Governor of Rivers State, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi has
opened a can of worms on the frosty relationship
between him, President Goodluck Jonathan and the
First Lady, Dame Patience Jonathan.

Amaechi, who
is Chairman of the Nigeria Governors Forum, NGF,
told journalists at an interactive session in Port
Harcourt, the Rivers capital weekend, that while
the First Lady wanted to rule the state by proxy,
her husband, President Jonathan, wanted to cripple
the state economically to the advantage of his
home state, Bayelsa. But he refused to allow both
of them have their way, hence, the once rosy
relationship turned sour.

Mrs. Jonathan, like Amaechi is from Rivers State.
Bayelsa was also part of the old Rivers State.

The frosty relationship between the governor on
one hand and the president and his wife on the
other hand is at the root of the present political
crisis in the oil rich state with the State House of
Assembly under lock and key following the
polarization of the Assembly along the line of pro
and anti-Amaechi lawmakers.

The state Assembly, comprising of 31 members is
unevenly divided with six lawmakers purportedly
encouraged by the presidency attempting to hijack
the legislative arm of government from the
majority, who are considered pro-Amaechi and are
25 in number.

He said: “The wife of the President wanted to
macro-manage governance in Rivers State and I
said no, you cannot. I was elected. If I fail, they will
not say the wife of the President failed; they will
say Governor Amaechi failed. I am accountable to
God, men and women of Rivers State.

“The wife of the President was not elected the
Governor of Rivers State. I was elected. I am not in
any way the wife of the President. I am the
Governor of Rivers State, married to Judith
Amaechi.

“I am telling you why they want to crucify me. This
fight is about change. It is about good governance.
It is about accountability. They do not like Rivers
State. They hate us. We are losing. Tell me one
thing that Rivers State has gained from being part
of the South South under Goodluck Jonathan’s
Presidency”.

The governor, who was elected on the platform of
the Peoples Democratic Party but defected along
with four other governors to the All Progressives
Congress (APC) recently, also laid the blame for the
resurgence of militancy and kidnapping in the
state at the doorstep of the First Lady.

“By the time the wife of President Jonathan
brought out the militants, we had almost got to
zero point of no kidnapping in Port Harcourt. Where
we were witnessing kidnapping were villages near
Bayelsa and Abia States. We were thinking of how
to go there with military surge, to chase the
criminals back to their bases”, he said.

Amaechi added that his principled stand has
earned him reproach from the president’s wife,
who, according to him, is bent on removing him
from office using federal power.

“She also held a Security Council meeting with
them in Otuoke (President Jonathan’s hometown in
Ogbia LGA of Bayelsa State), declaring that they
would use federal ‘mighty’ (instead of might). But
we have God Almighty.

“Is there any governor that has passed through
what I passed through that is still alive? I am still
talking as the Governor of Rivers State because
there is God. They can use their federal ‘mighty,’
but I depend on the Almighty God.”

He also accused President Jonathan of not helping
the situationby trying to under-develop Rivers at
the expense Bayelsa State.

He cited the Zonal Air Force originally earmarked
for Rivers by the late President Umaru Yar’Adua
but which was relocated to Bayelsa and the
transfer of Soku oil wells to Bayelsa as some of the
perceived ill-treatment the state got from Mr.
Jonathan despite voting massively for him in the
2011 presidential elections.

“The Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas Company (on
Bonny Island in Rivers State) is even the worst. The
members of the board and management of the
NLNG came to me and pleaded with me to speak
with the NNPC (Nigerian National Petroleum
Corporation) to allow them to do Train Seven in
Bonny, that will employ 10,000 Rivers people”, he
said.

“I approached the NNPC and I went to the
Petroleum Ministry. I do not want to call names,
because most of them are my friends. They told me
no. I thought it was a joke. That time, there was no
quarrel between me and President Jonathan,
because we had just finished elections (2011) and
we were still chummy-chummy.

“I met with President Jonathan to kindly speak with
officials of the NNPC and the Petroleum Ministry to
allow NLNG to build Train Seven. President
Jonathan said he wanted them to finish Brass LNG
in his Bayelsa State, before they could build Bonny
NLNG’s Train Seven. Mr. President said no and that
he directed the officials of the NNPC and the
Petroleum Ministry to say what they said.

“Mr. President said right from when he was the
Deputy Governor of Bayelsa State, he had been
trying to get the Brass LNG and wants to get it now
that he is the President. You cannot force investors.
So, we must wait for Bayelsa State before Rivers
State can grow.

“The implication is that Rivers State will not grow
until Goodluck Jonathan finishes his Presidency. Is
that a good government? Is that a good party?
Should I remain there? If I was lying, they would
have replied me. What is Southsouth President?
There is only one thing in politics, which is interest.
You cannot play politics of Nigeria with religion or
ethnicity”.

