Rivers State Governor Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi assumed office exactly four years ago last Wednesday, October 26, after a tortuous legal battle to reclaim his mandate, which was eventually restored by the Supreme Court judgment of October 25, 2007. In this interview with GODWIN IJEDIOGOR, Amaechi, who is currently chairman of the Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF), reminisced on the legal battle and victory, his relationship with former governor of the state, Dr. Peter Odili, as well as his fourth year in power, asking the people to be patient with his administration as they expect even better performance from a government many agree is doing well.LOOKING back at the time shortly before October 25, 2007, did you have any doubt about the possibility of your being declared the actual winner of that election by the Supreme Court'You must be God if you didn't have a doubt. Even if you were one of the Justices, you would have a doubt because you wouldn't know what is on the minds of all your colleagues.Of course, the current Commissioner for the Environment and I wept profusely after the judgment had been read, because the mercy of God was great and very overwhelming.It made us realise that His faithfulness is forever and that if you focus on Him, you would be delivered in times of trouble, because He is a prayer-answering God. We prayed and thanked God for this opportunity and promised to actualise His dreams, not ours, for the people of Rivers when we assume office.When one of our staunch supporters gave me a donation of N200 million, I didn't fritter it away; I tried to save some in case the matter went down, that is, if we didn't win.That will tell you that I wasn't quite sure of the way the case would go, even though I knew I had a good case.How did that day, October 25, start and end with you in 2007'In the church service last Sunday in Port Harcourt, I took my time to recount what happened, because I needed to show gratitude to God and some people for their roles during the trying period, for spending time fasting and praying and those, especially the politicians, who did the physical aspect.Some of the big pastors came to me to say they saw it in visions that I was going to be governor. There were also those who did not see the vision but walked into my house and said we must pray together to see if God would answer our prayers, and He did at the end. There was also my political group.They all suffered during that period; they were outcasts. We have lost so many of our supporters in the process, because the politics of Nigeria is mainly politics of the stomach.So, once I became governor, most people shifted loyalty to us.As for the judgment, it was spectacular. Was I expecting it, I would say 50/50, because in Nigeria, you can never tell; nothing is certain. This is one place where one plus one does not always translate to two, and you know the interpretation of the law is quite challenging and everybody has an answer to the law.So, we were basically focusing on God and praying, because it had gone beyond the expectation of man.Beyond that, we got to a point during the process where Dr. Odili came back to us and supported us all through just before the nullification of the primary that I won.We were all gathered in this room and he said, 'all of you don't run; let the Speaker run.' Others stepped down and we obeyed him and began to talk late into the morning and we finished around 4am and we emerged tops at the primary. So, I must thank him for seeing something unique in me that made him choose me to run.No matter what we say, one could say that the primary reason of the conflict was Dr. Odili, because if he didn't say I should go and run, then we would have lost; we would not have been heard of at the primary at all and there would have been no question of having a case in court.As for whether at any point in time he did not fulfill all our expectations, yes, it is human. At a point he felt, 'oh no, no, forget this, let's move on,' and people like us felt no, no, that wasn't our agreement. Let's see the end of the matter in the court and we proceeded and saw to the end of the matter on October 25, 2007.How did you feel when some people who were strongly in support of your opponents and despised you turned around to rally round you when you became governor after the Supreme Court judgment'Someone told me during the thanksgiving service in my village after the judgment that it was very ridiculous to see the same people he saw at my cousin, Dr. Celestine Omehia's thanksgiving service present.I jokingly told him that because we are not too many in Rivers State, especially our area, so we share supporters. You don't need to reconcile with anybody, because we have all reconciled. Immediately you emerge victorious, everybody will reconcile with you and move on. I said at the church service that if I ask for a thanksgiving service after I must have left office last Sunday, I won't have anything near the number of people that were there and that is why, as Catholics, our churches are built in different shapes and sizes, so I would at that time choose where I would worship (laughter).It has to do with