Samuel Okonta is dead.

His death sparked no public anger. Youth corper, on national duty, chased down and murdered. Amaechi, Wike, Dakuku, Asari Dokubo, Patience Jonathan, Ateke Tom, Egberipapa et al are all alive. Living with their families in secure comfort. Glory be to God. They have poured in their condolences and tears but left their rhetoric erect and dangerous. When opponents become cockroaches, murder becomes mere pest control. When demon possess elephants in a fight even trees are not spared.

Soldiers have also been mowed down. Port Harcourt is now the garden of bloodletting. Depths that ISIS is yet to contemplate are being plumbed. In this abattoir, vultures take away skulls for keeps.

Avaricious lords displaying the contempt typical of colonial masters. The people aren’t only dispossessed; the angry benighted poor must be pitted against themselves . The fight between Amaechi and Wike is not that between two rapacious motor park touts in rent seeking rivalry.

That is the bait the masses have swallowed. It’s either the fight of liberation from the Hausa Fulani or the fight of good and justice against pirates and buccaneers in brothers’ robes.

Shekau, the demon, kills . He is deranged. Those responsible for the imbecilic killings in Rivers are possessed of infantile rivalry. They claim sanity. Rivers is unfortunate. One day they will resume their suspended friendship if Port harcourt doesn’t become Mogadishu. Cheers and clinging of glasses will trumpet their reconciliation as heroism. The dead would have decayed.

Bereaved families would have reconciled themselves to their helplessness and moved on. It’s a cruel fate, the life of ordinary people in Nigeria.

When Jonathan fell out with Amaechi, and went halfheartedly into a fight picked for him by his aides, chaos was foretold. When he was forced by desperation to let Nyesom Wike run for Rivers governorship, he closed his eyes to the inevitability of the return of violence to Rivers. Before then, his incensed wife who had had enough of Amaechi’s intransigence , had contemplated taking off her gloves.

Bare knuckles for a renegade son. She never fumes for long, a woman of action, Mama Peace. Her loyalists engineered a failed truncation of Amaechi’s tenure. She , Evans Bipi’s jesus. The River’s house of assembly convulsed and collapsed. The majority leader Chidi Llyod , a Wike kind of character, had showed he would have been a wonderful cricketer or baseball player.

That whack with the mace staggered even those who watched the video. Amaechi arrived in time before Bipi who was already hanging around the speaker’s seat could recover from what hit Michael Chinda. Amaechi’s paranoia and Wike’s meddlesomeness left Rivers without a functional assembly. Amaechi then put the state’s judiciary to technical sleep.

The governor had become a prey and governance was reduced to self preservation. Mbu had left his own marks of partisanship. Rivers was thoroughly besieged. Booming guns denied the APC entry into Dame Patience’s Okrika land for campaigns, twice. The police scampered away with the helpless. Jonathan was commander in chief, he didn’t give a damn. All ex militants had resurrected. The environment had been poisoned with hate speeches and incitements. Amaechi was labeled a traitor and APC an evil, ‘boko haram’, party.

The last time treachery tag was used in Rivers, Ogoni land wept bitterly. International observers were unequivocal- elections in Rivers were marred by widespread violence. The Supreme court differed from the general consensus. The seeds of violence sown, have sprouted. Roles have reversed. Siege is still on. Samuel Okonta is dead. The political dispute in Rivers is wretched. It is not issues based. But that isn’t atypical. Mud has been traded.

Amaechi has accused Wike of embezzling billions of naira given him to build a road. The ex governor awarded a contract to his chief of staff to build a road and paid billions in advance? And he has the temerity to make that public and with an abundance of righteous indignation? These politicians are not to blame. Little wonder some say the only difference between the duo is the ability of one to fake righteousness. Wike in return alleged that Amaechi embezzled state funds, funded Buhari from the coffers of Rivers state.And he has published so much filth.

He set up a commission of inquiry that was supposed to have indicted Amaechi and make him unfit to be a minister. He is yet to initiate measures to prosecute him. Pot and kettle? If their narratives have any credibility, they are now unfit to hold public office. Amaechi hops around, radiates like one who cannot lose a battle. His ease and simplicity are striking.

But something about him speaks of cockiness rather than modesty. He is not helped by the fact that the political milieu is filled with mediocre minds. His renowned stubbornness is neither a virtuous insistence on principles nor an unclothed service of an oversized ego. It’s a mongrel. Amaechi is intriguing. He is witty and opinionated. But a few think he is shallow and delusional.

And they find what they perceive as arrogance despite his humble beginnings insufferable. Is the lion of Ubima a Judas? Or is he a rebel with a cause? When Wike speaks, he hums. He leaves the impression that he is a belligerent bulldozer, formidable and indefatigable. More of a brute than a philosopher. A dependable ally, a capable gladiator. But one extremely capable of uncritical loyalty, the type Adedibu would cherish. The type that Amaechi cherished on his return from exile. One who fights heart , soul and kitchen sink.

