by Lloyd Ukwu
It is the past that informs and shapes the present. Therefore the study of history – recorded events from the past – is very important for it explains the present. History allows us to take a look at the past in order to understand how and why certain things are the way they are.
Just as history throws light on forces and factors that shaped a people, a country, etc, it also explains the factors and circumstances that shaped an individual. We cannot fathom Governor Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi: his hatred and bitterness towards his people and his total betrayal of his people. This is because we are yet to study his past.
The peoples of Rivers State and the South South are deeply disappointed by the perfidious politics of Governor Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi. Why did he join forces with the Hausa/Fulanis and the Yorubas to politically undo his own people? Why did a man that has benefited so much from Rivers State, and should show exceeding appreciation to the people of Rivers State and the entire South South embark on one of the most treacherous political mutiny ever witnessed in the state. His perfidy was total, extensive and profound; it contributed immensely in dragging down a sitting president, Goodluck Jonathan.
Although Amaechi did not win the election into the Rivers State House of Assembly, he became not just a member of the House but the Speaker of the House. He was the speaker for eight years. And again he was not the gubernatorial candidate of his party in the 2007 election. But after his party won, a court ruling made him the governor. He has been the governor for eight years. With all that he has benefitted from the state, it is hard to understand why he has shown so much wickedness and ingratitude to us, his people. But then nobody attentively inquired into his past. Who is this guy? Who are his parents? Who are his siblings? Where did he go to school, especially elementary and secondary schools?
Elementary and secondary schools are formative, and thus, more important than the universities in forming the individual. Who are his college buddies? What do they know about him? Who are his neighbors and what can they tell us about him? All we know is that he grew up in Diobu and attended GSS Ebere Omuma and served as Dr. Peter Odili’s domestic/office aide at Pamo Clinic.
Also unknown is who were his role models. After all, the kind of people we admired as we grew up influence the kind of people we become. For example, when I was growing up in Port Harcourt, I admired youth corpers and dreamt of being one someday. As being a youth corper demanded a university degree, I badly wanted to be a graduate, in part, so that I can wear the corper’s khaki uniform. Unfortunately I ended up in the United States of America. I did not return to Port Harcourt until I was well over fifty years old. Still, I insisted on serving as a youth corper. I served because I needed to satisfy my age old urge to be a corper.
It is our knowledge of these that will tell us what is responsible for Amaechi’s bitterness and hatred towards his people of Rivers State and South South? He had always shown his traits of cantankerousness and belligerence. At the University of Port Harcourt, we heard he was nicknamed ‘‘COMO”. Como was an abbreviation for commotion. As the Speaker of the House, he was accused of running the House like his private business. And, as governor we also heard he cursed his commissioners at will. Still, these do not explain his obvious resentment and abhorrence of his own people and his betrayal of their political aspirations – the re-election of a son of the South South, President Goodluck Jonathan, – in the 2015 presidential elections. And now the rumors of his plans to renter Rivers state comatose through frivolous legal and equitable court actions. Sometimes you temper or mellow down your actions because of the love or concern you have for your people.
In the late 1960s, the Hausa/Fulani feudal oligarchy in an infamous alliance with the Yorubas cut down the Igbos (the Yoruba’s perceived competitors). In 2015, working in concert with Amaechi, the North again joins forces with the Yorubas to cut down the South South. The analogy is glaring. Until we take a good peep into Amaechi’s past, we cannot determine the reason for his palpable bitterness and obvious wickedness towards Rivers and South South people. However, one thing is obvious. Amaechi definitely constitutes a clear danger and present threat to the people of South South.
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Lloyd Ukwu, a lawyer, writes from Port Harcourt, Nigeria.
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