Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi, the former Rivers State Governor and former Minister of Transportation, recently made his second bid for a presidential candidacy (the first was in 2022), but was defeated at the primaries stage by Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, the former Vice President who basically owns the ADC opposition party to which Amaechi belongs.
Amaechi’s political fortunes are now languishing in the doldrums, to put it mildly. His glory days of being a powerful presence on the national stage ended when ex-President Buhari died.
Meanwhile, he has expressed the view that Atiku is unelectable and vehemently insisted that he is not willing to play second fiddle to Atiku on the campaign trail; and there is no evidence to suggest that Atiku wants to run alongside him anyway, so what next for Amaechi?
Amaechi needs to cut his coat according to his new size and focus on state-level influencing if he wishes to salvage his dignity and revert to being an Oga who matters. Rivers State is the capital of the Niger Delta and its capital, Port Harcourt, is one of Nigeria’s top 3 cities.
It is precisely because Rivers is important and very rich compared to most other states that Tinubu was so desperate to capture it in 2023 and is so determined to retain it in 2027…with help from Nyesom Wike.
And Amaechi could do a lot worse than gird his loins and prepare to wrest control of our state from Wike…who used to be his boy and who is now regarded as a nuisance by almost every Rivers person I know.
Wike definitely has a good side and a few genuine fans; and many of us have supported him in the past because there have been times when he has deserved support.
But ask the average Riverian from any socio-economic background what they think of Wike nowadays, and the majority will express extreme annoyance about his bombast, bullying, avarice, imperial mafioso tendencies, delusions of grandeur and ethnic chauvinism (he is currently hellbent on installing a new governor from his ancestral Ikwerre back yard, instead of doing the right thing, respecting zoning conventions and giving other ethnic groups a chance to govern).
Wike has been besting and taunting Amaechi since 2015. And, frankly, there have been times when Amaechi deserved a bloody nose.
But if we are to look at the overall picture, Amaechi has been far better behaved than Wike overall. And my advice to him is as follows:
Forget about Abuja and the rest of Nigeria for now, throw all of your energies into overturning this dangerous and toxic dynamic that Wike has inflicted on our state and make it your Mission Possible to rescue Rivers State from Wike and Tinubu’s clutches.
The best way of achieving this objective is to throw your weight behind Gabriel Pidomson, your party’s gubernatorial candidate.
Take him by the hand like a devoted senior brother, raise his hand at campaign rallies in all 23 local government areas, make passionate speeches on his behalf, remind us why you were once a highly charismatic and immensely popular governor. Help him WIN.
Pidomson is an Ogoni. Ogonis have never had the number one job. Persuade your Ikwerre brethren and members of other tribes to stand by him. Help him with fundraising. Provide him with guidance.
If you take Pidomson under your wing robustly, you will win and make history and Ogonis will NEVER forget you for enabling us to acquire justice for the first time since our state was created.
Yes, if you are accustomed to calling the shots on a Federal level and to being key part of prestigious weekly cabinet meetings at which nationwide issues are discussed with the head of state, going home to exclusively focus on re-establishing a political base that has been brutally undermined by Wike may feel like a retreat, a terrible demotion and too much wahala.
Yes, it’s tempting to give up on politics and retire gracefully into full-time family life or private business. But please don’t do this, Amaechi, because we need you. DESPERATELY; and being a big fish in a small pond, especially a relatively wealthy high-status pond like Rivers State, is surely better than being almost invisible in the ocean that Abuja is within this context.
You need to get your groove back.
They say that all politics is local.please go local one more time…for your own sake as well as for the sake of a state that is drowning and demoralised.
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