By Eze Chukwuemeka Eze,
“….To Rotimi Amaechi, “the inability of elected leaders to provide adequate security for the citizenry is an impeachable offence. The first offence President and governors commit is when they are unable to provide adequate security for the people. This is because the first oath taken by elected leaders is to protect life and property. It is the responsibility of the government to provide security for the people….”
Preamble:
The gale of insecurity which has enveloped this encasement called Nigeria, having assumed an alarming rate, discussions on the complacency of government officials, top military brass and the docility of relevant authorities in nibbing this embarrassing menace in the bud have dominated media strata.
Informed by this development, erstwhile National Publicity Secretary of the defunct New People’s Democratic Party (nPDP) Chief Eze Chukwuemeka Eze, deemed it necessary to bring to light the clinical tactic employed by the administration of Rt. Hon. Chibuike Amaechi, as Governor of Rivers State, in containing the ugly menace of kidnapping and cultism which brought an end to the trend of pipeline vandalism, oil theft and related economic sabotages that bedeviled the state and the entire Niger Delta at that time.
Concerned by the troubling insecurity in Nigeria, former Governor of Rivers State, counseling President Tinubu on a strategic move to take said, “We did it in Rivers State; it can be done in the country. We are prepared to help if you request help.”
Amaechi in another fora said “FG lacks political will to tackle nationwide insecurity maintaining that Nigeria is completely destroyed”
He went further to state that the federal government has failed to demonstrate the political will needed to curb the surge in killings, kidnappings and terrorist attacks across the Regrets the frequency of recent attacks has eroded public confidence and emboldened armed groups. He cited the killings in Plateau State, the abduction of schoolgirls in Kebbi, the ambush in Borno that left Brig. Gen. Musa Uba dead, an attack on a church in Kwara, and the kidnapping of Catholic priest Bobbo Paschal in Kaduna — all within a week.
“The government has failed to provide adequate protection for its citizens,” he wrote, adding that the lack of decisive action “has sadly emboldened terrorists and eroded public trust.”
Amaechi urged President Bola Tinubu to make security a top priority. “Your primary assignment is the security of lives and property,” he said. “Enough of looking the other way or issuing watery statements of condemnation.”
He called for stronger military intelligence, better response capabilities, and a readiness to “probe wrong decisions, strategize and make tough calls.” Amaechi said his experience in Rivers State shows such improvements are possible and offered to assist “if you request help.”
To examine the capability of Amaechi handling the surging insecurity in Nigeria, an extract is made from Chapter Four of Eze’s book titled, Amaechi: His Feats, Inspirational and Revolutionary Leadership. Chapter Four is headed – “Rivers Security Situation Under Amaechi and Wike.” The chapter critically examines the bold and dogged approach adopted by Amaechi in arresting the problems of insecurity on the one hand, and the contributions of Wike in engineering insecurity as Governor of Rivers State, on the other hand.
In this regard, for clarity, this treatise titled, “Rivers security situation under Amaechi and Wike” will divided into two major subheadings thus:
Based on the extract from my book on this subject matter Dr. Dakuku Adol Peterside, former Director-General of NIMASA, former Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on (Downstream) Petroleum and 2015 All Progressives Congress (APC) gubernatorial candidate in Rivers State highlighted in an article he titled ‘How to tackle insecurity in Nigeria’: “Security, law and order are the major preoccupation of any government. Once a government gets this priority right, it has made the very first right step. Growing insecurity on the reverse side is the first sign of a failing state.”
Peterside’ view on security tallies with that of poet and political philosopher, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, who had stated: “The three great ends which a statesman ought to propose to himself in the government of a nation are 1. Security to possessors, 2. Facility to acquirers, 3. Hope to all.”
