Issues
2019: Rivers APC, Tam-George And The Rest Of Us
It is quite instructive that I am making this response to an article written by the immediate past Commissioner for Information, Rivers State, Mr Austin Tam-George on the strength of an in-box message by the General Overseer of Who U Epp Ministries International. I say this because it will form the core of my response.
This piece will not only dwell on Tam-George, but also on his new political party, APC and the aspirant that Tam-George sought to sell.
To begin with, the development of Rivers State is no longer within the grip of godfathers like Rotimi Amaechi, whom the former Information Commissioner derided before he was hired to sell an aspirant whose only credentials are that he is a billionaire and hails from a riverine ethnic group like Tam-George.
The question remains what has Tonye Cole that Tam-George praised to high heavens added to Rivers State? How has the business acumen of Tonye Cole helped Rivers State?
Without fear of contradiction, Governor Nyesom Ezenwo Wike was elected for his first term in 2015 because of the economic disaster that Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi and Tonye Cole unleashed on Rivers State through the criminal sale of state assets and the diversion of the proceeds.
On this issue, a Court-Aproved Judicial Commission of Inquiry headed by Justice Omereji indicted Former Rivers State Governor, Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi and Sahara Energy, Tonye Cole’s company for the economic tragedy that they visited on Rivers State.
More than anyone else, Tam-George witnessed first hand the quantum of work that Governor Wike did to revive Rivers State and set it on the path of growth after Amaechi and his business partner, Tonye Cole wrecked her finances to sponsor APC at the National Level.
On several occasions, Tam-George led journalists on state-wide project tours and thereafter granted interviews to capture the essence of Wike’s revival programmes.
Some of his outstanding quotes are captured in this report published by Daily Post after a project tour.
http://dailypost.ng/2016/08/ 19/amaechi-littered-rivers- state-abandoned-projects-tam- george/
Permit my to quote Tam-George:
The former Information Commissioner said: “Governor Wike has brought Rivers State back on its feet again. There is an impressive momentum of development everywhere you turn. The government is re-vitalising the State through the provision of critical infrastructure. Roads that were abandoned for decades and were impassable in many places have been completely re-constructed. Over 180 km of roads across the State have been completed in one of the most challenging terrains for constructions.The Governor is implementing a massive urban renewal plan, and the construction of roads and bridges form the centrepiece of this plan. “
What Austin Tam-George described in August 2016 in that interview is a tip of the iceberg of the developmental efforts of Governor Wike. At that time, the economy was just coming to life, after Tam-George’s new political party robbed Rivers State for eight years .
This is what Tam-George wrote about Rotimi Amaechi’s financial destruction of Rivers State, for which he admitted that Governor Wike has addressed. http://www. informationng.com/2016/11/ count-amaechis-judicial- scandal-wike.html
“As governor of Rivers State, Mr. Amaechi left a shameful record of waste and dysfunction. His thoughtless policies and mismanagement of public funds literally broke the economic spine of Rivers State.Amaechi has of course always protected his innocence. But even chieftains of his party, the APC, including serving governors, have publicly praised Mr. Amaechi for bankrolling the party’s presidential campaigns in the 2015 general elections, and for sponsoring candidates in that election”
It is illogical for Tam-George to imagine that a man like Amaechi who destroyed Rivers State for eight years will turn around to work for the good of the people through his proxy.
Through sound economic policies and commitment to the ideals of good governance, Governor Wike has placed Rivers State on a pedestal of growth. The economy is now robust, despite the efforts by the APC Federal Government in connivance with the business partner of Tonye Cole.
If there are slight impediments enroute the economic growth of Rivers State and the South-South, the blame is on the doorsteps of the APC Federal Government and her agencies. Early in his administration, Governor Wike worked hard to revive the ports in the state by reconstructing the roads to Onne and Rivers Ports, but his efforts were sabotaged by the Ministry of Transportation. The ports are not functional.
Today, there is no single Federal Project in Rivers State where Amaechi hails from. Governor Wike executes both Federal and State Projects. The Federal High Court Complex and the Court of Appeal are living examples. The State Government single-handedly funds the security architecture, which has made Rivers State one of the safest places to do business.
Contrary to Tam-George’s claim that businesses are leaving Rivers State, businesses are actually springing up on a regular basis. The State’s Internally Generated Revenue is on the rise.
The following high profile investments are doing well since Governor Wike took over leadership.
The GreenGas LNG Facility constructed by Grenville Oil and Gas Limited in Rumuji Community of Emohua Local Government Area in Rivers State is the new N140billion project that has added value to the economy of the country.
