₦airaland Forum

Akpako continues

Action Congress Of Nigeria(ACN),
Rivers State Secretariat,
No 1, Isaac Boro Street Old GRA, Portharcourt, Rivers State
Tel: 08055061296

Press Release

It has come to the notice of the Action Congress of Nigeria, Rivers state Chapter that Mr. Lai Mohammed, National Publicity Secretary of the party, has been issuing statements on the unfortunate events unfolding in Rivers state. We the ACN in Rivers Chapter know the true picture of events that are unfolding in Rivers State.
And we know that in this incidence the main culprit is Governor Rotimi Chuibike Amaechi, who during the last electioneering campaign and election, sealed up the Campaign Secretariat of Dr. Abiye Precious Sekibo, used the Nigerian security agencies to arrest and intimidate our members. When all this was going on, Mr. Lai Mohammed did not send us word of encouragement or support, as a party in Rivers state.
Political parties have structures; starting from the Ward level to the National Headquarters. It is against the party’s constitution for the National Publicity Secretary to usurp the functions of the party at the State, Local and Ward levels. We as members of the ACN in Rivers state, have never met and passed a resolution or informed the National Headquarters of the ACN that we want President Goodluck Jonathan, the Commander-in-Chief of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, to be impeached. Mr. Lai Mohammed should respect the high office he holds as Publicity Secretary of our great party.
Consequently, we the Executive and members of the Rivers State Chapter of the ACN totally disown the call for the impeachment of President Goodluck Jonathan, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces. We unanimously condemn the hasty action and resolution passed by one arm of the National Assembly – the House of Representatives, to take over the business of the Rivers State House of Assembly.
We however commend the Nigerian Senate for the unbiased and balanced position it has taken to send a fact-finding mission to Rivers State, and find out the true position of things. We also call on the Inspector General of Police not to heed the one-sided call for the deployment of Mr. Joseph Mbu the Rivers State Commissioner of Police, as Governor Rotimi Chuibike Amaechi had used the police to hunt down, harassed and intimidated members of the ACN party of Nigeria and other opposition parties in Rivers State.
We ask that the status-quo in Rivers State should be maintained until the fact-finding mission dispatched by the Senate, arrives to ascertain the true picture of events. We urge Rivers State people to be law-abiding, as whatever we do shall affect our people and not the likes of Mr. Lai Mohammed, the uninformed members of the House of Representatives and their acolytes, whose inciting statements would only ignite more fire for us to burn.
LONG LIVE ACN,
LONG LIVE RIVERS STATE,
LONG LIVE THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OPF NIGERIA!
Signed: Amonibia Akoko,
Secretary,
Action Congress Of Nigeria,(ACN)
Rivers State

Omisore has always been thuggish. Even his posters are thugged out.

Tinubu's model of democracy may be distasteful but there's no way people in their sound minds would vote omisore into office for 4 hours talk less of 4 years. What is going in this country

I just wish the smaller parties could pull an upset, these parties would be forced to stop throwing up people like this

mrakin: OP, the grammar too much, some of us attended 'modern 3' and evening school. Ah, oyinbo ti poju.
however, it is a balanced analysis.

No be me write am o! I wish I was that brilliant.

ijawkid: Ameachi is really really in trouble because the bolded is so correct about Mr president.....

Either way ameachi would have to regret his insubordination to Mr president...

He unrelentlessly keeps fighting the oga at the top he gets grounded,he concedes to Oga he still gets axed....

Wahala all over the guy......

Goodluck is the direct political son of OBJ and the adopted political son of Edwin Clark. Those two grandpas are known for NOT forgiving people

ShyM-X:
Interesting piece! Thanks for that, nku5.




^^^^Hmmmmmmmmmm

So Wole Soyinka was right after all...

“That's the trouble with you young people. You think because you ain't been here long, you know everything. In my life I already forgot more than you ever know.” - Neil Gaiman

You're welcome buddy. Shy-MX is ma nigga. I never could stand shymmex

Tinubu is just being plain mischievous. He should get his mind off oil and say the truth. The wahala began with Amaechi's removal of the Obio-Akpor Local government chairman

Pretty long but its by a real Rivers State man not the rest of us who only read the news.