character and principle. I am not saying such people have no character, they do have, but the Nigerian politics is essentially stomach-based; not ideological.It is based on very personal interests, not ideology. Interpretation of historical realities in Nigeria is greatly informed by personal idiosyncrasies, and not ideological realities.We saw Dr. Odili at your inauguration on May 29, suggesting that there has been reconciliation between the two of you. How deep is that reconciliation'Apart from God, there are two other great persons that have influenced and shaped my political life- Chief Rufus Ada-George and Dr. Peter Odili; to a very large extent, Dr. Peter Odili.There was no way I was going to run for a second term without reconciling with Dr. Odili and ensuring that that reconciliation was deep. I met him almost immediately I left the university in 1987 and from then until February 2007, we had worked together; I have literarily been what Nigerians refer to as his boy.So, the fact that we had a disagreement from that February to October of the same year cannot erase the realities of the roles he has played in my life. It would be unconscionable (and I don't think God would be happy with me), to say that he (Odili) suffered us for just about eight months, so I should disregard him. What about all the years he had been kind to me' What about all the time he played the role of a father to me' What about when I didn't have money to bury my father and he literarily brought all the money and was outside for the wake-keep from night till the following morning and from there, without taking his bathe, he walked to the church for the funeral service before going back home'Anybody who says I should forget Dr. Odili must be a very wicked person. So, there was no way I was not going to reconcile with him and sort things out.But your cousin and a member of what could be referred as Odili's political family, Dr. Celestine Omehia, is still challenging your re-election at the election tribunal'That my cousin, Dr. Omehia is still challenging my re-election is political; I have gone beyond politics.Yes, I met him through politics, but when he took over what was going on, God used him as the agent to straighten a lot of things in my life.In fact, that I married early at 28 is, to a great extent part of Dr. Odili's contribution to my life.The fact that he had my cousin, Omehia, on one side and former Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives and my brother, Mr. Austin Okpara, as well as my friend, Dr. Abiye Sekibo on the other side is an indication that there was a disagreement after the choice of who was to run for the governorship in 2007.What happened was that because there were challenges in the system, people began to have ambitions. If not, it was almost a concluded fact that I was the one going to run for the governorship. But it looked like there was a doubt as to whether it was me or not, so people began to have ambitions and wanted to run.That caused serious division in our fold. When I finally emerged, the other camps became frightened that I might punish them for having left his camp to set up their own and things like that.But I needed to reassure them, yet most of them didn't believe me; they thought I was quite vindictive. I knew that myself and made a lot of efforts to talk to them and reassure them.That was when the post-primary challenges arose and all those who had contacts began to put more pressure on Abuja to jettison my ambition.So, when we emerged, it was difficult to bring everybody together, because at that time they had pushed our group to a very distant point that the schism was broad.It needed a gradual process to sort things out and you had to eliminate fears, from the team I lead, regarding whether we should actually believe them.So, I needed to bring everybody together and talk to them. In Nigeria, if you are in power and you think you are popular, you are making a mistake, because once you leave office, no matter how much people like you, they will gravitate towards where the stomach realities exist.With the benefit of hindsight, as Speaker of the Rivers State House of Assembly at that time, did you have your eyes trained on the governorship' We ask this question because of the rather admirable way you have carried on.No! That would be taking God for granted, to assume that whether you liked it or nor, you will be governor of the state. Just because you were Speaker and had the knowledge of the workings of government and it was clear that you would address some of the things you disagreed on did not make you extra-ordinary.To the extent that Dr. Peter Odili had his own resources, which were not as large as we have now, he still did his best. Certainly, he would leave some things undone, because his resources were not limitless. Even now, we are looking for funds to implement the numerous programmes we have and we hope that whoever is going to take over from us would see what we are seeing on the need to improve the state.What were the main challenges you faced on assumption of office and how were you able to tackle them'The greatest challenge we met was that of insecurity. People were living in fear and nightlife