In Rumuewhor community in Emohua Local Government Area, Chang B2B Company Limited, a South Korean Investor is cultivating rice on 10,000 hectares of land provided by the host communities and the Rivers State Government.This investment is providing 2000 direct jobs and over 10000 indirect jobs.
Rivers State Government is partnering with Siat Nigeria Limited (operators to Former Risonpalm) to revive Delta Rubber. Already, Former Risonpalm has been revived. Elele Old Estate has been replanted. Ubima and Elele Plantations have been cleaned up and first class maintenance operations and practices constantly applied
As we discuss, Next Mega Shopping Mall has opened business in Port Harcourt, employing hundreds of person. Several small and medium sized businesses are taking root across the state. These are verifiable data.
I was shocked to read in Tam-George’s article that he pretended not to know the origin of recent electoral violence in Rivers State. Before his defection to the failed APC, Tam-George witnessed the rerun elections and the violence visited on Rivers people by 57000 security personnel detailed by the APC Federal Government to rig.
Tam-George issued a statement after that violence orchestrated by Amaechi and IGP Idris:
He wrote: “The statement is patently false, politically motivated and cooked by the Nigerian Police to justify the violence they visited on the people of Rivers State during the rerun, it said.The Inspector General of Police and his team are neck deep in crime. This statement credited to the Police High Command is aimed at diverting attention from its loss of credibility , after its attempt to assassinate Governor Nyesom Ezenwo Wike”
http://www.thetidenewsonline. com/2017/02/08/rsg-condemns- police-panel-blackmail-panel- desperate-to-impress-after- attempt-on-wikes-life-failed/
Few weeks ago, the Bye Election for the Port Harcourt State Constituency Three was conducted by INEC. It was cancelled because the Police and APC armed thugs led by Ojukaye Flag Amachree of Tam-George’s new political family unleashed violence on the constituency. Gunmen captured on video were let loose to the extent that baffled the international community.
I say it in very clear terms. It is only the APC that has reasons to arm youths and resort to violence with the active connivance of the security agencies as acknowledged by Tam-George before his newest appointment.
Is Tam-George aware of #testingthemicrophone launched by the Minister of Transportation after the Port Harcourt State Constituency Three Election violence? This hashtag was launched to promote violence, guns and electoral theft in 2019.
What is required today in Rivers State is consolidation. That is what Rivers people have decided. They will not be drawn into the fraudulent game of two business partners who are even afraid of direct primaries within their political party. Because they are unpopular.
It is on this premise that across Rivers State, all the ethnic nationalities have endorsed Governor Wike to continue with the transformation of Rivers State.
If Amaechi could not impose Dakuku Peterside on the state in 2015, he will not succeed in imposing the trader through whom he bought the assets of the state in 2019.
Tonye Cole and Amaechi are still plotting crimes against Rivers people because they enjoy amnesty from the Federal Government for using Rivers resources to fund APC National Campaign. Otherwise, they would have been prosecuted and perhaps convicted if the security agencies had acted on the court-approved indictment of Amaechi and Sahara Energy on the illegality they perpetrated against Rivers State.
A word for Tam-George. Our country suffers from the lowest form of intellectual prostitution. Men and women who pretend to be intellectuals, but in reality, are hustlers who live by selling their skill to the highest bidder. It is disappointing that Tam-George would speak from all sides of his mouth simply because he is motivated by selfish and ethnic interests.
I close with this point. Rivers State is PDP. No microphone will be tested here and no businessman who defrauds his people will take over the state. This state is not for the highest bidder. The State is on the path of growth and there is no room for crooks like the bargaining business partners .
After all, who dem epp? A man who steals from the commonwealth of his people cannot be a good man. No matter the level of intellectual rationalisation, Thief na thief. Sahara Energy and Amaechi should first engage in restitution before they are considered for anything in the New Rivers State.
Nwakaudu is Special Assistant to Rivers State Governor on Electronic Meida.
Simeon Nwakaudu
This is an open letter to the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Chief Nyesom Wike.
Your Excellency,
Sir, ordinarily, I would not be writing an open letter to you, but like a wise man once said, “Silence would be Treason.” So I prefer to stay alive than face the consequences of silence in the face of crime. With each passing day, and as the socio-political tides continue to turn, it has become more pertinent that more people speak up in a concerted MANNER to prevent the death of our party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), as we appear to be, in the words of W. B. Yeats, “turning and turning in the widening gyre” heading for an end where the falcon will no longer hear the falconer
It is unfortunate that since losing control of the Federal Government, with the loss of President Goodluck Jonathan at the poll in 2015, our party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has continued on a downward spiral. It is much more painful, that where it is expected that leaders within the party should rise to the challenge and put an end to this decline of our great party, some have instead taken up roles as its undertaker.
