An Endless Rivalry

Minister of Transportation, Mr. Chibuike Amaechi

Hardly a month passes by without‎ the Minister of Transportation, Chibuike Amaechi and Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State‎ exchanging barbs. Expect the tension between these friends-turned-foes ‎to get messier ‎as 2019 draws closer, writes Davidson Iriekpen

With 2019 elections almost around the corner, the rivalry between the Minister of Transportation, Chibuike Amaechi and Governor Nyesom Wike of the Rivers State has intensified.
Last week, the minister accused the governor of not doing enough to tackle insecurity in the state. The governor’s in action he claimed led to the killings of 17 persons who were returning from new year service in Omoku, Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni Local Government Area of the state by unidentified gunmen.

Reacting to the incident, Amaechi who apparently is still unhappy with the loss of the state to the Wike-led Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), instead of sympathising with the families, accused the governor of playing politics with human lives.
Some Nigerians aren’t happy with the minister’s reaction. They wondered if Wike was responsible for the killings of over 50 persons in Benue State, three in Southern Kaduna and injuring over 10 in Kwara State that happened almost simultaneously. Those who spoke with THISDAY could not understand why the minister chose to politicise the tragedy.

“Which governor in his right senses will call on hoodlums to attack worshippers? In a situation of such monumental tragedy, one would have thought that the minister would have exercised some restraints by sympathising with the families of the dead and calling on security agencies to redouble their efforts in tackling crime in the case, the minister politicised the tragedy and not politicised it. Everything should not be politics. In Benue, Kaduna and Kwara, did you not see indigenes of the state rising up to condemn the killings? At that moment, they forgot their political differences and inu So why should Amaechi not do same?,” asked a former commissioner in the state who preferred to be anonymous.

But the state government said Amaechi was economical with the truth by playing down on Wike’s efforts at tackling the security challenges in the state. In a statement issued by the state’s commissioner for Information and Communications, Emma Okah, he advised the former governor to redeem his fading image by attracting federal government projects to Rivers State like his contemporaries in APC from other states are doing.

“When Amaechi was governor, high profile kidnap cases were recurring and violent crimes littered the space. Hon Charles Nsiegbe was killed right under his nose. Ambassador Igantius Ajuru was also killed. Arch Bishop Kattey was kidnapped, Prof. Nimi Briggs was also kidnapped. Rather than living in a faded past or demarketing his state, Amaechi should concern himself with what he is doing today as a stakeholder to improve the security of lives and property of the people that gave him the finest opportunities in life.

“The Rivers State government has repeatedly accused him of using his federal position to compromise the security architecture of the state by influencing frequent change of Commissioners of Police to the state as well as his support to the Special Anti Robbery Squad (SARS) despite the litany of accusations of kidnapping, robbery, extortion, rape and criminality rained on them by the public in the state.

“Security is a federal concern and as a government, Rivers State has sufficiently funded the security agencies to perform optimally and despite provocations from the SARS, we have never denied them support. I hope Amaechi has not forgotten how he refused to fund the police in Rivers State because the Commissioner of Police then was not doing his bidding of arresting and detaining his political opponents.”

Also, the Chief of Staff to the governor, Chukwuemeka Woke, alleged that Amaechi promoted insecurity during his eight-year administration of the state. He further alleged that the state witnessed the highest level of kidnapping and political killings under the leadership of Amaechi. Woke alleged that several leaders of the state fled into political exile because the former governor used his armed goons to target political opponents across the state.
He said: “It was under Amaechi that Charles Nsiegbe was murdered in cold blood by assassins. Late Captain Elechi Amadi was kidnapped while former Vice Chancellor of University of Port Harcourt, Prof. Nimi Briggs was also kidnapped.”

On his part, Wike berated the minister for politicising security, saying that his comment on the Omoku killings was an indictment of security heads posted to the state by the APC-led federal government. The governor added that while his administration has never influenced the posting of any security head to the state, it has always funded and provided logistics for security agencies more than any state government in the country.
“I challenge any state government in the country to come forward to say it has provided more support for security agencies than Rivers State. When you portray the state as insecure, you are driving away investors. No good man does that. By Amaechi’s logic, the killings all over Nigeria is being sponsored by the president,” he said.