had gone and there was a night curfew in place, which we lifted soon after we took office, because Port Harcourt would not be a city without nightlife.There were also challenges in the other sectors like education, health, power supply, water supply, road transportation, poverty, etc. As numerous as they were, the resources were not there to address all of these problems.But we have been tackling these challenges gradually and we are making progress. As for insecurity, we addressed it in the forms of social and physical insecurity and at least right now, people can move about freely and unlike before, we can now identify themselves as friends of the governor, for example, without being kidnapped.In the area of social insecurity, we addressed the issues of poverty and hunger in the land due to unemployment by providing the people some means of livelihood.We addressed the physical aspect by assisting the federal government to strengthen the police and other security agencies to enable them protect lives and property.In the area of education, we had to take a holistic approach, right from the primary level. Since it is the local governments that are empowered to manage primary education, we had to get them to concession it to us, which they did, though without concessioning the funds to us. We had to address the issues of infrastructure, quality of teachers, curriculum and content.We later graduated into the area of secondary education and now we are moving into the tertiary education, which includes the construction of a new university.It might be difficult to convince a new visitor to Port Harcourt who comes in immediately after it rains that you have done so much, in terms of roads rehabilitation and construction. What is the permanent solution to flooding of the roads after it rains in the capital city in particular'The permanent solution is to construct virtually all the roads in Port Harcourt, which is impossible.But then, it depends on where you are coming from. If you are coming in from the airport through PH-Owerri road by the new road we are constructing right to the Government House, you may not see bad road. It is the same through some other roads.But contracts for most of the roads leading into Port Harcourt have been awarded and work is ongoing, but the contactors appear to be finding it difficult to complete due to either because they are unable to find a quick solution to the problem or we are not able to pay them promptly.But then, the promptness in paying them depends on how fast they are able to execute the jobs. After all, we are paying the other contractors on time.So, it is more of inefficiency on the part of some contractors.If some of the contractors are not exhibiting a sense of efficiency, why don't you revoke and re-award the contracts'That would mean losing a lot. What you do as a governor is not to lose such scarce resources; you just find a way to manage them out.To develop Port Harcourt to enviable standards, some structures would have to give way. One issue that keeps recurring is opposition, including from abroad, to the proposed demolition of the waterfronts. What is the end to it'The end to it is no doubt that Port Harcourt needs to be cleaned up. There is no doubt about that. About 80 per cent of the criminals we have in Port Harcourt live in that waterfront, and we need to bring every one out into the city to live amongst us, so we can identify whom we are living with.The waterfront is a country, not even a state, of its own. They have their own president, governor, commissioners, etc. They have what they call a government of their own.If you dare report a matter to the police, when you come back, you are killed. The rate of rape is so high there and we have had people report that they wake up in the morning and see these criminals cleaning their guns in the open.I have asked Amnesty International to stop shouting about it and try to be practical by sending its people to come and live there even for one month to experience what we are saying.I challenge them to go and live in the waterfront for three months and if they come out unhurt, I won't demolish the place.The issue is that the place is uninhabitable. The diseases that come out of that place are enough to kill a lot of people, but government spends a lot of money to keep people there alive.Our hospitals are overwhelmed by patients and diseases emanating from that place and we need to put it in a habitable condition.We haven't demolished the place yet because we are looking for the resources to enable us pay compensation to everybody there before we demolish, and the money is huge.So, we are taking them in phases.What was your vision in the area of infrastructure when you assumed office and saw what was on ground and how far have you met that vision and what ultimately is your target'The target is limitless, because if I drive around town now, I would see something that needs to be fixed and once you observe that, you have expanded the search for resources to get it done.We have done quite a lot in education and might not be able to assess the impact until we leave office. Every year, we sponsor 300 students to study abroad (Canada and the United