RIVERS STATE: GOVERNMENT ON FURLOUGH

Those who think the current political happenings in Rivers state will bludgeon the governor of the state, Rt. Hon. Chibuike Amaechi into some kind of acquiescence are sorely mistaken. This is so because the governor has nothing like fear in his DNA. Not as if he is so brave or such a man of great courage, but simply because he will not, and never thinks about consequences. Those who call him brash, arrogant and uncouth do so simply because they do not know him. These traits they describe did not just drop from the skies when he began his political career, that has been the persona of the governor.

I do not agree that the governor does not respect the president. I think he does. However, I perceive from my understanding of psychology that the governor has just not enough courtesy to pay to anyone, naturally; and man cannot give what he does not have. It is therefore unfair to expect the same level of composure and social compliance from every individual.

Through the scope of a psychoanalytic lens, all humans are described as having sexual and aggressive drives. Psychoanalytic theorists believe that human behaviour is deterministic. It is governed by irrational forces, and the unconscious, as well as instinctual and biological drives. Due to this deterministic nature, psychoanalytic theorists do not believe in free will. Legendry psychologist Sigmund Freud determined that the personality consists of three different elements, the id, the ego and the superego. He concluded that due to the instinctual quality of the id, it is impulsive and often unaware of implications of actions.

I have been till now more of an observer than a critic of Governor Chibuike Amaechi, not because his performance as governor has fascinated me, but because I believe his disruptive emergence as governor was by the finger of the Most High. The advantage of his entry mode is that the insignia of the Dr. Peter Odili administration had been stripped off by providence, and he rode majestically into the state on the high crest of the waves of anti-Odili sentiments. The people desperately yearned for that departure, so much so that the rumours of atmospherics between the governor and his estranged godfather excited the masses.

His early years as governor were marked with action, landmark stride in infrastructural development and effective social schemes targeted at the grass root, and it was a significant break from the past. Amaechi was everywhere. He rode on his impressive power bike with the unmistakable verve of a typical 'Port Harcourt boy'. He appeared in neighbourhoods unannounced, popped into local bars, restaurants and fast food kiosks for a meal with his usually small team of escorts. He personally supervised projects he had initiated in the state, and like a young man building his first little bungalow to impress a new wife, he was in a hurry. The expectation was very high, and so were the stakes. And candidly, in those years even his political adversaries had to be quiet.

Governor Amaechi's vision for his state was clear and unambiguous, and he had the nerves to deliver. His zest was infectious, and in just a few months he had become some sort of local Bill Clinton. People wondered how he could have been speaker for eight years and was unable to sell this vision to Dr. Peter Odili. It was clear that he came in very prepared, and he had great social intercourse with the state. And so at the expiration of his first term, I voted for him for a second. He didn't need to campaign.

On all counts of his political ascension, the governor had ridden on the back of political heavyweights and godfathers until his sudden victory at the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court verdict and the circumstances that drove Amaechi and his men to court changed the political landscape in the state. It was an instant funeral for all political godfathers in the state, and the making of an all-powerful governor, loyal to none. This was the beginning of albatross for the state, because like they say, absolute power, unchecked power, corrupts absolutely.

The absoluteness of his powers (with a very plastic legislative arm), his popularity induced by infrastructural transformation engineered by his administration coupled with his usually misinterpreted aggressive persona, transformed Governor Amaechi into some sort of Asiwaju of Rivers state. Dreaded by royal fathers, elders and politicians who fear his impudence and flippancy, the political space was set for a home run by the governor. It was an unchallenged home run that triggered complacency.

Being more of an activist, the governor has never been a gifted grass root connector. The engine of his political machine was domiciled in the native wits of his right-hand man, Nyesom Wike. While Amaechi focused on delivering the dividends, Wike was the 'native doctor' responsible for servicing the political machine. Wike, like Okonkwo in Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart, grew in fame, and became known in all the political crevices of the state. But just after the inauguration of the governor for a second term, things fell apart, and the centre could no longer hold. Amaechi began to scan for the viruses in his political machine, but what he failed to understand was that the engine was gone.

