Amaechi: Nobody Should Bring Down a State over Ambition

Governor Rotimi Amaechi

  •Denies calling Jonathan a dictator    Says I remain in PDP 

•  Gov's statement threatens democracy, says Oduah

The Rivers State Governor, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi, Thursday said nobody had a right to bring down a state just because an ambition was alleged to exist as the case with the current crisis plaguing his state.

Amaechi, who spoke on BBC Hardtalk anchored by Shaun Ley, however, denied reports that he described President Goodluck Jonathan as a dictator, saying what he told a Financial Times reporter in Port Harcourt, was that the president needed to check the people around him, who were abusing power.

The Amaechi interview on Hardtalk was recorded on Tuesday and aired first on BBC World News  Thursday at 14:30 and 20:30 GMT and would be repeated today, Friday at 00:30 BST on the BBC News Channel.

Speaking mainly on the crisis in the state, Amaechi refuted speculations that he was advised by the presidency and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), his party, to step down his ambition on the chairmanship of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) for his opponent, Governor Jonah Jang of Plateau State, and that the NGF was striving to be independent from external forces.

He however decried the crisis, insisting: “Nobody has a right to bring down a state just because an ambition exists.  First and foremost, it is important to state clearly that it is a bit too early for 2015. Mr. President was elected to preside over the country and I support that. So, let everybody allow Mr. President to preside over the country for the interest of the country. Everybody should allow 2015 to be what it is- 2015.

“The point is that a transition is around the corner and politics is the greatest thing in Nigeria and so, a lot of people whose interest appears to be threatened have come out now to pursue their private- very private interest and as governor of Rivers State, my focus is not on that,” he said.

On the allegation that he called the president a dictator, Amaechi who strongly denied  the allegation, said the statement being referred to was made in Port Harcourt, when thugs were unleashed on some of the northern governors who had paid him a solidarity visit in the light of the crisis that engulfed the state House of Assembly a few days before the visit.

“I didn’t say the President; I said the people around him. There are people who are abusing power and there are those who have even compromised power. So, when the Financial Times reporter interviewed me in Port Harcourt, I made that point clearly. That was the day some hoodlums were hired to stone some northern governors who visited me to show solidarity,” he told Ley.

Amaechi, who spoke extensively on the NGF crisis, also denied reports that he was advised, both by the presidency and the PDP to let go of his ambition to re-contest the chairmanship of the NGF, insisting no such advice came from either of the quarters.

“A lot of assumptions are being made here and there by different persons about what they think or what they assume my ambitions are. Nobody advised me not to run; there is no law that requires me to tell him (Jonathan) that I was going to run. I didn’t need to run to the president to say Mr. President I need to run for the chairmanship of the NGF. I didn’t need to do that and I didn’t do that.

“And he in turn did not call me to say don’t run, I heard you’re going to run. So I ran and I didn’t see the president on the ballot. The person I saw on the ballot was Jonah Jang,” he stated even as he reaffirmed on the programme that he defeated Jang by polling 19 votes  to Jang’s 16  in the NGF chairmanship election.

Speaking on his suspension from the PDP and the fact that the Minister of State for Education, Nyesome Wike, was reported to have asked him to leave the PDP on the grounds of his alleged public attacks on the president, Amaechi retorted that nobody has the right to dictate to him what party to associate with, adding that no one can chase him out of the PDP. “I am going nowhere. We’ll all be in the PDP,” he insisted.

He, therefore, seized the opportunity to dispel speculations about his ambition, saying it begs logic to leave the PDP if indeed he has an ambition, especially that the president is assumed to be nursing a re-election bid, saying his continued stay in the party means he nurses no such ambition and that he would not allow any one frustrate him out of the PDP.

Meanwhile, the Chairman of the PDP in Rivers State, Hon. Felix Obuah, yesterday said the several unguarded statements by Amaechi threatens Nigeria's democracy and should not be taken for granted.

The party urged  security agencies to invite Amaechi for questioning over his recent statement  while fielding questions from a BBC correspondent in London.

Obuah  in a statement signed by his Special Adviser on Media,  Jerry Needam, said  Amaechi's recent utterances were inflammatory and inciting.
He stated that the governor was making unbounded efforts in deriding the President, and indirectly inciting crisis as he currently did in the state.

According to Obuah, the party was reacting to the  aspersions cast on the person of President Jonathan by  Amaechi, while fielding questions from a BBC correspondent in London.

In the said interview Amaechiallegedly described President Jonathan as undemocratic and should change his leadership style or there will be problem in the country.

Obuah also accused Amaechi of making statements  relating to revolution in the country, thereby urged security agencies to question the governor.

According to Obuah,  “It is becoming clearer by the day that Gov Amaechi is up to some mischief, which explains the reason why he is defying all wise counsel and proceeding with his acts of insubordination to constituted authorities, inciting and making unguarded utterances. He must be a man on a mission and the earlier he is exposed and stopped the better for the entire nation.”