It will be hypocritical to claim aloofness to what I believe is your grouse with the PDP and I am not a hypocrite. It will be uncharitable on my part to discountenance the role you have played in strengthening the PDP from 2015 up until the last Presidential primaries of the party. It is my belief that your grouse against certain members of the party who you perceived worked against the party and abandoned it in 2015 and then came around much later to take control of the party, is justified. Also know that your decision to remain in the Party and stifle its progress on the other hand, as a sort of payback, stands condemned. For a man of your pedigree and stature, it is a dishonorable act, highly dishonorable and stands as testimony against all you claim to stand for.
At least, it can be argued that those who you hold this grudge against, abandoned the party completely and did not sit back while actively working to destroy it from within. But what then can be the argument on your own part, seeing that those you are currently working with against your party are the same people who set in motion, and executed surgically, the plans that not only ended our Party’s leadership at the centre, but ended up dislodging the first Niger Deltan to occupy Aso Rock as Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces. Is this not akin to “cutting off one’s nose to spite one’s face?” That will be worse than folly. Let us not throw away the baby with the bath water because we do not like the soap used in bathing the baby. It will be a grave mistake.
Honourable Minister, sir, it is rather unfortunate that of all people, you have also decided to play the role of an undertaker not only for our party, but for our dear Rivers State.
I will like to take you down memory lane a little. Let me remind you of your emergence as Guber candidate of the PDP in Rivers State, against all fairness and justice in 2014. You will remember that despite the reality being that you as an Ikwerre man was poised to replace a fellow Ikwerre man in Governor Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi in our multiethnic state, Rivers people overwhelmingly stood by you and pushed for your emergence as Executive Governor of Rivers State in 2015. I dare say that your popularity in the entire Niger Delta region was at an all-time high at this point.
I want you to understand why you were loved across board leading to your eventual emergence as Governor of Rivers State in 2015; it was because when it looked like all were against the second term ambitions of the first Niger Delta man to emerge as President of Nigeria, you became not just a pillar but a beacon of resistance by standing for Goodluck Jonathan. Rivers people, as grateful and rewarding as they can be, paid you back by ensuring your electoral victory against the incumbent All Progressives Congress (APC) led by your predecessor. On your emergence, where there were second term Governors in the region, you, a first term Governor, was seen by the people as not just the leader of the PDP, but the leader of the entire Niger Delta region. You earned it, and no one could dispute it.
In 2019, when your re-election bid was being challenged ferociously, Rivers people once again stood solidly behind you. Many were killed in the process of defending your votes. Do you remember Dr. Ferry Gberegbe that was shot and killed while trying to protect your votes in Khana Local Government Area? There are many more unnamed and unrecognised sons and daughters of Rivers State who sacrificed their lives so that you could emerge as a second term Governor of Rivers State.
In 2022/23, Honourable Minister, you oversaw a party primary across board that saw some candidates imprisoned and internal party democracy jettisoned for your wishes, leading to the emergence of flag bearers of our party all singlehandedly picked by you. You have on more than one occasion publicly stated that you paid for all their forms. Even those shortchanged in this process licked their wounds and continued to play their roles as party members to ensure the success of the party at all levels. In what will go down as one of the most keenly contested elections in recent Rivers history, with formidable candidates like Senator Magnus Abe of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Mr Tonye Cole of the All Progressives Congress (APC), and the vibrant youth driven Labour Party (LP), PDP emerged victorious across board except for Phalga Constituency 1 that was lost to the Labour Party. (Not that you did not loose in some other LGA’s but let’s stick to the official figures declared by INEC).
It begs the question, why then do you want to burn down Rivers State, when everyone who now holds political office emerged through a process designed and endorsed by you? Is it that you do not care about Rivers people and you are all about yourself? If so, I am forced to believe that those around you are not telling you the truth. The truth being that in a state where your words were law; where houses and businesses could be demolished or closed down without any recourse to legalities, where Executive Orders could be deployed to stifle the opposition, that your popularity is now at an all-time low. Probably because they are afraid of you, or of losing the benefits they gain from you, they fail to tell you that what you might perceive as a battle against your successor, has slowly but gradually degenerating into a battle against Rivers State and Rivers people. You know, there is a popular saying that, a man can cook for the community and the community will finish the food, but when a community decides to cook for one man, the reverse is the case.
