AMAECHI: THE DUBIOUS CREDENTIAL OF A SELF-PROCLAIMED DEMOCRAT By Oraye St. Frankly

The poem ‘The Dance of Akamaguda’, which became the title of my second anthology of poetry, was in commemoration of the Great Judgment of October 25, 2007. The particular judgment that vested governmental mandate on Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi as Governor of Rivers State without even casting a vote for himself. The judgment was attributed as being great for many reasons. It was the first time a Governor would emerge without being on the ballot sensu stricto and it was the most audacious move by the judiciary, at the time, to check executive excesses. By and large, the judgment could be credited for further entrenching the ethos of democracy by strategically weeding out dictatorial influences in the politics and polity.

The last stanza of The Dance of Akamaguda succinctly encapsulates the point:
The Dance of Akamaguda!
The Dance of Akamaguda!
Whether right is might
Or might is right
A lesson for the 'strong'.

Unfortunately, it was a lesson the chief beneficiary of the judicial dexterity himself, Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, did not only treat with levity but with scorn and disdain as well, as it has turned out to be.

Initially, he took on the pious regalia of a forthright leader and lover of the poor. He spoke freely of his days in scum and courted the fancy of the people. He gradually warmed himself into their hearts, maximising the benefits of his epochal Supreme Court judgment and deliberately driving shimmering but unsustainable populist agendas. He built schools for the ‘poor’. He tarred roads for the ‘poor’. He fought battles for the ‘poor’, embarked on a fancy monorail to El Dorado for the ‘poor’ and rewarded himself, the apostle of poverty, with a lavish 4 billion naira lavish edifice in Abuja with the commonwealth of the very poorest of the poor. Such was the humongous degree of his vain hypocrisy. But this is not about the hypocrisy of his vanities but a forensic analysis of his dubious credential as a self-proclaimed democrat and apostle of democracy.

Anyone who knows Rotimi Amaechi knows that he is anything but a democrat. His history and the legacy of his service buttresses the point. Consider the fact that the albatross of his disastrous legacy, the multibillion naira Rivers monorail was a product of his unilateral decision against the sound judgement of his team and experts.
For the fancy of his wishful thinking, over N50billion of the commonwealth of Rivers people went down the drain in pursuit of an archaic and redundant technology in blaze of a trail that has since lost its track. For their opposition to his decision to build the phony monorail, he dissolved the State Executive Council to force their hands to endorse what has turned out to be the single most monumental waste of scarce resources by any government in the history of governance in Nigeria.

The story of his personal confession of how he wilfully forced the Police to wrongfully charge civil agitators as cultists is already is a sing-song of his draconian reputation. It was not the first or last time he would do so. He also wilfully charged his political opponents as cultists for attempting to fictionalised Rivers PDP, while he held sway as Governor during his first term in office.

His intolerance for opposition/ dissenting views is so strong that he orchestrated the shutting down of the courts and the legislative arm of government while serving as sole authority and Dictator-in-Chief of the Government of Rivers State, not minding that democracy was being undermined by his brand of politics.

The people of Rumuolumeni, in Obio Akpor Local Government Area of the State can attest to his aversion for opposition politics. For expressing their preference for his cousin, Sir Celestine Omehia, as Governor, he completely shut them out of governance and allowed their social infrastructure crumble to depressing disrepair. The same story is told of residents of Diobu, Borikiri and other locations.

It is therefore baffling that a man with such legendary disdain for opposition views and politics would today proclaim himself as an apostle of democracy and good governance. Has he forgotten in a hurry how he led deviants to sack the police headquarters in Abuja, threatening that should the All Progressives Congress (APC) fail in the General Election, he would declare a parallel government? Has he forgotten that when he came into Rivers State, to lead the charge against Rivers people in the build up to the just concluded Court ordered rerun elections of March 19, 2016, he said he would deploy the military to be involved in the elections in contravention of court orders and judgments? Did the entire world not capture Amaechi defending a compromised electoral officer at Mile One Police Station?

Where then are his self-proclaimed democratic credentials?

On what basis, is Amaechi, the very instigator of the crisis in Rivers State, referring to a validly elected and popular Governor as a threat to democracy and free and fair elections? In the entire rerun elections of March 19, 2016, the APC was the one and only Party determined to derail the electoral process across the State. At least one Corper died in credit to the bid by the APC to doctor the election results. The other casualties were also in credit to the APC's desperation to conquer Rivers State. But for the defiance of Rivers people, democracy would have been compromised in the State. And only one man was the arrowhead of the charge against democracy: Rotimi Amaechi.

Amaechi's position that the election of Ikwerre Local Government Area is inconclusive is another self-adducing evidence of his dictatorial character. The election in Ikwerre LGA held and all unit results were collated at the wards. The LGA Collation Officer, Dr. Egeonu, appointed by Amaechi and one of those whose nomination and inclusion as electoral officers was objected to by the State Governor, Nyesom Ezenwo Wike, abdicated his duty as the LGA collation officer upon discovering that the APC had lost the LGA from the units.

That abdication of duty cannot now amount to proclaiming the process as inconclusive. But, then, Amaechi with his stranglehold on INEC will not allow the mandate of the people prevail and he is the very same person accusing another of being a threat to Nigeria's democracy. All these are happening under the watch of a Federal Government that prides itself as fighting corruption.

Amaechi needs healing and prayers to enable him manage his poor political fortune as no matter what he does, the curtains have closed on him and Rivers State will make progress no matter how hard he tries to destabilise the State.

INEC must also know that Nigerians are taking note of their partisan roles. That they have taken no action yet does not mean they do not appreciate the dangers being foisted on the polity. A stitch in time...as they say.