Kingdom, UK) and 100 each to Singapore and India for Information and Communications technology (ICT), as well as 16 to Germany to study medicine. These are in addition to the local scholarships.We have introduced a revolution in primary education. We met 1300 primary schools, now we are constructing 750 modern and well-equipped new ones, out of which 500 are nearing completion.We have now moved on to the secondary level, where we are also building modern and well-equipped privately-run, tuition-free schools at the cost of over N4.5billion each. We give them some subventions to get them running.In terms of roads, we have done quite a lot, especially in Port Harcourt, including the expansion of the Mile1-Mile Three to six lanes; Azikiwe Street to Aggrey Road; Rumuola-Rumuokuta; Ken Saro-Wiwa (formerly Stadium Road); Peter Odili Road; with inter-changes and flyovers.We provide solutions to transportation; not just building roads for the people to know we are doing something. We are constructing roads to unlock the grids, especially in Port Harcourt, and bring about development.In the area of power supply, we have been able to complete some projects with a total capacity to generate and transmit about 535 megawatts and we need just about 400 megawatts.We have our own transmission lines (grid) and we are only waiting for the federal government to give us the licence to distribute, because the law says only the federal government can distribute, except in the rural areas.So, we want the federal government to concession the distribution of power to us, so that we can distribute the power we generate in the state.If the federal government does that, we would have 24-hour power in the state by December next year.What is your vision for the agricultural sector'We want to embark on a $146million agriculture project, for which we are sourcing funds. It would be run by an Israeli company, comprising three farms, with 300 houses (100 houses for each farm). The farmers would live and own those houses in something like farming communities. There would be a processing point at the centre.This is in addition to the Songhai Farm we already have here, but I doubt if anybody in the Niger Delta is interested in serious farming. We want to refocus people on agriculture as another lucrative part of our economy.We have quite a lot we want to do in the agricultural sector to create employment and empower the people, thereby reducing poverty in the land.What is the latest on the proposed military base in Ogoniland'We didn't say we want to have a military base in Ogoniland; what we said was that since there is land in Ogoni, we would likely move Bori Camp to that place and develop the land at Bori as part of Port Harcourt city.We were surprised to hear some NGOs ask how could we take the military, which killed Ken Saro-Wiwa, to Ogoni. But we don't want to join issues with anybody in this second tenure, because we have limited time.We would hold our first retreat early next month, where we would decide what to do, when to complete and how to go about it.How are you going to fund all these, especially as it is difficult for people to appreciate why a state like Rivers should go for a bond at the stock market'That is the issue, but how much do we really earn, compared to the projects we are executing' Even the federal government does sometimes go for bond, much less Rivers State.We are sourcing funds to execute these projects and we will be going for a bond very soon.Are you worried about sustainability after you must have left office and are you grooming any successor'One of my former colleagues said you groom a successor and then the moment you leave office, he turns his back on you (laughter). I don't know, but I hope that in the system, there are those who are seeing what we are doing and are willing to be part of it.We would make sure that the process is transparent, so that a good material would emerge.But it is really a question that is too early to answer. I can only say we are grooming as many future leaders as possible. First the person must have a large heart and courage to face the challenges.How would you rate your performance so far'I am an Ikwere man and in Ikwere, it is said that a dancer does not see his back.How do you relax or spend your weekends'In fact, I don't relax at all. Before, by now you would have met me on the road to see what the contractors are doing, but recently my blood pressure began to fluctuate and my doctors advised that it's either they placed me on mild drugs or I slowed down a bit. That is why I now try to rest in the day a little bit.Most times when my children are on vacation in Nigeria, they complain that they hardly see me around; that I come in when they must have gone to bed and the only time they see me is 6am when I wake them up to pray and do some exercise, except on Sundays when we go for Mass.We I travel abroad with my wife, I try to make up for the time we couldn't spend together at home.As you mark four years in office, what is your message to the people of Rivers State'To be patient with us! I mentioned some roads that would be ready by December this year, and I stand by that.
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