Mr. Ogbonna Nwuke, was Commissioner of
Information and Communications and later
Commissioner for Commerce and Industry when
Mr. Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi was governor of
Rivers State. He also represented Etche/Omuma
federal constituency in the House of
Representatives. In this interview, Ogbonna
speaks extensively on the state of the All
Progressives Congress, APC, in the state.
Excerpts:


THERE is reported tension in the APC in the state.
In your local government area, you emerged
protem leader of the party’s caucus. What is the
state of things now?


I was only protem chairman to address a
vacuum. Now, we have a substantive chairman
for the caucus. All we wanted then was a change
in leadership, now Mr. Reginald Okwuoma is the
new leader. Politics is driven by interest.
Sometimes in pursuit of the interest, we create
the impression that something is amiss. But I
have a different opinion in my party.
I believe what we see is the expression coming
from the people, voices are saying we want to be
part of the decision, we must participate, voices
are embracing the primary kernel that drives the
APC which is change; we are saying we should
conduct things in the right manner. Politics is
driven by interest and those interest come with
its own conflict. We are progressives, not
conservatives. What you are seeing now is
expected. We are gradually moving to a phase of
political development, so people are offering
themselves for leadership. There is also some
followership within the system.


There is this allegation that the Minister of
Transportation, Mr. Amaechi is forcing down his
opinion on everyone in the party and some say it
is responsible for the tension in the system. Is
this true?

No. What the Minister of Transportation is trying
to force down the line is order, that we need to
rebuild and rebrand our party, that the pursuit of
leadership interest could create problem for the
system, divert attention from the major things we
need to do. After the elections, we sat down to
say we need to look at the party machine, look at
how we conducted ourselves in the last few
years. To place the interest of the party above
every other interest. People are getting it wrong.
Politics can be played. If you have ambition you
mask it until the right time. To be aggressive in
the pursuit of interest can be unwholesome. What
is going on in my party is all about strengthening
the party. I believe the changes in the party are
the changes we need.


Is it true that governorship ticket for 2019, is
tearing your party apart?

People say the journey of one thousand miles
begins with one step. No member of the party has
said in the open that he or she is running for
governorship. When there is inactivity among
politicians they create one, people are talking,
moving but it does not suggest there is crisis in
the party. In political parties, there should be
order. I think what the minister is doing is to
ensure that the ambition of a few of us does not
truncate the prime purpose of the party which is
to grab power. I do not imagine that there is
anything wrong in the party.
The changes you see in the party is part of the
collective decision to reengineer the party, give
room for younger ones to be active in the party. If
you see the changes that have taken place, it
brought in younger persons. This is the time to
give youths room to be active.


Governor Nyesom Wike has accused former
commissioners in that government of being
forced to pay money monthly to Amaechi’s wife.
Did you do such?

It is false. I did not do it, nobody asked me to do
it. Maybe Nyesom, when he was Chief of Staff
collected such money and pretended to have
given it to the governor or his wife.
But let me say nobody ever asked me to give
money to the wife of the former governor. It is not
true, it is not founded and it is not verifiable. I
speak the truth the best way I can. Nobody ever
requested money from me for the wife of the
governor
Pet projects are definable. If you make
contributions to a pet project you see what it is
used for. And it is voluntary. If you don’t have,
nobody forces you. It is wrong for somebody to
come on air as governor to tell lies to score
political points. Like I said I am not aware
anybody made monthly donations to the wife of
the former governor. Amaechi that I know, is a
stickler for transparency. He was concerned
about development of the state. Rivers state was
work in progress during his time. I am amazed
with what Wike said. For him, maybe he is playing
politics. And that is the best way he plays politics.
I do know that there were people who came up
with belly infrastructure. The man in government
today was one of them. Amaechi came from a
humble background and felt he should provide
qualitative education. He declared education
emergency in the state, built schools, sent
students abroad. He created a new generation of
qualified youths. We created Rives state
sustainable development agencies to get a Rivers
state beyond oil, we saw the Songhai farm, the
growth in the agricultural sector under Amaechi.
Government should be a continuum. In two years,
tell me that iconic project that the government of
Rivers state has done. When Amaechi was in
government he would say who started a project
and he completed them Wike wants people to
believe that projects started by Amaechi were his
project just because he completed them. It shows
a man who does not know the line between
decency and selfishness.


Is there anything wrong when another
government completes abandoned projects?
For me that is why I said government is a
continuum. No one government can finish
everything it started. So I don’t see anything
wrong with that. What I see is that you don’t give
credit to the man who started them. Give credit to
whom it is due.

Wike has said he will not revisit the monorail
project started by Amaechi, how do you react?
Amaechi’s government was futuristic with that
project. Let us look at the roads, the expansion of
roads was to open the city and reduce traffic.
Everywhere in the world, you must diversify your
transportation sector. The monorail project was to
be the beginning of an internal rail network for
faster transportation system. Like you see in the
United kingdom, you don’t have need to drive
because of the efficient transport system. If the
governor, in his wisdom, thinks the project is not
necessary so be it for him. But I think I have
heard many said what Amaechi started was the
way to the future. All governments should have
been doing is adding to it and maybe in the next
fifty years we would have had a proper and
thorough rail system.

www.vanguardngr.com/2017/07/amaechi-forcing-order-rivers-apc-nwuke/

Then force the order back up

CHOPUP411:
Then force the order back up

Read the write up. He is forcing down "the right kinda order"
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