I may hit the end of my political career or change my political stance, sooner than anticipated. This development is primarily predicated on the political dynamics playing out in Rivers State.
The emergence of Rt. Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi as governor of RS in October 2007, via a landmark judgement of the Supreme Court of Nigeria, marked a sharp turning point, for the people of RS and remains a historical event for the losers, winners, Rivers people, residents, tourists, investors and onlookers.
Upon assumption of office, H.E. CRA changed the style and perspective of politics/governance, as evident in the giant infrastructural projects he embarked upon, meaningfully touching the sectors of security, Education, Agriculture, Roads/Bridges, Sports, Hospitals/Health-Centre's, Transportation, Electricity(power generation) and capacity development through foreign educational scholarships, massive employment/empowerment generation, etc.
The number and size of projects embarked upon simultaneously by the Amaechi's administration, was so much that many persons/groups expressed worries and lamented openly that he was doing far too much at the same time, and feared if he could manage, fund and complete the said projects. However, he disappointed his critics, as all the projects progressed as designed without hitches and he completed majority of the projects. By the end of his first-term, the developmental outlook of RS had changed and wore a fresh look on all fronts of life, which offered a lot of hope. Then, at the beginning of his 2nd-term in office, RS had become a paradise for living, business, education and tourism, nicknamed "Rivers of Possibilities".
Unfortunately, the Rivers of political disaster surfaced when the incumbent governor, Barr, Wike, as former Jnr. Minister for Education, greedily capitalized on a fracas that occurred between the former First Lady, Mrs Jonathan and former governor Amaechi, during an event in Okrika, to design his evil plot and "Bloody Match To Power". Wike utilized his closeness to the Jonathan's family as a serving minister, nominated by Amaechi, to ensure that the cleavage which erupted between the duo of the then president's wife and former governor was never settled, but rather widened to his benefit.
The present day Rivers of political instability and governance calamity began with the open "rape of the judiciary" by Gov. Wike and his cohorts, as brandished via the sudden dethronement of Late Chief G.U. Ake as the then RVS-PDP Chairman and the subsequent enthronement of Bro Felix Obuah as the substantive Chairman, when Obuah didn't vie for the said position at any given time in this life and was no where near the venue of the Rivers-PDP convention he claimed to have won, via an apparent compromised Federal high court verdict. Wike's exploits in the judiciary as time went on, gave birth to the courts being popularly referred to as, "Wike's Supermarkets", where he can procure judgements at will.
At this juncture, with the state party(PDP) structure in Wike's hands, the sky became his limit, the next move was to suspend and expel a serving governor from the party, having successfully overthrown the governor as leader of the party, applying delegated powers from the then presidency. Unfortunately for him, Amaechi was miles ahead, wisely stopping any such moves with prerequisite litigations. Meanwhile, the APC storm had started gathering momentum at this time.
Within same period, the Nigerian Governors Forum(NGF) elections and it's accompanying brouhaha took the center stage. The Presidency assumed this was an opportunity to further diminish Amaechi's political clout, hence the Presidency unequivocally stood against CRA's quest for a 2nd tenure in office as NGF chairman.
The Presidency's interest in the NGF election, resulted to wide media publicity on the matter and raised serious level of anxiety within the national polity. Attempts by the Presidency and her instrumentalities to stop CRA from contesting the said election failed, moves to stop the election also hit the rock, then the presidency opted to sponsor a candidate, but this worsened the case, when H.E CRA defeated H.E Jang, being the president's candidate. In a bid to save the president from such embarrassment, his faction went ahead to wrongly declare their candidate who scored sixteen(16) votes winner, as against H.E. CRA who scored nineteen(19) votes as declared at the venue of the election. Hence, the presidency succeeded in balkanizing the then NGF.
Consequently, the battle line became properly drawn, between the then presidency and former governor of Rivers State, the major beneficiary being governor Wike.
"Project bring governor Amaechi down", was now more important to the presidency, than any other project.
At some point, speculations emerged on efforts by CRA, in company of selected elder statesmen who approached the former president to seek for peace and reconciliation in the interest of the state. However, after their visit to Aso-Rock, nothing changed, as the "bring down Amaechi project" was a done deal.
The first major "rape of democratic tenants" in RS occurred when the former First Lady, acting in concert with governor Wike and former CP Mbu Mbu, violently attempted to mutiny the RS House of Assembly leadership, with a target to impeach H.E. CRA as governor. On a day when only five(5), out of a thirty-two(32) member State Assembly, were accompanied into the hallow chambers by political thugs/cultists, to attack and dislodge twenty-six Assembly members, who were loyal to Amaechi and had earlier refused all forms of threats, poaching/inducements to betray CRA. On that faithful day, the invaders succeeded in dispersing the majority of Assembly members by violent means, with police backing, but were equally dislodged minutes later(all thanks to Hon. Chidi Lyod), just as they where already pronouncing impeachment proceedings against H.E. CRA, after illegally and undemocratically installing Hon. Evans Bipi as new Speaker.
