I had never met Gov Amaechi at close quarters until we had breakfast together, not at Government House Port Harcourt, but at our own residence at the Catholic Secretariat of Nigeria, Abuja. It was a Sunday, and so we began with the table of the Lord where we fed our souls, at the celebration of the Holy Mass, and rounded off at the table of forks and knives, where we fed the body. The spiritual and temporal ‘breakfasts’ were put together by the Secretary General of the Catholic Secretariat Fr. Ralph Madu. This was long before the parties contemplated their campaigns.
I run two sides of one coin of an NGO for the Bishops of Nigeria. There is the humanitarian section called Caritas Nigeria, and there is the social research, advocacy, justice and reconciliation part called Justice and Peace Commission. At the diocesan ecclesiastical level, these two are seamed into one and known as Justice, Development and Peace/Caritas(JDPC). Sometimes I am at crossroads and depending on the situation I could stress the garb of the humanitarian who just wants to resolve the predicament without necessarily digging into the root causes. But when we engage institutions whether private or government, the garb I may be wearing is that of Justice and Peace. From the humanitarian angle, I may want the Bishops to feed the IDPs, or provide funds for poor women to start off a small business or simply pay up medical bills for stranded persons in hospitals; at this point we could solicit for resources from any public spirited individual or institution, except its values go against our fundamental commitment to respect life. When I heard President Goodluck Jonathan say on TV that some of the billions raised by PDP for its campaigns would be given to NGOs for services, I gave no thought to it until a staff urged us to send in our credentials. I was reluctant as the terms and conditions were not clear and I wasn’t ready to be used as a campaign-goat. I was apprehensive that in these days of political campaigns and social media, people could turn it around and scandalize the church as a whole even if Caritas Nigeria were apolitical and its beneficiaries were those in need whether Muslim, Christian or no-faith adherents. A defiant argument by a staff that the funds were public funds anyway, and if we found an opportunity to get them across to the real ‘owners’ we should take it, swayed me. So l agreed with my team that Caritas Nigeria could channel the funds to our health program if PDP were ever to be so altruistic. Apart from government, the Catholic church runs the largest number of primary and secondary health facilities and hardly receives any subvention from anywhere and yet people expect the services to be free. However, true to type, as it got revealed in the national dailies, the money was not even enough for PDP to share amongst itself not to talk of giving some to any real NGOs…So that morning, at breakfast table, I gave Amaechi a copy of Caritas Nigeria annual report and told him specifically of the poverty reduction programs in some dioceses. Without hesitation he promised to give Caritas Nigeria two million naira in support of one diocesan program. But then, even for a pledge as simple as this from the governor of a state such as Rivers, it depends on the extent one would want to go in overcoming the barricades around a governor, in order to access the funds from his aides. So, Amaechi… till we meet again.
Observing Amaechi closely that morning, his attitude was simple, humane, and completely lacking of any airs. My impression of him was of a sleeping dog who would allow you move about freely if you did not disturb it, but which was ready to pounce on you if you dared it. We all know that Amaechi is a fighter, and he fought the PDP over his claim for the party’s nomination during his first tenure and the Supreme Court awarded him an extraordinary judgment, declaring him governor even when he did not actually stand in for the election, on the premise that as it was his party that won the elections, the fact that he was wrongly substituted ipso facto made him the rightful winner. The judgment helped put sanity in a system where a candidate could be replaced overnight, although the amendment in the electoral law has ousted the jurisdiction of the courts on such matters.
Even before formally joining the opposition, Governor Amaechi had widened his sphere of influence in the nation’s affairs through his chairmanship of the Governor’s forum. The governors were quite useful in ensuring the National Assembly passed the doctrine of necessity, which facilitated Goodluck Jonathan transforming into President of Nigeria. In that sense. they and the Senators were mostly responsible for ensuring stability in the polity. I did not, however, like the undue influence the governors got to bear on the sharing of excess crude earnings and the resistance they put up towards the sovereign wealth fund. Although their fears were founded, as beginning from the Yar’Adua days, this government has a high capacity for squander mania, yet as a patriotic Nigerian, I was apprehensive of this sharing mentality which doesn’t leave anything for the rainy day ; the rainy days are here and the Naira would have been less slow in its crash were it to have been backed up enough by such savings.
I guess the last straw that broke the camel’s back was the second term bid of Amaechi to be elected into the Governor’s Forum as chairman. Obviously the government of President Goodluck Jonathan didn’t want Amaechi again contrary to the will of majority of the governors, and so a split emerged in the forum, achieving the aim of making the governors less powerful as a group but still deadly as individual power blocs.
I am positing that the opposition got real fire power from an Amaechi who eventually closed ranks with them. Getting Amaechi from the same zone as a sitting president to join the opposition was the largest careless slip of the Jonathan administration. I had listened quietly to bank workers talk about how ‘insulting’ Amaechi was to the president even before he joined the opposition; I have heard people talk about him as ‘Betrayer’ after he joined, but one thing we cannot run away from as a nation is that opposition politics is necessary for our democracy to have intended value addenda, and apart from Tinubu, Buhari, Oyegun who have been consistently in the opposition, a serious reawakening has been achieved by the migration of Amaechi into the so-called progressives camp. The challenge thrown by the opposition has succeeded in putting the ruling party on its toes, bringing out from Goodluck Jonathan a dynamism which we never knew existed and forcing perhaps one of the most perceptibly corrupt parties in Africa to be more articulate about its modest achievements.
If Buhari wins the presidential elections, Amaechi’s political future shines bright, as he would play a prominent role in government. In an APC which is largely seen as often kow-towing to the whims and caprices of Bola Ahmed Tinubu who apparently has a knack for amassing Lagos, a strong character like Amaechi is needed to loosen the vice-like grip of an insatiable godfather.
If Jonathan wins and Wike does not win, Amaechi will have a soft landing, as his governor- pal Dakuku Peterside will hold fort and defend him. If Jonathan does not win and Wike wins, Amaechi’s life will still go through some rough turns as most issues are usually generated from the home front. We expect EFCC to be on his trail as Wike will take it up as a cardinal duty to generate issues, even as he would be essentially protected from Abuja, although Buhari will face a dilemma between protecting a strong ally and allowing the ‘course of justice’. Wike himself would have a lot revealed about his stint at the education ministry even if he wins as governor, if Jonathan does not win as president; only that as a sitting governor, he would be immune from prosecution.
If Wike wins and Jonathan wins, then Amaechi’s best bet would be to consider relocation. Judging by precedents, Goodluck Jonathan’s preferential tolerance of powerful elements from his region who oppose him in such a vociferous manner as Amaechi does is to do nothing to stop them from walking into jail.
It is an open secret that Ibori didn’t want Jonathan to become acting president let alone president.
SUN
END
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