Governor Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State has said
President Goodluck Jonathan “is supervising a
highly corrupt government.”
He also claimed that “there is no democracy yet in
Nigeria.”
The governor, who spoke in Abuja on Saturday,
insisted that he had no personal quarrel with
President Jonathan, adding that if governance
could be separated from the President, he
(Jonathan) “remains a good man.”
He, however, regretted that the President “is
supervising a highly corrupt government.”
He described the form of government being
practised in Nigeria today as diarchy.
While reacting to the invasion of the National
Assembly by the police on Thursday, Amaechi
described the action as uncivilised.
He said the actions of the police in recent times
had shown that they had been pocketed by the
Presidency and the ruling Peoples Democratic
Party.
He said, “We don’t have democracy in Nigeria yet.
What we have is diarchy. We don’t have a
democracy. Diarchy is dictatorship. The Federal
Government has appropriated the police as its
personal property. The FG has taken over the
police. See the way the police took over the
National Assembly. By law, the police have no
power to invade the National Assembly and they
have no power to stop the Speaker from going in
or out of the National Assembly complex. But
they don’t obey law.”
He insisted that his party, the All Progressives
Congress, would not go to court if the PDP
decided to rig the 2015 presidential elections.
Instead of going to court, he said the APC would
form a parallel government.
He said, “What is the essence of going to court
when the Federal Government don’t obey the law.
That’s why the APC say we won’t go to the court
any longer. If you rig us out, we would rig
ourselves in; which means if you think you can rig
us out in 2015, we will form our own government.
We have met on that and we have agreed on that.
We will instal our own government and there
would be two governments.
“The only way to avoid a parallel government is to
have a free and fair election. You can’t continue
to use the police as if it is a private agency or
company of the government.”
While saying that the Police in South Africa is
currently investigating President Jacob Zuma, he
wondered if the police in Nigeria would be
allowed to play such a role in the country.
“Are you aware that the President of the South
Africa is being probed by the police? Can that
happen here? In this country, they slap judges.
Seven members of a state (Ekiti) House of
Assembly claimed they have sacked a Speaker,”
he added.
On Boko Haram, the governor said it would be
difficult to convince Nigerians that the Federal
Government was not deliberately allowing the
crisis to continue in order for it to decimate the
votes that would come from the North-East in
2015.
The zone is considered to be a stronghold of the
APC.
Amaechi said Nigerians knew the capability of
their soldiers, who he said went to Liberia and
liberated the country from the hands of the
rebels only for them to be having problems
dislodging a rag-tag army of insurgents in the
country.
He said, “The Federal Government deliberately
allowed the Boko Haram to overrun many villages
in the North-East. If it is not a political agenda,
why would the military not be able to chase away
the rag-tag army of Boko Haram?
“They don’t want elections to hold in the zone so
that there wouldn’t be election in the zone. If
there is no election in the North-East, they believe
that the APC would lose.
“If they are not afraid of the APC, let them restore
law and order. The zone is in the hands of the
APC. Borno, Bauchi, Gombe, Adamawa and Yobe
states are all APC states. The only state where it
could be 50:50 is maybe Taraba State. Apart from
this, other states in the zone have always voted
for Maj.Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, one of our
presidential hopefuls.”