secretary to the government of River State and is presently the senator representing Rivers Southeast Senatorial district in the Senate. To ensure Peterside’s victory, Amaechi edged out Abe and the other candidates from the race.

Magnus Abe is a long time Amaechi loyalist. He decamped with the governor from the PDP to the APC. His role, as a senator, in the National Assembly was instrumental in the removal of Joseph Mbu as the Rivers State Commissioner of Police. Joseph Mbu, a politicized and partisan police chief, had some grouse with Governor Amaechi. Thus, he was hell-bent on making the state ungovernable for the governor. Those that know Senator Magnus Abe described him as resourceful, capable, strong-willed and independent-minded. They believe he will make a good governor, a governor that will be responsive to the people of the state’s hankering for a good life and pining for social justice.

On the other hand, Dakuku Peterside is Amaechi’s fraternity boy. They have been members of the same cult since their days as students at the Rivers State University of Science and Technology, Port Harcourt. Dakuku Peterside bears an indelible mark from his days as a violent student cultist. It is a scar, too raw and too deep, to totally heal at the back of his head. It was a wound inflicted on him in a fight with members of a rival cult.

He was once Amaechi’s Commissioner for Works. As Commissioner for Works, he was an Amaechi stooge. Amaechi had total control of the ministry, with one Victoria Nyeche acting as the governor’s henchman in the ministry. Amaechi wants him, a lackluster, groveling man, to be the next governor of Rivers State because he will serve Amaechi’s interests and do his biddings. A vote for Peterside means a vote for Governor Amaechi. The election of Dakuku Peterside as the governor of Rivers State will be tantamount to a continued Chibuike Amaechi hold on Rivers State.

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