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By Ehichioya Ezomon
A few weeks back, I resolved not to comment again on the mess that the gladiators had put the Rivers State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) during the 2019 general election.
My resolve stemmed from several attempts to intervene when the matter was still at its infancy in March 2018, and when it boiled over throughout the May and August 2018 congresses and primaries, till a few days after the February/March 2019 polls.
Sadly, my observations, and deductions at every stage was that the individuals and groups would not admit their faults, and were unnameable to pacification and reconciliation. Rather, they seemed fated to a collective failure in the 2019 project.
And that’s what happened. The courts aborted the chapter’s chances to field candidates in the February 23 National Assembly poll, and for the March 9 Governorship and House of Assembly balloting.
So, the tongue-in-cheek last week by Senator Magnus Abe, that he’d ended his governorship ambition in the wake of the Supreme Court refusal to overrule itself in the plethora of cases filed by the APC in-house fighters, was too tempting to ignore.
By his holier-than-thou stand, Abe tried to exonerate himself, and his faction of the Rivers APC, and lay all blames on the Minister of Transportation, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi, and his camp.
The senator was quoted as blaming “the unfortunate fate that befell the party in the polls on the high-handedness of some persons in the party, who exalted themselves above other members.”
If that’s true, does the saying, “Two wrongs cannot make a right,” mean anything to Abe, such that he could have considered the interests of the APC, and those he claims to represent in Rivers, and sheath the sword?
Claiming “co-equal” with Amaechi, as they have had a symbiotic political relationship, Abe would rather have his way or no APC candidates in Rivers in 2019. Prediction precisely fulfilled!
To cut a long story short, there’re two but related issues in Rivers politics: The Upland and Riverine dichotomy, and the Rivers East/Rivers West versus Rivers Southeast hegemony.
The Upland (Rivers East/Rivers West) has produced governors, both in the new and old Rivers State, including Dr. Peter Odili (1999-2007); Amaechi (2007-2015); and Mr. Nyesom Wike (2015-2019) – a 24-year “monopoly” of power by the “Upland” people.
As Rivers Southeast had never produced a governor since the creation of the state on May 27, 1967, the APC, in 2015, zoned the seat to the district. It’s the reason that Amaechi opposed the ambition of Wike, an Upland indigene of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Thus, Amaechi, craving to uphold the “Charter of Equity” created by the APC, settled for Dr. Dakuku Peterside, who hails from Opobo (Southeast), and ran on the APC ticket. But Wike defeated him at the poll.
Ironically, the 2019 problems in Rivers APC had roots in the 2015 governorship candidacy. Amaechi had shot down the aspiration of Abe, an indigene of Bera-Ogoni (Rivers Southeast), and the man bided his time for 2019, which Amaechi again opposed.
To achieve his aim, the Amaechi camp allegedly “excluded” the Abe faction from the May 2018 congresses, even when the members waved their “receipts” of payment for the nomination forms.
Consequently, the Abe faction sponsored 23 members to take the matter to court, which barred the Amaechi camp from further action until the issue was disposed. Instead, the camp held the state congress and elected the Ojukaye Flag-Amachree-led state executive committee.
In the interim, the Abe faction held its congresses under the Peter Odike counter-state executive, an action that also contravened the injunction by the court. Absent a “recognised” executive in the Rivers APC, all actions taken therefrom, including the “claimed” primaries conducted for the 2019 polls, were voided.
As the legalese goes, “you cannot build something on nothing.” That’s why the Rivers chapter was unable to field candidates for the various offices, and gave the PDP and Wike the all-clear to sweep the election without the anticipated challenge from the APC.
On that score, the failure of the APC in Rivers in the 2019 election is the collective responsibility of the main actors: Messrs Amaechi and Abe. It’s would be disingenuous for any one, least of all Abe, to distance himself from the logjam. Indeed, if Abe’s camp didn’t go to court, the issues could have been managed internally.
Besides, had one of them, Amaechi and Abe, heeded the pleas, and warnings from concerned members, followers and sympathisers of the party, the story could be different today in Rivers.
Still, I’m inclined to hold Amaechi majorly responsible for the fiasco in the Rivers chapter of the APC, as he couldn’t correctly evaluate what transpired in his second term tenure, between 2011 and 2015, and his failed attempts, twice in 2015 and 2019, to stop Wike from being governor, and re-elected, respectively.
This is in spite of Amaechi’s powerful position of Director General of the Buhari Presidential Campaign Council in both election periods. Otherwise, he ought to apply tact to handle the Abe “rebellion.”
Another opportunity came in 2019 to right his “mistakes” of 2015, and Amaechi, assuming the same position of Director General for the re-election of President Buhari, flunked it woefully by insisting that Senator Abe couldn’t run for governor on the APC ticket.
In my March 5, 2018, message via former chapter chairman, Dr. Davies Ibiamu Ikanya, and his media adviser, Eze Chukwuemeka Eze, I rhetorically asked: “Who, between Wike and PDP, and Abe and APC does Amaechi want to be governor in 2019? Why not allow members of the APC, even if you have a preferred person, to choose the candidate at a level-playing primary contest?”
Querying Amaechi’s opposition to Abe’s aspiration to be governor, as he did to Wike, “and Wike became governor,” I reminded him that, “the failure of APC in Rivers in 2015 was the failure of Amaechi,” and if he wanted a “repeat performance” in 2019?
Well, that’s what Amaechi got: Governor Wike “defeating” him once more. So, let him carry the can, and stop blaming Abe, and Wike, for the Rivers APC meltdown.
If Wike ever meddled in the chapter’s affairs, it’s the fault of Amaechi, and partially Abe’s. They, as the “house mice,” invited the “bush mouse” (Wike) to a party in the Rivers APC, and he seized the opportunity with both hands. And who wouldn’t in the “do-or-die” politics that politicians have “bequeathed” to Rivers?
The APC “big men” should stop the blame game, quietly lick their self-inflicted political wounds, and re-strategise for a better outing in 2023. Enough of the unrewarding ego trips!
* Mr. Ezomon, Journalist and Media Consultant, writes from Lagos, Nigeria.
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