The once progressing and peaceful "Rivers state of Possibilities", became a theatre of war, as architected by governor Wike. On one occasion, the incumbent governor as Jnr. Minister, publicly declared that "CRA will not know peace, nor sleep with both eyes closed, until he is brought down". The Supreme Court of Nigeria, in the case of "relocation of Rivers Election Petitions Tribunals to Abuja, Wike(PDP) vs Dakuku(APC)", held that truly, "Rivers State was a theatre of war, before, during and after the election, hence the lives of judiciary workers cannot be put to risks", thereby validated the relocation of the Rivers election petition tribunals proceedings to Abuja, for security reasons.
Apparently, the former governor's concentration became disrupted/distracted and his developmental schedule completely scuttled. The state assembly now had two factions/leaderships, the Amaechi's Assembly had twenty-six(26) members, led by Rt. Hon. Otele, while the Wike's faction had just five(5) members, led by Hon. Evans Bipi, a close associate and one time aide of Mrs Jonathan, which led to the Assembly complex being shut down and barricaded indefinitely, by CP Mbu on account of orders from Abuja.
Furthermore, after failing to take over the legislature by barbaric means, an equal attack was launched at the judiciary, where the junior minister and his Abuja cabal attempted to highjack the state judiciary, but met a stiff resistance from CRA, leading to a stalemate, which culminated into the judiciary complex and her institutions being shutdown indefinitely.
Militants and cultists of all kinds were mobilized and unleashed against CRA's political family and interest, with a clear order to kill, maim, destroy and bring-down everybody/anybody in RS who dares to support CRA. As God will permit, about same period, a new political party(APC) emerged, bringing succor to CRA and a few other aggrieved/endangered governors, hence they fully embraced and joined the APC, alongside scores of their political allies and supporters. This is the point at which the rubicon was crossed.
Governor Wike violently launched his ambition to be governor, knowing very well that it will be a big let down to other ethnic nationalities in Rivers State, considering that he hails from Ikwere, same as his erstwhile benefactor CRA, who was on the verge of concluding his eight(8) years tenure and had signaled his intention to support a transition of power, to a successor that will emerge from other ethnic regions(riverine). In the process, uncountable number of persons, prominently those who were opposed to governor Wike's ambition lost their lives and many properties destroyed.
The Wike's governorship ambition was so dramatic and unarguably took a very violent, uncivilized, undemocratic and barbaric dimension, even within his own party, where those opposed to his emergence were threatened, attacked and beaten to submission on several occasions. His opponents from the the APC were brazenly threatened, kidnapped, killed, maimed and their properties destroyed in some cases. The violent disposition of governor Wike continued even after the elections. The principal actors who perpetrated this criminal and dastard acts around the state, were identified, enumerated and then compensated with political positions and juicy govt contracts. This emboldened the monsters they created, thereby enlarged their criminal capacity and coast, as such, cultism and related crimes flourished under the watch of Wike as governor, then culminated into heightened insecurity in Rivers state, which attracted national, international and local condemnation/outcry.
The introduction of "Rivers Amnesty", intended as a solution to the booming insecurity, failed woefully, but only succeeded at the time in shielding those who masterminded the evil political violences from the eyes of the law afterwards. Majority of those recently killed and arrested by the federal security agencies, who intervened to forestall the heightened insecurity situation from degenerating further in Rivers State, are known beneficiaries of the "Wike's Amnesty", many of whom are still on the loose indulging in several crimes.
Today, as the buildup to the 2019 general elections envelopes Nigeria(RS), governor Wike's quest, ambition to remain governor for another tenure has resurfaced, though obviously not predicated on his excellent performance in office or positive popularity as to win a free and fair election, but on his bragging ability to manipulate the electoral system/processes and his relationship with men of the underworld.
Regrettably, the governor seems to have forgotten so soon how his party(PDP) lost the largest two Senatorial Districts, many House of Representative and State Assembly positions to RVS-APC, this includes Wike's own Senatorial district, after the Legislative rerun elections of March 19th and December 10th 2016.
This is a clear manifestation that the election of 2015, which ushered in Wike as governor, was grossly manipulated amidst very high degree of violence against his opponents.
In conclusion, just like I did solemnly declare that, "I will resign from politics" should Distinguish Senator Magnus Abe fail to win the December 10th 2016 legislative rerun election, if governor Wike eventually wins a 2nd term in office at the impending 2019 gubernatorial election and gets away with all the atrocities himself and his cronies perpetrated in RS, by any crooked means, with his politics of corruption, violence, intimidation, manipulation and misgovernment in retrospect, I Ken-Minimah, will resign from active/partisan politics and possibly relocate out of RS, or change my political stance and perspective.
I make this declaration with all sense of responsibility and seriousness it deserves.
My life is in God's hands and I belong to Him.
Egberi fah!!
Ken Minimah.
24/3/2018.
