THE 2015 Presidential Election marked Rt. Hon. Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi as one politician to watch. Against conventional wisdom, against widespread ethnocentric sentiments from some of his South-South people, he led what could be described as a ‘democratic coup d’etat’ against the then sitting President Goodluck Jonathan and truncated his second term ambition via the ballot box, saving the nation an impending disaster as been today by the revelation of massive corruption perpetuated by some members of the government and the current economic challenges it brought to the people.

In his political career, one question begs for answer: Does the Minister of Transport, Rt. Hon. Amaechi court controversy or vice-versa? His many political battles had been steeped controversy.

Sometimes, such controversy swallows the reason for the fight. One such case is his battle with the then President Jonathan and his over bearing wife, Patience. Not many still recall what actually sparked off the quarrel. But let us not forget that in the 2011 Presidential Election, Rivers State, with Amaechi then as governor and the leader of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the state delivered a little over 2.1 million votes to help former President Goodluck Jonathan clinch the presidency. What was the magic for the result? It was the debate in all media platforms?

Ironically after making sure his brother and kinsman returned back to Aso Rock, Amaechi overnight turned to a prey that must be devoured by all means as seen in a series of attacks and intending humiliations meted out on him by the powers that be. Then as seen in some incidents, starting but not limited to the Okrika incident where a microphone was forcefully snatched away from him by the then First Lady while he was trying to explain his plans for a school in her community or was it the uproar and insults hauled on him when he, after seeing the series of loss of lives caused  by the deplorable state of the East-West road, the only road traversing the Niger-Delta region, appealed for a joint collaboration by South-South governors to fix the road. The then Minister of Niger-Delta Affairs, Elder Godswill Orubebe had accused him of insulting the then President but ironically today Orubebe is being accused of diverting monies meant for compensation of land owners whom the road cut into their lands. We will not also forget in a hurry how mathematical equation was altered all in a bid to make sure Amaechi does not emerge Chairman of Nigerian Governors Forum by a calculation which made 16 to be greater than 19.

However, the mother of all controversies surfaced about two years later. Specifically in November 2013 after the removal of the Rivers PDP State Party Executive Council by fiat. Amaechi had to battle for his survival. This he did with the exit of five governors to the newly registered All Progressives Congress (APC) thereby pulling the carpet off the feet of the PDP and seriously putting in jeopardy Jonathan’s re-election bid. The PDP and the powers that be then would not go down without a fight.

This they did with so much impunity as they threw caution to the wind in their bid to make sure Amaechi was not just silenced but out rightly humiliated. For example, they grounded the state’s aircraft and constantly blocked his convoy. There were also the ugly face-off with him by the duo of the then Minister of State for Education and current Governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike and Police Commissioner, Mathew Mbu, both of who made sure Amaechi never knew peace to the extent that Wike openly boasted of how all airports, seaports and land borders will all be closed immediately Jonathan won the election so that Amaechi will be hounded and probably sent to the gallows. But Amaechi remained resolute and strong, championing the then campaign of change to a nation tired of 16 years of PDP misrule.

After a keenly contested election, Muhammadu Buhari emerged victorious with 15.4 million votes to Jonathan’s 12.8 million. Compare that with Jonathans 22.4m votes in 2011 to Buhari’s 12.2m votes.

Now, the question one cannot fail to ask is why Amaechi turned against his fellow kinsmen in a country where ethno-centric politics is deeply entrenched?  The issues, it seems, have something to do with the management of the treasury as he revealed in an interview. He had proffered that he queried spendings on subsidy under Jonathan. That could have been the major reason he was singled out for persecution.

The former two-term governor of Rivers State explained that the Federal Government was spending N300 billion annually on subsidies under former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s eight years tenure and the short-lived tenure of former President Musa Yar’Adua. He said however that within six months of Jonathan’s presidency, it shot up to N1.9 trillion.

“Did Nigeria’s population double in such a short time? Has the country increased its manufacturing capacity?” It has been argued that it was when he could not get satisfactory answers from the powers that be, that he parted ways with Jonathan.

With the abolition of the subsidy scheme in January 2016 by President Muhammadu Buhari, it seems Amaechi has been vindicated. Nonetheless, it seems not many still remembered his role in the matter.

In political jargon, the Minister of Transport, Amaechi, is a fighter who takes no prisoners. He would go for a technical knockout (TKO) rather than emerge a disputed winner. As governor of Rivers State and Chairman, Nigerian Governors Forum (NGF), he fought for two years to finally claim his mandate as winner of the Forum’s chairmanship election. Despite winning the election by 19 votes to 17, the powers that be rejected his victory. For two years, a ding-dong battle ensued. Nonetheless, in May 2015, his hitherto ‘factionalised’ colleagues united and unanimously declared him winner.

By this time, he was a few days to the end of his tenure as governor. Though chairmanship of the NGF is ceremonial, Amaechi stuck out till the end.

This incident reveals so much about the man his admirers call the ‘Lion of the Niger-Delta’. They rate him as one of the most popular politicians in the country.

• Onwuneme, who wrote in from Umuahia, Abia State

Thenation…..

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