It is sheer ignorance to idolize any party in the Rivers crises. They are one and the same family and variegated satellites of the political chess master and evil genius of Rivers politics, Dr. Peter Odili. Odili ran the state with his own set of Machiavellian rubric, and all his protégés have found a way to develop theirs. His political house was codified on concentric layers of betrayals and disloyalty, which spurned after the death of Dr. Marshal Harry.

Governor Amaechi's Machiavellian methods are derived from the former. His is pitched on a haughty, unyielding and contumacious spirit. While these traits work for revolutionary activists, they seldom are productive for democrats.

The governor's erratic outbursts range from the tacky to the jaw dropping. The cascading support of stakeholders, especially of the Rivers-Ijaws, has deepened the chasm of the upland/Riverine dichotomy in the state. It has degenerated to an embarrassing point that many Kalabari-Ijaw progressives in the state privately express support for the ceding of their (Soku) oil wells, which are duly Rivers' to Bayelsa state (as long as Amaechi remains governor). For them, it is a political stroke that the governor deserves for ignoring their area in his development agenda. This move has a political consequence, but like the governor, right now, they simply do not care.

While Nyesom Wike helped buffer some of these political deficiencies by deftly managing the governor's political base, the former National Security Adviser, late General Andrew Owoye Azazi helped manage the governor's relationship with the president. General Azazi, an intelligent military spy understood the persona of the governor, he could tune the governor's psychology. He understood that the governor was not a bad man, but one who needed plenty of time to manage, and Azazi gave him that time. Unfortunately, the president does not have that much time, the General is no more, and Wike has gone his own way.

As I write, the state ministries of health, environment and others are on strike because the governor has refused to shift his grounds, the state university is still in chaos, and ASUU chapter leaders revolting; his political platform, the Peoples Democratic Party in the state is out of the governor's control, the governor himself has been suspended by a party he has sacrificed so much for. He has scores to settle with his benefactor, Dr. Odili, his former Chief of Staff, and most founding members of the party in state. What exactly could be wrong?

As speaker of the Rivers State House Assembly, the governor presided over the most peaceful assembly. He managed his relationship with every member of the legislature so well that they usually were unanimous in their votes. He was loyal to his party and to his boss Dr. Peter Odili, even when he disagreed with his governor, never did he question Governor Odili's position in public. So when did his disloyalty begin?

The gradual erosion of the governor's enigma in state began just after his election as the chairman of the very influential Nigeria Governors Forum. While it offered the governor a national platform, it quickly became a major distraction for the governor. With all these responsibilities, one would have expected the governor to delegate certain crucial responsibilities to his deputy, Engr. Tele Ikuru - who by my estimation is the smartest technocrat in the Amaechi cabinet- but he didn't. The impact of the governor's absence began to reflect on the progress of his many laudable projects especially with a severely sidelined and under-used deputy governor.

The beautiful modern health centres he started across the state are yet to be completed; the wonderful primary and secondary school buildings across the state are yet to be completed; the mega hospital started since the year of his inauguration is stalled; the monorail project is failing; the urban water scheme yet to take off; hundreds of roads in the city completely failed and sufficiently solicitous of rehabilitation; the trans-Kalabari road and several others alike remain stalled, and have become puns for political bargaining.

In a space of twelve months the governor suspended 13 local government council chairmen (Okrika, Obio/Akpor, Andoni, Ikwerre, Akuku-Toru, Asari-Toru, Okrika, Ahoada-West, Ahoada- East, Ogba/Egbema/ Ndoni, Opobo/Nkoro, Emohua and Ogu/Bolo) and the reasons put forward by the state government for the sacking, in all cases, were absolutely ridiculous.