Rt. Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi then as Governor of Rivers State concurred by stating: “Government must not be for one section of the society. It must be for the rich and the poor, emphasising the upliftment of the poor…”
With the above quotes, the main aim of this chapter is to unravel the insecurity and security challenges facing Rivers State in Nigeria, particularly now that Chief Nyesom Wike, the then Governor of Rivers State, in one of his interviews with The Sun Newspaper described his mentor, benefactor, and predecessor, Rt. Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi’s eight years administration in Rivers State as “wasted”. It not only behooves on those of us who witnessed these eight years to actually put the records straight and avoid the misconception before the public domain envisaged by the said interview.
Based on this challenge of putting or straightening the facts, my continuous efforts to appraise and review the activities of the enigma called Amaechi, the indefatigable former Governor of Rivers State and incumbent Minister of Transportation, with much emphasis on his eight years tenure as the Governor of Rivers State, becomes imperative. I will in this chapter use insecurity to further establish that Amaechi’s administration was not a waste, as being postulated by Wike and his cronies.
In doing this, I will present the insecurity episode that Amaechi inherited, and how he tackled it. Then, how Wike created the then insecurity in Rivers State, and, for you the reader, to judge if his eight years was a waste or not.
With the above premise firmly established, let me therefore state that the main point of this attempt is to review the strategies adopted by the Rivers State Government under the watch of Rotimi Amaechi in tackling the menace of insecurity in Rivers State, prior to his assumption of office on 28th October, 2007 and how Wike, the erstwhile governor, instead of adopting same, created the ‘Rivers of blood’.
For the sake of of clarity, Rivers State is the hub of the oil industry in Nigeria and very rich in hydrocarbons from which the nation draws its major revenue. And, because it was confronted with key security challenges, especially the challenges of illegal bunkering, piracy, kidnapping and armed robbery, this attempt becomes exigent.
To Rotimi Amaechi, “inability of elected leaders to provide adequate security for the citizenry is an impeachable offence. The first offence President and governors commit is when they are unable to provide adequate security for the people. This is because the first oath taken by elected leaders is to protect life and property. It is the responsibility of the government to provide security for the people.”
Let me start this treatise by examining the, “Challenges and causes of insecurity in Rivers State”
One of the major forces behind the menace of insecurity in Rivers State then was class challenge. Lady Dorothy Alison captured this aptly when she stated, “The horror of class stratification, racism, and prejudice is that some people begin to believe that the security of their families… and communities depends on the oppression of others, that for some to have good lives there must be others whose lives are truncated and brutal”.
Affirming the truism by Lady Alison, Amaechi enthused: “When we took over the reins of governance in the State we met a situation where people were being given cash, but we decided to take the extreme position of not giving money to people, but doing projects that would impact positively on the lives of the majority of our people”. This stand of the Amaechi team to stop the method which was the practice hitherto of sharing state funds to some seasoned politicians and groups who in turn used it to sponsor militia groups that constituted security challenges in the state, is the philosophy upon which he centred the fight against the menace of insecurity. The decision also created enemies for him because it was a channel of income to some politicians.
Apart from class challenges as postulated above, insecurity in Rivers State was occasioned by greed for power; empowering and arming our youths with sophisticated weapons in order to undo political opponents in the state.
Another great influence of insecurity was the wickedness of the politicians in undermining the future of the youths and misuse of public funds and the common patrimony of the state. Instead of investments that would have created jobs for teeming youths, the funds were distributed amongst cronies and relations.
To Rotimi Amaechi, “inability of elected leaders to provide adequate security for the citizenry is an impeachable offence. The first offence governors commit is when they are unable to provide adequate security for the people. This is because the first oath taken by elected leaders is to protect life and property. It is the responsibility of the government to provide security for the people.”
