Published on January 28, 2013 by pmnews · 1 Comment
BY OKAFOR OFIEBOR/Port Harcourt
Nigeria’s Rivers State governor, Chibuike Amaechi and Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Mr. Godsday Orubebe trade tackles
Amaechi (right) and Orubebe have been sparring lately.
Governor Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State is fond of telling anybody that cares to listen that he doesn’t run from a fight. He says that whatever position he attained in his political career has been through legal and political battles. But his loyalists worry that Amaechi’s penchant for frankness is a magnet for attacks.
For example, the trading of accusations between him and the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Mr. Godsday Orubebe, emanated from a comment by Amaechi to the effect that if the Ministry of Niger Delta refuses to fix the East/West link road, Governors of the South-South may be compelled to take over the road, and fund its repair.
Amaechi may have valid reasons to be piqued. On 12 July last year, at Okogbe near Mbiama, in Ahoada West Local Government Area of Rivers State, over 200 persons were burnt to death while scooping premium motor spirit from a tanker that fell while trying to avoid a dilapidated portion of the East/West road.
About six months later, precisely, on 11 January, eight persons were burnt to death and over 20 houses were destroyed at Mbiama. The disaster was caused by a fallen petroleum tanker after it ran into a bad portion of the East/West road, emptying its combustible content and igniting an explosion.
Orubebe did not find Amaechi’s comment funny. He accused the governor of taking delight in showing disrespect and indicting the office of President Goodluck Jonathan, which is supposed to superintend construction of the road. He said this in Uyo, Akwa-Ibom State capital, while addressing journalists after touring the some projects under his ministry.
The minister accused the governor of frittering away Rivers funds and turning Port Harcourt, that was once a Garden City, into a huge slum because of abandoned road projects. Not done, Orubebe, in paid advertisements in some national dailies, listed some roads he claimed Amaechi started and abandoned. He advised the governor to stop playing God in matters of power and politics.
In his words: ‘‘Today, he (Amaechi) sees himself as the governor of governors and he begins to feel that he is even bigger than the President. But I want to let him know that he must have respect for the President of this country.’’
At the same function, Orubebe was vitriolic in condemning Amaechi for demanding, on behalf of the South-South state governments, that the federal government hand over construction of the East-West road to them. He then called on Amaechi to concentrate on the business of running his state, saying the capital, Port Harcourt, “has degenerated into a slum since he assumed office”.
‘‘Port Harcourt used to be the Garden City of this country. Today, Port Harcourt is a slum; you cannot move in Port Harcourt. I think he should concern himself with utilising the resources that are in there to develop Rivers and the people of Rivers.’’
But Amaechi, firing back through his spokesman, David Iyofor, said that the minister’s game was to divert attention from his ineptitude and failure in office to deliver the East/West road.
The governor said that contrary to what Orubebe wants the world to believe, he (Amaechi) has tremendous respect for the office of President Jonathan, and accused Orubebe of showing disrespect to the President by dragging his name into his (Orubebe’s) inability to deliver on the East-West road.
Accusing Orubebe of suffering from a severe form of selective amnesia, Amaechi reminded the minister that he (Amaechi) led Rivers people to overwhelmingly give President Jonathan the highest votes in any state in the country in the 2007 Presidential election.
Not stopping at issuing a press statement, Iyofor took members of the Government House Press Corps on a guided tour of the Port Harcourt/Owerri road, a federal road constructed by the Amaechi administration. It was discovered that the section from Omerelu, which is Rivers State’s boundary with Imo State, which is being handled by the Niger Delta Ministry, is yet to be completed. Other federal roads roads done by the Amaechi administration that were visited by the press included the Obiri-Ikwerre inter-change, along the contentious East/West road, built by Gitto Construction Company; and rehabilitation of bad portions of the East/West road in the Eleme-Onne axis.
Amaechi challenged Orubebe to show the world one project he started and completed in the Niger-Delta as Minister of Niger-Delta, or one project he started and completed in Rivers State with the huge resources allocated to his ministry.
Amaechi invited Orubebe to come to Rivers with a team of journalists to inspect the completed kilometres of new roads and bridges, world-class new hospitals and health centres scattered all over the state, as well as primary and secondary schools that have become the model for many states, all built during his (Amaechi’s) tenure as governor.
Not done, Amaechi fired more salvos from Houston,Texas,USA,where he held a town hall meeting with Rivers State community. He submitted that the reason for creating the Ministry of Niger Delta has been defeated under Orubebe as minister because he had failed woefully; and urged Orubebe to resign. He challenged Orubebe to a public debate on public morality and corruption. “It is the likes of Orubebe that fan the embers of hatred. It is unfortunate that he can accuse me of corruption; nobody has accused me before.
“It is a strategy to distract the Niger Delta people by trying to hide all his failures. I have gone through the region and no presence of his ministry was felt anywhere in the area of meaningful or people-oriented projects,” he said.
Amaechi said his administration had completed a 41-kilometre road to Opobo under water, yet the East-West road that is on land cannot be completed by Orubebe.
Reacting to the accusation that Port Harcourt has been reduced to a slum, Amaechi boasted that for every one project Orubebe can show he has executed in the region, the Rivers State government will show 10 of such type.
On corruption, he warned Orubebe that he was ready to go public and expose his mansions: “I advise him again to face his work, and make his presence felt in the region. After all, I don’t have any mansion anywhere, but I know Orubebe’s mansions. If he wants, we will show the world his mansions.”
Amaechi denied nursing any presidential ambition, declaring: “I cannot contest against Mr. President. We are from the same region. I respect him, and he is a good man. I am tired of responding to this issue of presidential ambition.”
The governor admitted that he has disagreed with the President on some issues but that does not mean he hated or disrespected him.
While the verbal darts between Orubebe and Amaechi has heated the polity, it has also racked up salient issues of accountability in governance.
.This article originally appeared in TheNEWS magazine of 04 February 2013