The shameful incident at Rivers state House of Assembly is an ignominious and reprehensible indictment on the electoral process that begot those legislators and also shows the calibre of men(boys) that the governor and his former chief of staff - Nyesom Wike imposed on the people of Rivers state. These two political gladiators handpicked these members when the going was good. Most of them (except the very few well bred likes of Josiah Olu) are inveterate thugs and intellectual invertebrates, lacking in core and substance.

Politics is about survival. And one way nations and presidents survive is by instilling fear in their adversaries. President Obama's calm mien in the United States has not helped him much in towing his policies. Democratic senators have expressed their concern about President Obama's inability to effectively use traditional presidential whips.

In their masterpiece titled 'Obama in the doldrum', John F. Harris, Jake Sherman Elizabeth Titus, political editors for Politico revealed that a wide variety of congressional Democrats and presidential scholars in the United States have said in interviews that there is a major decisive factor behind Obama’s current paralysis: his own failure to use the traditional tools of the presidency to exert his will.

They wrote: "Obama does not instil fear — one of the customary instruments of presidential power. Five years of experience, say lawmakers of both parties, have demonstrated that there is not a huge political or personal cost to be paid for crossing the president."

The nature of presidential intimidation varies with civilization and in a country like Nigeria, it may happen in the brashest form. There is always the 'Mr. President, doesn't need to know' moment in every presidency anywhere in the World, when surrogates of the president use presidential nexus to pummel political adversaries to the extent that system allows.

While President Jonathan 'may not need to know', his surrogates are spearheading a calculated onslaught against Governor Chibuike Amaechi. The president's silence is a deadly wink of approval, and the governor understands the intrigues because he himself is master of intimidating political adversaries. My only concern is that in the continued pummelling of the governor, the zealous presidential surrogates backed by the federal apparatus may not have an end-game strategy, and this kerfuffle may get really ugly.

The intention of the anti-Amaechi brigade is to bludgeon the governor to submission. However, I do not think the governor has 'submission' in his DNA, so like a stubborn child, he will rather fight till he dies. Already, the government of the state is troubled. The legislature is on a furlough, the only active commissioner seems to be the commissioner of information, whose major goof in the 'Chidi Lloyd scandal' exposed the frustration in the government's information management mechanism.

In a quiet but lethal way, a pseudo state of emergency has 'occurred' in Rivers state. When a governor ceases to be the chief security officer of his state, technically his government has been grounded.

I am sure Governor Amaechi is ready for truce now, but those who understand his psychology tell privately that he hates defeat (just like the president). The governor is apprehensive of the president's history with his old adversaries, like Chief. Timipre Sylva, who after a truce with the president still got axed. For Mr. President's surrogates, they really do not see any political consequence in the state, they calculate that with or without the governor the President will win the state if he decides to run in 2015. They are very correct, but there are wider implications unforeseen.

In all these, my fear is that I do not see the change agents in the Nyesom Wike camp. The resurrection of the Restoration Team, the same folks who under Dr. Peter Odili recklessly plunged the state into a steady decline on all fronts, portends nothing better than danger for the state. The state is between the devil and the deep blue sea. But like the children of Isreal (in the Bible), the people of the state need a Moses who will part the sea, because onward they must.

Ross Alabo-George

Na wa for Nigerians o. Una see slaughtered cow with plenty of flesh and start to fight over bones.

To those following the herd to chant "fake fake" I'm not from the niger delta so I have nothing to gain by putting up a fake pic. The picture as already stated on this thread is from an esteemed historical group on facebook moderated by elite historians all above the age of 50.

The essence of this thread was to highlight the dark side of oil and all its dollars as it has affected the region where it was first discovered.

naptu2: I've stated many times on nairaland that I often visit NNP 1960-1980. There are many nairalanders who are members of the group. Some have even copied my pictures from nairaland (pictures I took with my own camera) and posted them on NNP 1960-1980.

Interesting. I never would have guessed so many people on this site are members. You must have a rich collection of pics. Consider an exhibition abeg, if you haven't already.

MacLovington: .