Before going further on this, let us examine “The Rivers State inherited by Amaechi”
According to records, Port Harcourt, the capital of Rivers State that Amaechi inherited, was more like a war zone or aptly put, a jungle where the fittest determined the fate of the “lesser humans.” It sounds pretty surprising but not unexpected that the city of Port Harcourt, a once very glamorous city, was ranked among the three most dangerous cities in the world by then. The human resources unit of New York-based Marsh & McLennan Cos. had ranked Port Harcourt with Baghdad, the war-torn Iraqi capital, Sana’a, the Yemeni capital, and Khartoum in Sudan, as the world’s most dangerous cities. Going by the ranking published by Bloomberg, Port Harcourt ranked with Baghdad as one of the world’s most dangerous cities for foreign workers as criminal gangs and militia groups wrecked havoc over territorial fight.
Ahamefula Ogbu, a journalist with Thisday Newspaper, described one of the scenes in the state at this period in these words; “Rambo could not have done better. With automatic rifles in their hands and hate, revenge, and murder hanging around their necks, warring cultists took Port Harcourt, Rivers State, by storm yesterday for the second day running. Pandemonium broke out as residents ran for safety. It was sorrow, tears and blood. At the end of it all, or, more aptly, at the interval, for nobody knows the end yet—15 persons had been dispatched to their early graves’ and true to this unsung prophet nobody knew the end as the next few days saw about eighty innocent souls wasted by an agitation uncommon to our people in the Niger Delta.”
A friend and brother, late Mr. George Onah, reporting for Vanguard Newspaper captured Port Harcourt before the assumption of office by Gov. Amaechi in these words, “For many residents, the capital of Rivers State, hitherto the Garden City where life was lived to the fullest, is no longer the place to live in as rivers of blood flow ceaselessly following an unending siege by militants, kidnappers, cultists, and criminals of other hue.
“Violence in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, has gone full circle and the guns are still booming. The casualties are pilling, even as blood of defenceless citizens flow endlessly. Neither the Police nor the government has answers to the brigandage. Security outfits do not have official figures, record or reliable estimates of casualties in the Rivers State orgy of killings.
“Even the number of deaths during the Nigerian Civil War had a consensus of informed opinion on the number of deaths, on both sides, which hovered, realistically around 600,000 and below. But the rapidity of casualties in the onslaught by gunmen in Rivers State cannot simply be pigeonholed. The currency of killings is alarming and the growth of the economy of the state is heading for the deep.
“The pattern of the crime ranges from kidnapping of expatriates and children of wealthy parentage, to outright violent robbery.
“Cultism and political vices equally occupy a frightening position on the crime chart. The volatile atmosphere appears to have annulled whatever achievement of the peace and reconciliation committee of the government.
As if both Ogbu and late Onah did not capture the picture correctly, Okey Ndibe, a respected opinion leader on national issues in Nigeria, in his article during this period published by the Sahara Reporters, one of the leading online media on Nigerian political activities titled; ‘A blood soaked city’, described the happenings in Rivers State then in these words; “That the once idyllic Port Harcourt was now a scarred place, a war zone, a city soaked in blood; the city under siege with thousands of citizens displaced; that its once quiescent boulevards and avenues were now ruled by marauding militiamen and by the fierce soldiers deployed to dislodge them. Sudden death by bullet was now a generalized hazard for the city’s trapped and hapless residents.”
Affirming the unfortunate state of Rivers State then, an icon and Prince of Niger Delta Politics, Prince Tonye Princewill, in an interview during this period stated thus, “Rivers State, when Amaechi took over was a garrison state. Now that things have changed, people refer to him, like they do to Fashola, as a performing governor though the only difference between the two is that Fashola had a foundation in Tinubu but in the case of Amaechi, it was not so.”
In part two of this treatise, I will tackle, “How Amaechi tackled the insecurity in Niger Delta and if he is capable of attending to the security challenges currently bedevilling Nigeria which Tinubu has proven of incapable of handling”
Eze Chukwuemeka Eze is a Media Consultant, Political Analyst, APC Chieftain, member of APC Legacy Projects Media Team & former National Publicity Secretary, nPDP who is based in Port Harcourt, Rivers State and can be reached either through 08022049770 or ezemediaconcept2020@gmail.com
