Governor Rotimi Amaechi tasted executive power and then began to loose critical thinking and discernment abilities. He began to see himself as some sort of god. he talked down on his commissioners, barked at aides and chastised many who dared to advise or correct him. He suddenly began to think and feel that he was beyond correction or admonition. His inability to manage his politics have turned out to be the genesis of his troubles many of which, he has cunningly and deviously manipulated and put at the doorsteps of the President.
Today, whatever happens to Chibuike Amaechi suddenly ends up as a plot against him by the President or the Presidency.
When Rivers State lost some of her oil wells to a neighboring state, it was the quick mouthed Amaechi who shouted that oil wells were being taken from Rivers State because 'they' hear he wants to run for President! How garrulous!
When Akwa Ibom State lost many of her oil wells to Rivers State, Governor Godswill Akpabio did not run to the press to plant dubious political conspiracy theories. In fact, it was the loquacious Amaechi who said that 'God has disgraced Akwa Ibom State'..!!
When Cross River State lost almost all her oil blocks to Akwa Ibom State, we did not hear that Governor Liyel Imoke planted any conspiracy theory about Cross River State being deliberately short-changed as a result of his perceived political ambitions!
They did not need to plant such dubious and selfish conspiracy theories because they knew that the answers were in the LAW. Not so for Amaechi. He had to bring President Jonathan into the matter.
As if that is not enough, the intensely garrulous Governor likes to state that he is being persecuted because he always says the truth and speaks his mind! What nonsense!
At a town hall meeting with Rivers people in Houston, Texas in January 2013, Amaechi is his usual loquacious, spoke about how the Presidency did not like Rivers State and is refusing to give anything to Rivers State.
He particularly mentioned, amongst others, that security waivers for surveillance helicopters which the Rivers State Government has been soliciting for from the Federal Government was yet to be given to the state.
He deliberately left out another interesting part of the story. He deliberately refused to inform the gathering of Rivers people that the same Presidency, through the office of the National Security Adviser, had part-funded the purchase of the two security helicopters with about $15 million! He kept that information out.
He did not tell the Rivers gathering it was he who recommended a name to the President for appointment as Managing Director of Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC). That appointment was a Presidential Privilege that President Jonathan graciously offered to Rotimi Amaechi.
Neither did he mention that he recommended Nyesom Wike to the President for ministerial appointment and the President graciously accepted.
This morning, I read somewhere where a Lagos based writer wrote that Governor Rotimi Amaechi's profile is rising while that of the Governor Godswill Akpabio of Akwa Ibom State is falling.? Almost sounds like heresay.
Former Governor Peter Odili was also very popular in Lagos State (and some other states) thanks to the hundreds of millions of naira he spent on public relations consultants, the media and TV.
While Odili's image was being brandished in Lagos and other areas, Rivers people and Rivers State was being recklessly pillaged and grievously shortchanged. Today, many of those friends of Odili are no where around him. They deserted him when the reality began to dawn.
One of the flyovers that Odili built in those media-hype years collapsed last year.
Only days ago, thousands of indigenous Rivers youths demonstrated across Rivers state calling for the resignation of Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi as Governor of Rivers State. It was clear that Amaechi had lost it in Rivers State.
Not one group stood up for him. Not one.
Obviously, they have become fed up with the manner with which he lords over Rivers State. They have come to know that Rivers State has the highest number of failed Public Private Partnership (PPP) Projects in the country.
They have come to realize that in spite of the billions spent on projects like the Rivers Mega Hospital, Rivers Monorail, The Port Harcourt Ring Road, The Greater Port Harcourt Scheme etc, there was literally nothing to show for it.
On the Monorail matter, more than N20 billion have been spent on a less than 6 km stretch from Lagos bus stop in PH township to UTC junction and all there is no show are a pillars!
This was supposed to have been a PPP Project in partnership with the STI group, a business concern with ties to Rtd General Anthony Ukpo.
General Ukpo's company backed out of the deal but Rotimi Amaechi, against the advice of some of his close aides and members of his cabinet, went ahead with the project. Much to the chagrin of Rivers people who felt that basic infrastructure like roads, drainages and fly-overs would have been better suited if the state must manage the road transportation challenges that Port Harcourt has become bedeviled with.
The Mega Hospital Project for which President Jonathan was invited to lay the foundation almost four years ago is yet to get off the ground after tens of billions of naira have been sunk in.
The Port Harcourt ring road for which N4 billion naira was paid to SOUTH African company Arcus Gibbs have been suddenly abandoned.
The multibillion naira mass transit scheme, a PPP with Skye Bank has failed woefully! None of the buses and taxis procured and deployed are still on the road. The bus stops for which hundreds of millions of naira were spent to construct have now become a haven for beggars and destitute folks.
Roads that were built on a few years ago with billions of naira have all begun to collapse. The Rivers State Road Maintenance Agency which was set up for quick impact intervention to fix roads in Port Harcourt turned out to be a colossal waste of Rivers money and even though Amaechi decided to disband the agency, the harm had been done. More than N11 billion naira of badly needed Rivers money had been wasted, embezzled and fraudulently carted away.
As if that was not enough, a new project aimed at fixing Port Harcourt roads tagged "Operation Zero Potholes" failed months after its birth. Even the Governor himself, confessed to a group of clergymen that the project had become a huge fraud!
While Governor Akpabio continues to reel out world class projects and exceptionally constructed roads most of which are completed and commissioned on time and on schedule, Governor Amaechi continues to make mistakes in the manner with which he manages projects in Rivers State largely because he prefers to rule over Rivers State rather than provide critical and time tested leadership.
This was not the Rotimi Amaechi we knew in the first term. The first Amaechi did not seek fame at the expense of the development of Rivers State. All of sudden, shortly after his return as Governor in 2011, we began to see him everywhere around country attending birthdays, naming ceremonies, funerals, graduation ceremonies even for primary and secondary schools across the country etc while school construction projects for which he had awarded billions of naira in contracts suddenly began to be abandoned across the state.
Thanks to the private jet he enjoys, Amaechi became restless and began to spend more time outside the state.
At various fora, he allowed his mouth to talk faster than he thinks. Oftentimes, he sublimely attempted to malign and undermine the President.
How Amaechi would seek to undermine the President and still expect respect from Rivers people beats me! How can he still expect respect from appointed and elected officials in Rivers State? Respect they say is reciprocal. Disrespect is reciprocal.
Now he has lost PDP in Rivers State. His former trusted colleague and confident, Chief Nyesom Wike is now at war with him. The National Executive of his party PDP has now suspended him.
He once said that Nigerians are too timid for a revolution. He will soon be made to face a revolution from Rivers people. The tempo is building and tempers are rising. Rivers people will never again allow a governor who manages their resources to rubbish that custodian mandate.
The revolution that Amaechi talked about is about to be visited on him. It will come from Rivers people. And it will be televised.
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