Undoubtedly, Governor Rotimi Amaechi has remained an enigma in the politics of Rivers State. Mid-way into his second term of office, the Rivers State helmsman's actions and utterances had estranged him from his erstwhile political family, thereby running into troubled waters on several occasions. In the course of his many battles, Amaechi always finds succour and support in some of his lieutenants and allies who acted as shields, receiving on his behalf some of the darts and arrows shot across his way. Prominent among those who served as the canon fodder, taking the fall for many of his political sins (real or perceived) was Magnus Abe, a serving senator, representing the Rivers South-East Senatorial District in the Green Chamber of the National Assembly.Abe entered politics in 1999 when he was elected into the State House of Assembly, serving as the minority leader, on the platform of the then All Peoples Party (APP). In 2003, he defected to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and from 2003 to 2007 he was Commissioner of Information in the administration of Governor Peter Odili. When Governor Amaechi assumed office in May 2007, Abe was appointed Secretary to the Rivers State Government (SSG). He resigned to compete for the position of senator for Rivers South-East Senatorial District. He lost in the 2007 elections and was then re-appointed as the SSG. He however has been representing his senatorial district since 2011, having emerged victorious in that year's election..The man has defending the actions and whatever steps the governor takes in the course of running his administration. Ever critical of the present administration at the federal level, Senator Abe had once attributedwhat he called the persecution of the governor to his resilience and doggedness in defending Rivers 'As a person you voted to represent you at the upper chamber, it is important I come occasionally to tell you what is happening. I think it is time for Rivers people to know why their governor, on oath to defend the state and its people, is being victimized, harassed, oppressed and persecuted,'Abe had said. On several occasions, the Berra, Khana Local Government Area-born politician was at the fore-front in the thick of the many political battles fought by Amaechi. At the height of his support for the governor's cause, Senator Abe was, last January, shot with rubber bullets when men of the state police command dispersed a rally organised by the Save Rivers Movement (SRM), a group loyal to the governor, at the Rivers State College of Arts and Science, Port Harcourt.While Abe still claims that he would have been killed in the shooting, not quite a few Nigerians, who were bemused that the senator over-acted the drama, however saw the incident as the height of the demonstration of the loyalty of the senator to the governor. Ever since, the relationship between the governor and the senator had been cordial and it was not a surprise that Abe defected, along with Amaechi, to the All Progressives Congress (APC) and it became an open secret that the latter might be the successor to the former as the occupant of the Brick House in May 2015.However, the bubble burst, last week, when the Rivers APC brought to an end speculations over who will succeed Amaechi in 2015. The party leadership, under the supervision and direction of Governor Amaechi, at a stakeholders' meeting held in the Government House, effectively put a lid on Abe's governorship ambition (at least on the APC platform in 2015) as it anointed Honourable Dakuku Peterside as its consensus candidate for the election. Peterside is a lawmaker representing Andoni/Opobo/Nkoro Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives. Coincidentally, both he and Abe are from the same senatorial district and had served in the Amaechi administration at various times.While Governor Amaechi has been maintaining a sealed lip over what transpired or informed the choice of Peterside as the preferred candidate, he was said to have been seen as having the capability to reach out to people across the state, more than Senator Abe. Described as a team player, an APC source said Peterside was seen as a candidate that can defeat whoever emerges as the governorship candidate of the PDP in the state, especially former Minister of State for Education, Chief Nyesom Wike. Giving a hindsight into why the party opted for Peterside, Rivers APC chairman, Dr Davies Ikanya, said he so was anointed to address three principal injustices visited on some parts of the state namely, the unjust situation of the riverine area not occupying the governorship seat since 1999; the Ogoni, a key tribe of the state, not producing a governor, deputy governor or Speaker of the state House of Assembly since the creation of the state as far back as 1970; and the South-East Senatorial District not producing the governor since the creation of the state.In a statement issued in Port Harcourt, on Sunday, Ikanya said the Rivers South-East Senatorial District have four great leaders, including Senator Magnus Abe, Deputy Governor Tele Ikuru, Honourable Peterside and the Secretary to the State Government, Mr George Feyi, Secretary to the Rivers