A Sergeant Awuse character. Gov Wike is a learned man. The choice between Jonathan and Amaechi was forced on him. The gods set themselves on a collision path and polytheism ceased to be an option. Rather than opportunism, it could be the demand of exclusivity in loyalty that made him Amaechi’s enemy. When the trumpet sounded the choice before him was easy. The alliance between Wike and Dame Jonathan can be fittingly described as a war machine.

Angry tribalism was deployed to liquidate the credibility of Amaechi and his men. When desperation steps in, politics in Nigeria becomes an appeal to basal instincts. Ex militants whom Amaechi had quietly and effectively demobilized to give Rivers tranquility were primed to defend the state against hallucinations of Hausa Fulani imperialism. The seeds of violence were sowed long ago. Wike , however, is an eloquent argument against Amaechi’s claim to integrity.

Amaechi’s reputation must overcome the challenge Wike poses. Not just the allegations of monumental corruption Wike has thrown up. But the allegations of cronyism, prebendalism, promotion of mediocrity that Wike perhaps represents. A supposedly principled Amaechi ,overwhelmed by providence, resolved to deliver excellence to his people. He looked all around him and picked an “illiterate but educated”, pugnacious, former local government chairman for a chief of staff. After four years of intimate political intercourse he found him worthy of an elevation.

He left many cultured minds in Rivers and nominated his “unqualified” crony for a ministerial appointment. What a disservice to the nation. Without a consideration for its self destructive implications , Amaechi wants us to realize that Wike is actually an “educated illiterate man”, a merchant of violence. If Wike is what Amaechi now believes, then Amaechi is firmly indicted. I may agree that Wike actually brandishes anti intellectual qualities. He lacks mystery. He is cast in the mold of the typical Nigerian politician. Wike has little to prove. Perhaps he only needs to show he isn’t lily-livered. But he can’t afford to ruin Rivers.

But is Wike truly a violent man? It’s good to resettle ex militants. But a cursory look at Wike’s appointments and alliances would show a certain acute battle readiness. If Jackals are appointed to oversee local governments, then perpetual fear and violence have been ordained. If Wike’s idea of countering an insurgent federal might is the resuscitation of militancy then soon he would realize that he is on the back of a hungry tiger. Wike is well acquainted with the omnipotence of the federal government.

He must lie low and not tempt a state of emergency. He is now a cow without a tail, he must rely on God to swat away federal flies for him. He has a constitutional responsibility to keep violence out of Rivers. Rascality should be beneath a real governor. It is blasphemous for a governor to ask opponents to write their wills. The federal government must rid Rivers state of all appearances of violence. Evil is contagious. The combatants are digging in and arming themselves.

What happens in Rivers doesn’t stay in Rivers. The last time kidnapping took roots there it was the southeast states that bore the brunt for many years. If peace doesn’t return there, no meaningful democratic and economic development will happen. And if violence decides electoral victories then Somalia beckons.

Lalasticlacla

http://www.vanguardngr.com/2016/04/amaechi-vs-wike-politics-barbarians/

Too long my guy.

summarize dude

This writer failed to take a clear stance on the fact that 80% of those killed are ardent APC supporters or members. If Ameachi was a do-or-die politician like Wike it would av shown during the 2015 governorship polls in Rivers. No PDP person was beheaded or had his family wiped out.

Rivers people say they do not want APC, they reject chains and slavery in all it ramifications, haba! Is it by force?

Rivers reject APC!!!

LET IT SINK!

This shows how dirty and deadly our political system is today,its now a do or die affair but God is watching all of them in his special 10d flat screen.Rip Mr samuel okonta.

MrPresident1:
Rivers people say they do not want APC, they reject chains and slavery in all it ramifications, haba! Is it by force?

Rivers reject APC!!!

LET IT SINK!

Nobody is forcing you to embrace any party. Try and read before commenting

this is what happens when people who are bad examples of the idiosyncrasy of a public figure are holding leadership positions.

Ameachi is a careless parrot, mischief-maker, larcenist, a discommode to public peace and tranquility and a rebel.

Wike is a tyrant, a loudmouth biggot, sanguineous cavalier.

Both shouldn't have held and hold public positions.

I don't trust any of their action because i have already what they are into, or are they not top politicians any longer? They will still settle their differences whenever they want. Abegiii....na the same people....none of them are saint.

Comedy nation, senseless leader and visionless politicians.

Both are blood thirsty!

Even though its a very interesting and well articulated write up, I think the writer failed to really put the blames squarely where they ought to be. Rivers was relatively peaceful until Patience Jonathan and Joseph Mbu came calling.

blackpanda:


Nobody is forcing you to embrace any party. Try and read before commenting

Rivers reject the APC party that stands for chains, enslavement, poverty, godlessness, mercilessness, and cluelessness.

Get that into your thick armour plated reinforced concrete medulla oblongata.