He added: “They took Soku oil wells from us and
they took 41 oil wells from Etche to Abia State.
Should I remain in that kind of party that is
denying Rivers State its resources?

“When I said they could not account for N2.3
trillion for oil subsidy, they said what is your
source? I was in a meeting with President Jonathan.
Nigerians never knew that governors went on
strike for three months. We refused to collect our
monthly allocations, because we told President
Jonathan that under Yar’Adua late Umaru under
Gen. Obasanjo (former President Olusegun), the
total oil subsidy was N300 billion.

“The first year of President Goodluck Jonathan, in
2011, oil subsidy became N2.3 trillion. Did we buy
more machines, more human beings in Nigeria, we
had 24 hours power supply, things have changed
in Nigeria, that we now consume N2.3 trillion from
N300 billion?”

He also denied the allegation that he was working
against the administration of a fellow South-
southerner.

His words: “Who is a South South President? For
me, a Southsouth President is the man who feels
for me and cares.

“For them to be doing the East-West Road (from
Oron in Akwa Ibom State, through Ogoniland in
Rivers State to Bayelsa, Delta, Edo, Ondo and Ogun
States, terminating in Lagos State), I had to fight
the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs (Elder Godsday
Orubebe).

“They said they would borrow money. They
borrowed money and are now doing the East-West
Road. The Southsouth President should have
borrowed the money since 2011 that he came in
and completed the East-West Road.

“Unfortunately, Yar’Adua is not alive to speak for
himself. I was part of the people who sat down with
Yar’Adua to start the designing of coastal rail from
Cross River, Akwa Ibom, Rivers, Bayelsa, Delta,
Edo, Ondo and Ogun States, up to Lagos State.
Have you heard of it again?”

He recalled a meeting he had with the late
President Yar’Adua who, he said, asked what the
Federal Government could do for Rivers State to
stem militancy.

Amaechi said he suggested the provision of a
skills’ acquisition centre and the then President
proceeded to award contracts for the project to
‘prominent Rivers people’ only for President
Jonathan, on replacing Yar’Adua, to sack the
contractors.

The contracts, he added, were then re-awarded to
other people.
“For four years, the Federal Government’s skills’
acquisition centre is yet to be completed. It is not
about the contractor not working. They are not
funding the contractor, because the project is in
Rivers State,” he said.

Amaechi also looked at the party he left and
declared that PDP is fast drowning ahead of the
2015 elections.

According to him, more PDP governors will defect
to the APC and that the PDP could only win in 2015
by rigging.

He described the APC as the change agent Nigeria
needs at this point in its history.
He said that by March 2014 the APC would have
become the majority party in the Senate.

Amaechi said, “We are gradually forming
government. We have taken over the House of
Representatives. Before March (2014), we will take
over the Senate. Just watch out.

“The pressure will mount so much that they
(Senators) will move from the PDP into APC. For
now, it is narrowing down closely everyday and we
are counting. Watch out before March, if we will not
have the number we are looking for”.
He also used the opportunity to debunk reports
that he impregnated Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole
Soyinka’s daughter and that his wife, Judith, had
run away from Government House, Port Harcourt,
saying the rumour was spread by his political
detractors.

“I read a story that I impregnated Prof. Wole
Soyinka’s (Nobel laureate’s) daughter. That she is
living in my house and my wife has run away. The
story was bad. I had to call back my wife, so that
they would know that she had not divorced me.
She was not planning to do Christmas in Nigeria.
“She (Judith Amaechi) is back to see her husband,
spend time with the husband, do some of her
functions as wife of the governor, so that they will
know that I am still married. Not just that I am still
married, I am a Catholic.

“My marriage is as solid as a Catholic marriage.
There is absolutely no room for divorce. What you
have is room for annulment. There is only one
ground for annulment of marriage in Catholic
Church that is the marriage never took place. That
means the woman either deceived him to marry
her or the man deceived her into marrying him.
Any other thing is called for better, for worse”, he
asserted.

www.informationng.com/2013/12/amaechi-goes-ballistic-on-jonathan-first-lady.html

Amaechi the preacher. This man go reali make money as pastor because he will have very massive church members nd followers because he really knows how to thrill. All hail king Amaechi

Wish APC would pit him against GEJ in 2015! Then we'll see who really is seen as a performer by the south south

We have heard this Sermon many times.pls,change your sermon.

Shows GEJ is not a sectional president.

If I hear!

The lDIOTIC Governor failed woefully to realise that he's talking to the hearing of intelligent, sane adult minds.



So this is what is expected of APC?
THUNDER FIRE SATAN.

ywans!! Amaechi @ personality slander again. Nothing new. People should just make sure this is the only political position this man would get cos his attention seeking is too much