State Government, who can give the party victory in the 2015 governorship election. He, however, said the APC leadership settled for Peterside because he was a symbol of unity of both the Ogoni people, the riverine and upland sections of the state.The APC chairman went on to describe Peterside in many superlative terms, as he said he became the popular candidate because he is 'a personality widely accepted by all the sections of the state, described as a symbol of unity, visionary, egalitarian and most importantly patriotic whose love for Rivers State and her people is infectious. He has earned a reputation as a charismatic and disciplined leader, creative and hardworking, a broad-minded fellow with strategic insights. The explanation by Ikanya that the party would however still go ahead with its primary to pick its governorship candidate for the election was taken with a pinch of salt by most party faithful, particularly Senator Abe's supporters and loyalists who became livid with anger over the party's decision. For them, the deed had been done; Governor Amaechi and the party leadership had already settled the issue of its candidate and the primary would only be an exercise to formalise the decision already taken.Expectedly, the decision of the Rivers APC leadership drew the ire of many people in the state, especially youths of the Ogoni extraction. They took to the streets, a day after, in a violent protest as they barricaded major roads and streets in Port Harcourt, including the entrance to the Government House and major junctions at the East-West Road linking Ekeme, Akpajo and Tai. The angry youths, chanting war songs, denounced the choice of Peterside as the party candidate, even as one of them said, 'Amaechi made us to defect from PDP to APC. He made us to fight the Federal Government. Governor Amaechi deceived us into following him and now he wants to marginalise us. Amaechi used us and dumped us. Why will he want to make somebody from Opobo a governor' Opobo is single community; they are a minority. Why will he want to us the Ogonis who have four local government areas to concede to the minority''In his reaction, president of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP), Legborsi Pyagbara, said the adoption of Peterside as the APC consensus candidate for the governorship election was a negation of the call and campaign by the Ogonis for political justice requiring all political parties to field Ogoni candidates for the election.Pyagbara, in a statement signed by his media aide, Bari-ara Kpalap, said: 'We condemn in strong terms this disappointedly appalling action of APC, reportedly influenced by the leader of the party in the state, Governor Rotimi Amaechi. The process, besides being a sham, has rubbished the party's trumpeted respect and commitment to internal democracy and it demonstrably smacks of the highest level of impunity.'We are aware that the motto of APC includes justice and equity. We do not see how this action of the party which is not in sync with transparency, accountability, fairness and justice promotes its motto aforesaid and declared commitment to internal democracy. We consider this action of the party and its leader as an expression of rejection, display of hatred and humiliation of the Ogoni ethnic nationality.'The MOSOP president alleged that the governor had, at several meetings, promised that he would hand over to an Ogoni candidate in 2015 to ensure equity and justice, in view of 'the community's acknowledged political marginalisation, enormous contributions and sacrifices. We are thus unable to rationalise the wisdom in the present approach. It is undoubtedly a provocatively saddening and undeserving slap on our face and we would not be silent over it. It is a denigration of our collective campaign for political justice and we would not accept it. We must fight this to the end. We therefore call on the party to reverse this position in the interest of justice, fairness and equity.'A clear indication that the romance is over between Amaechi, an Ikwerre man from the upland area, and the Ogonis was the stand of Deputy Speaker of the state House of Assembly, Honourable Leyii Kwanee, on the issue. kicking against the endorsement of Peterside, Kwanee, an Ogoni man and core of Governor Amaechi, said, 'We cannot afford to be second fiddle at this time, regardless of the political permutations in my party (APC).'The deputy Speaker said the Ogonis had been traded away by the Rivers APC leadership by choosing Peterside above Senator Abe. He however charged his people, especially eligible voters in Ogoniland, to remain calm in the face of the 'political permutations that appear to have horse-traded the Ogonis in APC in the state.' His stand had been interpreted to mean that the Ogonis, with over 400,000 voting strength, would be waiting at the polls for APC, Peterside and his people, the Opobos, with just 31,000 eligible voters.The people of Berra in Khana Local Government Area, the hometown of Senator Abe, also could not hide their disappointment in the APC leadership in the state. They resorted to shredding and destroying APC billboards posters carrying the photographs of Governor