Rivers Crisis: Amaechi’s calculations faulty –Okorie

National Chairman of the United Progressive Party (UPP), Chekwas Okorie, has advised President Goodluck Jonathan and Governor Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State to restore sanity to Rivers in the interest of the South South geo-political zone, ahead of 2015 polls. In this interview with Assistant Politics Editor, Celestine Okafor, Okorie also spoke on the rapid growth of the UPP across the country; why UPP zoned its presidential slot for 2015 to South East and also how the party will make strong impact in the November 16 Anambra State governorship election. Excerpts:

•Okorie

What is your take on the Rivers crisis? Isn’t there need for a political rapprochement between the governor, Rotimi Amaechi, and the presidency?
What is happening in Rivers State is a failure of leadership on the part of Governor Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi. There is no need for this sentiment of blaming the president and his wife for the political problems in Rivers State. In Lagos State, Governor Babatunde Raji Fashola was known to have come close to having a face-off with his predecessor, Bola Tinubu. How Fashola was able to manage that situation to the level that both men were able to achieve a meeting point and Lagos became stable and calm and recorded such tremendous development, was to the credit of the governor. It is also to the credit of the governor of Enugu State, Sullivan Chime, that with his nature of being an introvert – because I’ve known him right from our university days as a junior friend – he has still managed to bring together all the political stakeholders in Enugu State, irrespective of their attitude and machinations, to be able to agree that the governorship of Enugu State should go to Enugu North zone in 2015. I was so impressed when the mover of the motion was Dubem Onyia, who one will think is still nursing a governorship ambition. And that motion was seconded by Senator Collins Ndu who is also not from Enugu North. And the Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, was at that meeting and he concurred. Even the former PDP National Chairman, Dr Okwesilieze Nwodo, whose relationship with the Enugu Governor has not been chummy, confessed that he had misunderstood Governor Chime but had come now to appreciate him. It takes a lot of political sagacity, humility and leadership to be able to package Enugu to enjoy stability. The same has not happened in Anambra State. But Governor Amaechi, from my own observation, is arrogant. He is self-opinionated and often exhibits bloated ego. Anybody who has followed the current political development in Rivers State, will know that there would have been no Rotimi Amaechi without former governor, Peter Odili. And whatever that came in between them (Amaechi and Odili) which, to most of us, could not have been the fault of Odili, Amaechi did not show the type of understanding which was required of him in the circumstance that Odili found himself at that time. So the problem now is actually between Governor Amaechi and that political leadership in the Rivers State and not necessarily between him and the president.
But Governor Amaechi is having a lot of media and political solidarity from major political establishments and individuals which indicates that the governor is an underdog in this matter but popular among the people?
That solidarity ought to have come from the local political elites and people of the state and not from distant places. Again, the support coming to the governor is from the opposition body to Amaechi’s political party, the PDP and its leadership. These pro-Amaechi groups from all indications, are people who have one thing or the other against Amaechi’s kinsman and party leader, President Goodluck Jonathan. And probably the only way to get to the President by those opposition groups was to use Governor Amaechi against the President. The former CPC and ACN publicity secretaries have publicly said that much recently. And such open confession to me, is not good for Amaechi’s public and political image. Amaechi’s solidarity is not even coming from his South South colleague governors. It is also not coming from his neighboring South-East counterparts. Instead, it is coming from distant places like the North and South West. I do not know what is informing Amaechi’s political calculation. But I think it is faulty for whatever reason. Very soon, Amaechi will leave office and he may throw himself into exile the way people who have toed that line did in the past.
What advice do you have for Governor Amaechi in this circumstance, particularly in respect of his relationship with the presidency and some notable political leaders in Rivers State?
In Igbo land, they say that if you have many enemies and detractors, you will carry palm wine to go and make peace with some. What this means is that the person who is at the center stage or at the receiving end of the matter has the responsibility to approach those who are up in arms against him to call for peace. It is not a matter of ego where you can say ‘what can you do, after all I enjoy immunity and executive protection’? That is not a correct approach. He needs to show humility and bring down his ego a bit. Governor Rotimi Amaechi, in this case, needs to stoop to conquer. And he can only do that within the time left for him as a governor. When he leaves office and he begins to go back to reconcile with those people, it becomes more difficult. It is now that he is still wielding power as governor that he can turn the situation around for his own good and political future.