That's what Benin Empire/Ovonramen, Jaja of Opobo and some others saw and refused to sign away their freedom. So Oyinbo did everything they could to provoke them into a fight they knew they'd win owing to better technology.

Those were the real heroes of independence: they fought to preserve it instead of having to fight to get it back.

Imagine that all pre-colonial Nigerian kingdoms/states resisted oyinbo vehemently. They would have given up like they did in Ethiopia.

Bro you are spot on. If there had been resistance it may have been bloody like what ethiopia faced against the likes of italy. Oyibo would have called us bad market and moved elsewhere.

The egba kingdom actually succeeded in securing autonomy from being incorporated into nigeria but lugard doggedly destabilized their formidable structure by divide and rule and other means and sent in his troops. What ifs....

naptu2: If you want to see that picture and many more like it (both coloured and black and white) go to facebook and type "The Nigerian Nostalgia 1960 -1980 Project" in the search engine. It's a group that collects pictures of Nigeria that were taken between 1960-1980.

Make sure you read the rules before posting in the group.

I've always suspected you were a member of NNP mr naptu. Nice to confirm it. Did you comment on the picture too. Hmmm

BEDMON1900: Nairalanders does not even want to think once before tagging a comment to a post.....if i may ask,has there been colour picture printers in nigeria in 1960's..Haba Gbogbo wa ko ni omo oko nah

Bros plenty colour pictures dey o. Even the biafran airforce press corps took colour pictures during the war. See Carl Count Von Rosen, Willy Murray-Bruce (the black guy) and a couple of foreign pilots during the war.

@Ody Ody - Abi u don see am now.

Ody-Ody:
ok... yea you're right... saw some 1914 coloured pix on wiki
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Taj_Mahal_1921.JPG
But actually, this pix looks more like an artistic job... editing and stuffs like that. No proofs to your claims anyway... but if it truly was.... Hmmmmmm!!! Naija!

The printing process in the past was so rich that it was very rich in texture and quality. Colour pics were a novelty and were big on quality, done by professionals. Unlike the nonsense dpi calculations from our home printers of today.

Rooneyboy: Wow !

Are u for real

Yes i am. This is a french soldier in a trench in world war 1

Rooneyboy: Just one question

Did we have coloured cameras in the 60's

I really doubt this pic oooo.


.........To me, simply the thoughts and imagination of an artist .


That's alll

Ody-Ody:
The picture is a fake... There were no coloured cameras by then

Nah guys do a little research. There were colour photographs taken as far back as world war 1.

Abagworo: So beautiful. Africa was naturally beautiful.

Imagine if we had through trade managed to obtain oyibo man's technology, managed to stay uncolonised and trade with them... Lots of what ifs

Three Ak47s and one Rpg and ammo is hardly a large cache. BH must be starved of supplies. Now where is the source of the shipment. I pray they dont beat the driver to death before finding out

Oil spill at Oloibiri some years ago

VoodooDoll: It's a pity that their leaders are mostly too corrupt, incompetent and too bethroned to GEJ and PDP (and similar wasted politicians) to reverse the current tragedy.

These politicians really derailed this country from where it is supposed to be by now.. They had the opportunity to make this country the envy of the world by now. They would have been heroes.

I stumbled across this picture of a village taken in a village in the niger-delta before the environmental degradation set in.

Notice how clean the water was then. I can imagine the kind of fish they would have been feasting on back then. That part of the country also has good soil and used to be heavy on agriculture back then.

kaorama: They two are in Pirate confraternity

Na true o! Amaechi is a pyrate

But na wa o! So na so these ppl take waka go free. This country...

How could the OP leave out Sean Paul. "Get busy" was what brought sean paul out and his best work till today

DeLaRue: please don't forget Israel! where they came from originally

Oh, and Japan too.

So all you have to contribute to this discussion is this second hand cheapshot. Smh

aminho: Ginger

Swagga

~Bluetooth:
You can deny this but thankgod you accept the fact that ojuku ran away for biafran struggle.

I have analysed the entirety of the gutter style nonsense you posted in detail and all you can do is peck at miniscule irrelevant gibberish and run like a bytch.