Amaechi. Some of those who spoke with Nigerian Tribune in the town, last Saturday, alleged that the action of the governor and the APC leadership was tantamount to a betrayal, having assured the Ogonis that it was their turn to produce the next governor of the state. Though the man at the centre of the issue, Senator Abe, had washed his hands off the protests that followed the adoption of Peterside as the APC consensus candidate, he maintained a stoic silence while the anger raged. He however broke his silence during a senatorial stakeholders' meeting held in Eleme, on Sunday. The meeting was convened by one of the APC chieftains in the state, Chief Marcus Nle-Eji and had in attendance many other party bigwigs, including a members of the APC Board of Trustees (BoT), Dr Sam-Sam Jaja, APC deputy national secretary, Oji Ngofa and others.Abe could not hide his disgust over the decision, as he told the gathering, in a speech that contained both anger and frustration, that it was painful to him and his people and more painful because 'a lot of people did not understand or respect the sensibilities of the issue. In a situation where there was no contest, the natural status should be no victor and no vanquished. 'My people, the Ogoni people have a dream; they too, like other people in the country would like to one day produce a governor for Rivers State. That dream is real; that dream is alive and that dream will not die. It is not a dream about Magnus Abe; it is not a dream about any individual. It was the hope, aspiration and expectation of a people. And I felt that if it was not meant for political exigency, it was not just a feeling of the Ogoni people, there were people all across Rivers State who felt sympathetic with that aspiration. And in a political setting where there are always much pains, some of those feelings would have been better respected and that is one of the things I did not like.'He questioned the yardsticks applied by the Rivers APC chairman to arrive at a consensus candidate and demanded for an apology from the party leadership for saying Peterside was picked because of character and integrity.'Nobody was chosen for any quality. The governor spoke and we agreed that we will consent to a consensus candidate. We did not need to give reason by which that consensus was arrived at and nobody gave any reason. So to begin to say that qualities like character and integrity were looked at is indirectly saying that one person was lacking in those qualities. And I think that in a situation like this, those were some comments that were totally unnecessary.'I will also want to point out that, there is need for the party to respect the feelings of the people in this area so that we can produce result. When it becomes as if the only place for campaign is Ogoni, everyday you open the paper or tune to the radio, what you hear is how happy the Ogoni people are. I can decide to prove that the Ogoni people are not happy and, I can prove it; people's sensibility should be respected.Abe however admitted to some faults within his camp, as he said he would learn to do some things better. 'As a person, I did not build any structure; I did not call any meeting. If I call a meeting in this senatorial district to ask for anything, some of those who are here may not be here, but a lot of people who are here would be here; I did not and so nobody should identify anybody as supporter of Magnus and make them a target in our politics. If there is anything like that, there will be a reaction, because we are politicians and should always come together; if we must succeed, everything we have agreed before the consensus issue should be respected for unity to thrive; if those things are not respected, there will be no unity,' he added.Re-affirming his faith in the APC, the senator said he remained a party member and called on his people, friends, associates, admirers and those who have some form of sympathy for the party to remain committed to the Rivers APC. He also hinted about going back to the Senate on the APC platform, as he said he would continue to consult his people and associates on the suggestion that he should pick a senatorial form. 'What we are doing is politics, politics is a game, and it has its values; sometimes, the rules and the way it happened will not be clear to you. But anybody who knows me, know that at the foundation of everything I do is the fear of God. I said from the beginning that whoever God has said will be the governor of Rivers State will be the governor of Rivers State and there is nothing any of us can do about it. I do not want anybody to, on account of anything that has happened within the party, leave the party or encourage people who had sympathy for our party to look elsewhere. I went to my village to pick my permanent voter's card (PVC), and was told that some people were dancing, 'Amaechi don do am 419. Senator Abe had said it was important both the happy and sad people in the unfolding development within the party work together. But the question remains; 'Can there be a true healing for a once booming friendship that appears ruptured by political expediency
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