President Goodluck Jonathan and the Rivers State Governor, Mr Chibuike Amaechi were like two brothers. They had a lot in common having been born and bred in the same environment. They both attended the University of Port Harcourt though, at different times and came into politics about the same period. At the dawn of democracy in 1999, they both joined the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) to pursue their political aspirations. Jonathan emerged as the Deputy Governor of Bayelsa State, while Amaechi became the Speaker of the Rivers State House of Assembly.
By 2007, Jonathan had risen to become the Vice President while Amaechi had also moved up the political ladder to become the Governor of Rivers State. All these while there was no trouble between the two until the political equation was further altered and Jonathan was elected the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and Amaechi rose to become the Chairman of the Nigeria Governors Forum( NGF), a group with immense powers and influence in the polity.
Some analysts have attributed the crisis between the two personalities to the altercation, the First Lady, Dame Patience Jonathan had with Governor Amaechi when she visited Rivers State about four years ago. In that ugly encounter, the First Lady exerted enormous influence as a daughter of Rivers State in her intervention on the urban renewal programme of the Rivers State Government.
She however crossed the red line in her open rebuke of Amaechi over the demolition of shanties at the Okrika waterfront. If that sowed the seed of rivalry between these two brothers from the creeks of the Niger Delta, the real battle began the moment Jonathan and Amaechi began to make their individual political permutations ahead of 2015. It is more or less a clash of interests fueled by personal ambitions. Jonathan had had a fierce battle with some powerful interest groups on his way to the Presidency. The northern political establishment did not want him to succeed his boss, the late Alhaji Umaru Yar’Adua, who died in office.
When the forces against Jonathan could not stop him from becoming the Acting President and subsequently President, they retreated momentarily but soon regrouped to ensure he did not consolidate his hold on power. In 2011, the opposition against Jonathan was built around the arguments of a supposed power rotation between the North and the South and why the North should be allowed to produce a substantive successor to Yar’ Adua.
When this failed, a secret pact was purportedly made to limit him to a single term only. But as 2015 drew near and they saw that the so called pact was not going to be effective these same elements devised other means of fighting their cause. Part of the game plan was to use the platform of the Nigeria Governors Forum with Governor Amaechi as arrowhead to ferociously attack the policies and programmes of the Jonathan administration.
In their calculation, these attacks coming from a “brother” of Jonathan would not only keep the sponsors away from public view but would be more convincing to the public. The ultimate goal, it seemed, was to create a negative image for the government of the day and make Jonathan unfit to rule the country. When the Presidency understood the game, it also responded appropriately by breaking the ranks of the Nigeria Governors Forum. First, a separate forum was created for the governors elected on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party with Governor Godswill Akpabio as its chairman.
Thereafter, the NGF election which was programmed to return Amaechi as its Chairman ran into a serious controversy as it members could not agree on a common leader. This tore the NGF into two factions and this literally disbanded the once powerful forum. Undaunted by the demolition of their platform, the Group of Seven Governors ( G7) who alongside Amaechi had been at the forefront of using the NGF to attack the federal government led an open rebellion against their political party. In August 2013, they staged a walkout during a mini- convention of the PDP held at the Eagles Square, Abuja.
Those who staged the rebellion included the governors of Kwara State, Abdufattah Ahmed, Sokoto State, Aliyu Wamakko, Kano State, Rabiu Kwakwanso, Adamawa State , Murtala Nyako, Niger State, Muazu Babangida Aliyu and Sule Lamido of Jigawa State. They were joined by former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and former Kwara state governor, Senator Bukola Saraki. Th e rebels later converged on the Yar Adua Centre same day and announced the formation of what they called the New Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) under the leadership of Alhaji Mohammed Kawu Baraje, a former acting National Chairman of the PDP.
The battle for the soul of the party dragged on for a while in the law courts until the PDP got a favourable court judgment that there was no division in the party. The rebels, having been beaten in their game, left the ruling party and joined the All Progressive Congress (APC) , the main opposition party in Nigeria. Since this defection, all hell had been let loose. It is from this opposition platform that Governor Amaechi and other aggrieved politicians obtained the full licence to launch their missiles against Jonathan on a daily basis.