LEAVE FUBARA ALONE
You have gone on and on about being betrayed by Governor Siminalayi Fubara. You point fingers forgetting that some of those same fingers quick to spot betrayals point straight back at you. It is not Governor Fubara that has betrayed the PDP by working against it in the just concluded General Election, and working with the opposition at the State and Federal level to destabilise the party. It is you, Honourable Minister. It is not Governor Fubara that betrayed Rivers people by instigating a political crisis with propensity to escalate ethnic tensions in Rivers State. It is you Honourable Minister. It is not Governor Fubara that has declared himself God over all in Rivers State and has no qualms with burning the state to the ground to prove a point. It is you Honourable Minister. It is you Honourable Minister who told the world that the APC was a cancer and you can never support a cancerous party. It is you Honourable Minister who ended up facilitating the emergence of the same “cancerous” APC that has accelerated the economic decline of this country and further impoverished our people with no remorse. All so you can be a Minister of the Federal Capital Territory? The lack of self awareness is gobsmacking.
Some days back I came across a video where you talked about death and how you do not cry when you hear about the death of some people because you have no idea what might have caused it considering many a politician swear “over dead bodies” and still go back on their words. Those words made me think, and I could see the reason behind them. You see, in chosing to be God in the affairs of Rivers people, you have closed your eyes and ears to reason; you see nothing and hear nothing that can cause you to rethink on the path you have chosen. In your quest to “show Fubara” you have unwittingly united a vast majority of Rivers people behind him, so much that even those who despised him because of you, now like or love him, because of you too. In your scheming, I will advise you not to forget that “the voice of the people is the voice of God”.
Note that the war which you have or are waging against Governor Fubara, has gone beyond being merely political as you might see in your minds eye. It is now one that, fortunately for some and unfortunately for others, has evolved into a war against Rivers people. It is good to point out that no one has taken a stand against Rivers people and won. No one has gone against God and won. In your defiant characteristic manner, it will be unfortunate if you believe your own hubris and that of those around you on the possibility of you being the first to successfully go against Rivers people. It will be a needless gamble; one where if you win you create more enemies for yourself than you can withstand on your political journey, and if you lose, your legacy becomes an inglorious and irredeemable one in Rivers State, the Niger Delta, and Nigeria at large. For your sake as regards posterity, it is my greatest wish that you have a moment of sobriety and a deep reflection and introspection on this path you have chosen.
Honourable Minister, sir, what is left of your legacy is on the brink of being completely desecrated and relegated to the dustbin of our political history, and it will be a sad end to what I will say has been a wonderful political career that many can only dream of. The ball is in your court, and may God Almighty have mercy on us all and forgive us for our shortcomings.
Gabriel Baritulem Pidomson
Dr Pidomson is former Chief of Staff, Government House, Port Harcourt and former member, Rivers State House of Assembly.
In 2015, I made a conscious decision to invest my financial resources, my time, and energy into supporting Nyesom Wike’s gubernatorial campaign. I poured my heart and soul into ensuring Nyesom Wike emerged victorious even at the risk of my personal safety.
Again in 2019, I doubled down on my commitment. I invested a significant amount of money to procure campaign outfits for all twenty-three Local Governments Areas of Rivers State. I spared no expense in supplementing Wike’s election efforts in my own local government, and once again putting myself at great risk to safeguard the fairness and transparency of the electoral process.
However, despite my unwavering loyalty and sacrifices, I found myself abandoned and forgotten by Wike. Throughout his eight-year tenure, he failed to acknowledge my contributions or fulfill his promises and agreements. Even as a former Deputy Governor, Wike denied me my severance benefit.
My investment in Wike’s governorship was not just financial – it was a commitment of passion, dedication, and belief in a better future for Rivers State. Yet, his leadership style of dishonesty, greed, drunkenness and rash abuse of senior citizens brought me nothing but disappointment, misery and losses.
By the grace of God, today I speak not as a victim, but as a hero. I have accepted my losses, and I have moved on. And as I reflect on my experience, I cannot help but urge Wike to do the same and allow peace and development to reign in Rivers State.
Nyesom Wike, when you speak of investing in Governor Sim Fubara’s election, remember those like me who also invested in you. Remember the sacrifices I made, the risks I took, and the promises and agreements you left unfulfilled.
It is time for you, Wike, to let go of the past and allow Governor Sim Fubara the breathing space he needs to lead Rivers State forward. Allow him to focus on the challenges of good governance and the aspirations of the people. Spare him these unwarranted and ill-conceived political manoeuvrings founded on personal agenda and not for general good of Rivers State and her people.
I may have lost my investment on Wike, but I have not lost hope in the future of Rivers State. And together, we will continue to strive for a brighter tomorrow.
Long Live the Governor to Rivers State, Sir Siminialayi Fubara!
Long Live the Good People of Rivers State!!
Long Live the Federal Republic of Nigeria!!!
Engr Ikuru is former Deputy Governor of Rivers State.
Tele Ikuru