Recently, the First Lady, Patience Jonathan, said publicly on television that Amaechi is her son. That is a very humane statement coming from a mother. I don’t want to suspect that it is not coming from her heart. I want to give the First Lady the benefit of the doubt and I expect Amaechi to take the woman on her words that he (governor Amaechi) is, indeed, her son. It is a good peace overture that I expect Amaechi to take good advantage of. The first lady’s comment is not in terms of age disparity between them, but the fact that she is the first lady of the country and, therefore, the mother of the nation as of today. That, of course, will change the moment she leaves that position. You have most infrastructural development in those states. So, there is need for an urgent rapprochement between Amaechi who is the younger person, the lower person in hierarchy, a “son” for that matter, with President Goodluck Jonathan. Amaechi should take that initiative. He has access to the president anytime. All these so-called investigation panels they are setting up here and there are absolutely unnecessary. Let the governor put across a phone call to the president and tell him that he wants to have audience with him. When he meets the president, it is left for the governor to know how he wants to humble himself and resolve issues once and for all with the president who is a superior authority. In Yoruba tradition, they prostrate before their elders and superiors. In Igbo tradition, it is done differently. The governor and the president are from the same area so they know what their tradition says in such matter. What comes from Amaechi’s mouth during the peace meeting will go a long way to determine whether the dispute will be ultimately settled in order to diffuse the needless political tension in Rivers State.
At a recent sensitisation tour of your party, UPP, in Owerri, you declared that the UPP has zoned its 2015 presidential slot to the South-East. What actually informed that decision?
The simple reason is that the UPP wants to remedy the criminal marginalization and oppression of the zone by the successive governments in Nigeria. If you recall, the Igbo of the South-East has never had a fair deal politically and even in the socio-economic areas since the end of the civil war in 1970. This marginalization of the South-East has been evident during the military regimes and has also been worsened in this political dispensation. The PDP government at the national level has further elevated that marginalisation. And because the UPP leadership and its membership are aware that no Igbo man of the South-East zone can ever realize his presidential ambition or even become president of Nigeria on the ticket of PDP the way the Yoruba, the Hausa-Fulani and, recently, the minority South-South have been privileged to be president between 1999 and 2013. From the political observation of the UPP, which has strong Igbo and minority base and support, it is very clear that a South-East person may never become a president of this country in many years to come. Therefore, the South-East has only one political platform to realize that dream. And that is the United Progressive Party (UPP). It was a carefully well thought-out decision by the National Executive Commission (NEC) of our party, ahead of the 2015 general election.
How prepared is the UPP for the coming local government and governorship elections in Anambra State and also that of Ekiti State governorship poll. Have you identified the likely flagbearers of the UPP for those elections?
Without being boastful, I want to say with every confidence and faith in the Almighty God; that Anambra State governorship and local government elections are as sure as having already been won by the UPP. Who the candidate of the party will be, we do not know yet as I speak to you, but whoever will raise his hand to fly our flag, will surely win the election. We are not just going to raise anybody’s hand. The person must be somebody who has gone through the process of party primary. I say UPP will win that election out of experience, that Anambra electorate are the most sophisticated and rational electorate in Nigeria. Overtime, Anambra has never been a one party state. Anambra has always changed parties with regard to their rational analysis of the political situations at a particular time. When NRC (defunct National Republican Convention in the botched third republic) controlled most of the states in the South-East, the SDP (defunct Social Democratic Party) held sway in Anambra State under Dr. Chukwuemeka Ezeife. PDP controlled the entire South-East, but it is APGA that broke that barrier and occupied Anambra State. And APGA has continued to dominate Anambra State subsequently. But everybody knows that what is left of APGA now is just a carcass. And Anambra people are not ignorant of that situation. They have already moved out of APGA even before we started campaigning, to the next political party that is in conformity with its progressive nature which is the UPP. Anambra is dynamic and it is progressive. Even though I am from Abia State, but this is my objective analysis of the political trend in Anambra State. There is no doubt that Anambra people have already aligned with the progressive ideology of the UPP. As we speak, the UPP has completed its sensitization tour in the 21 local government Areas in Anambra State. The other parties are busy fighting the internal destructive warfare. APC is already battling in Anambra where there is a clear division and battle line drawn between the Chris Ngige faction and the Annie Okonkwo group. In the case of Anambra PDP, it is in multiple factions. APGA is simply playing a game of ping-pong with the carcass of the party.
With the recent Appeal Court Judgment in Victor Umeh’s favour and their coming together, do you see Umeh and Governor Peter Obi working together again under one APGA platform for the November 16 Anambra governorship election?
I have said it earlier, that what is left of APGA is a carcass. Therefore I am not going to engage in a slanging match. As I have said a long time ago, what Umeh and Obi are doing now is a further cannibalisation of the carcass called APGA. Governor Rochas Okorocha of Imo State, took a large chunk of that carcass and proceeded to APC. Governor Peter Obi and Maxi Okwu have their own sizeable chunks, while Victor Umeh who is almost like a political orphan now, has his own little left over chunk. So when the dead body of APGA is cannibalized, it is the parts of the carcass that these people are playing with. Between Peter Obi and Victor Umeh, these are people who were in an unholy alliance against their political mentor and benefactor, Chekwas Okorie. If I did not found APGA, there would have been none of these people.  When they went to that evil alliance against me, they were also offending God because God is a God of justice. When nemesis, which is a god, took control, it paid back the wicked in his own coin. Both men began to see each other as sworn enemies. They have said to each other irreconcilable things. The most bizarre is Victor Umeh who will go to any extreme to run any person down. Remember what he said about Peter Obi and the wife (Bianca) of his late political leader (Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu) on the pages of the newspapers recently.

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