I'll take it from the top with you is saro wiwa itsekiri?

~Bluetooth:
thankgod he lost the war else the minorities would have been worse than they are in Nigeria.

More nonsense. Despite the efforts of the divide and rule poison you people have been brewing you are still unable to prove where the "minorities" as u call them were suppressed or victimised by igbos or ojukwu during even during the heat of the biafran war.

The Nigerian state would have almost destroyed the ND people if not that they adopted militancy almost 15 years ago.

~Bluetooth:
Biafra is a fraudulent agenda, invented by a fraudulent ojuku and sold to his ethnic group but thankgod he lost the war else the minorities would have been worse than they are in Nigeria.

More garbage from a hot air factory. Eastern Nigeria of 1967 was made of igbos and many other ethnicities. Read the following and cook up a few more lies as usual asap -

http://www.historians.org/tl/lessonplans/nc/trask/biafdecl.htm

The following is taken from C. Odumegwu Ojukwu, Biafra Selected Speeches and Random Thoughts of C. Odumegwu Ojukwu (NY: Harper & Row, 1969), 191-196]

Resolution passed on May 27, 1967.

WE, THE Chiefs, Elders, and Representatives of Eastern Nigeria, gathered at this Joint Meeting of the Advisory Committee of Chiefs and Elders and the Consultative Assembly, do solemnly declare as follows:

WHEREAS we have been in the vanguard of the national movement for the building of a strong, united, and prosperous Nigeria where no man will be oppressed and have devoted our efforts, talents, and resources to this end;

WHEREAS we cherish certain inalienable human rights and state obligations such as the right to life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness; the right to acquire, possess, and defend property; the provision of security; and the establishment of good and just government based on the consent of the governed;

WHEREAS in practical demonstration of these beliefs, our people settled in other parts of Nigeria, served their country in many capacities, and contributed immensely to the growth and development of Nigeria;

WHEREAS WE ARE LIVING WITNESSES OF INJUSTICES AND ATROCITIES COMMITTED against Eastern Nigeria, among which are the premeditated murder of over 30,000 of our innocent men, women, and children by Northern Nigerians, the calculated destruction of the property of our sons and daughters, the shameless conversion of 2,000,000 Eastern Nigerians into refugees in their own country, all this without remorse;

WHEREAS in consequence of these and other acts of discrimination and injustice, we have painfully realized that the Federation of Nigeria has failed, and has given us no protection;

WHEREAS in spite of these facts, the government and people of Eastern Nigeria have persisted in their efforts to find a practical and just solution that would preserve the continued existence of Nigeria as one corporate unit and restore peace and confidence as demonstrated by the initiative of our military governor in getting all the military leaders together at Aburi, Ghana;

WHEREAS the hopes which the Aburi Agreement engendered have proved to be misplaced and have been destroyed by a series of acts of bad faith and distortions and finally by a refusal on the part of the "Lagos Government" to implement these and other agreements notwithstanding the fact that they were freely and voluntarily entered into;

WHEREAS the Federation of Nigeria has forfeited any claim to our allegiance by these acts and by the economic, political, and diplomatic sanctions imposed against us by the so-called Federal Government;

AND WHEREAS the object of government is the good of the governed and the will of the people its ultimate sanction;

NOW, THEREFORE, in consideration of these and other facts and injustices, we, the Chiefs, Elders, and Representatives of all the twenty provinces of Eastern Nigeria, assembled in this Joint Meeting of the Advisory Committee of Chiefs and Elders and the Consultative Assembly, at Enugu this 27th day of May, 1967, hereby solemnly:

MANDATE His Excellency Lieutenant Colonel Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, Military Governor of Eastern Nigeria, to declare at the earliest practicable date Eastern Nigeria a free, sovereign, and independent state by the name and title of the REPUBLIC OF BIAFRA.

Idoma Likita: A Chinese AK47 sells for 15k only!

Magazine na N1500 a piece!

Are you serious. Is it that cheap?