Wike alleged that while Amaechi was governor of Rivers State, all the leading construction companies like Julius Berger Plc fled the state because their personnel were kidnapped regularly. He revealed that Amaechi resorted to the use of unqualified contractors, which led to poorly executed projects. The governor said as a result of improved security in the state, first class construction firms like Julius Berger Plc, CCECC and RCC are working in the state.
“International conferences and seminars are back to Rivers State. This is because the people now have confidence in the security architecture of Rivers State. During Amaechi, all the seminar and conferences moved to Akwa Ibom State,” he said.

Analysts believe that it was wrong for anybody to blame the governor for the Omoku killings. In Nigeria, governors are supposed to be chief security officers in their respective states but in reality, this is not the case. Commissioners of police, heads of the army, navy, air force, civil defence and DSS do not take directives from governors but from Abuja. In the case of Rivers State where the opposition is in charge, every security implementation by the state government is always undermined by officials and members of the ruling party.

Since he came to power 2015, Wike has handed over almost 450 vehicles and five armoured personnel carriers to the police and other security agencies. The state government recently handed over 10 armoured boats to the Navy to protect the waters in the state. These are in addition to other logistics like fuel and cash incentives to officers and men.
The governor has tried to reduce criminality in the state by offering amnesty to cultists and this attracted over 25,000 men who surrendered their guns. The governor provided alternative sources of income through jobs and construction activities to the repentant cultists. This has won him high commendations from near and far.

Since his assumption of office, the governor has been moving from community to community condemning violence and promoting peace. For this, Christians in the state through the Christians Association of Nigeria declared him an apostle of peace. He has twice offered huge reward to anyone with information on the mass killers.

Also to further encourage the police to tackle crimes, the governor also instituted a N5million compensation for families of any police personnel, who lost his or her life while fighting kidnapping or armed robbery in the state.
To curb the destructive predisposition of cult groups and the threat they constantly pose to peace and security in the state, Wike recently requested security agencies to carry out a total clampdown on cultists and related criminal behaviour in communities across the state. He directed heads of tertiary institutions to take measures, including arrest, prosecution and summary expulsion, to stamp out cult and related activities in all state-owned tertiary institutions; requested traditional rulers to join forces with the security agencies and local government chairmen to enforce the state’s anti-cultism law and eliminate cult activities in their communities.

What the governor has done – which is also what almost all the state governors are doing – has no doubt indicated that the federal government is unable to equip the police properly to safeguard the lives and property of the citizenry. This funding aspect of police administration is, among others, the strongest argument in support of multi-level police. This matter has been a favourite subject matter among the elite for many years. Today, with the upsurge in crime especially such opportunistic crimes as armed robbery and kidnapping, the subject has become even more relevant.

Last week, the Bayelsa State Governor, Mr. Seriake Dickson, accused the federal government of playing politics with the national security. He further alleged that President Muhammadu Buhari was not personally in charge of the country’s critical security architecture. The governor said Buhari’s failure to be in charge of the nation’s security and engage critical stakeholders was the reason why APC leaders were playing politics with security.

The governor said some APC chieftains had taken advantage of the dysfunctional and imperfect federal structure to hijack the security architecture, lamenting that they were using the security structures to torment innocent citizens for their selfish ends and by so doing, causing national insecurity. He also called on the president to call his party leaders especially to order; to desist from sponsoring insecurity.

He said some APC leaders in the state were using the name of the president to compromise security by intimidating security agencies, stockpiling arms and ammunition, killing and ransacking communities at will. The governor said he formally reported the matter to the president and relevant authorities but lamented that instead of bringing the perpetrators to book, the federal government, to his utmost chagrin, not only shielded the criminals from prosecution but provided them with security.

He said: “These APC leaders exploit the fact that Mr. President is not personally involved in the handling of national security to breach national peace and security. They know that he is not in charge of the critical issues of national security because he is not personally handling them the way he should. So they take advantage of the President’s attitude and the dysfunctional Nigeria state to intimidate and blackmail security agencies for their selfish interest and in the process, endanger the safety of lives and property of Nigerians.

“These APC leaders use the name of the president to sponsor criminals to unleash savage violence on innocent citizens. Their aim is to cause panic and force them to align with them. A case in point is in Bayelsa State where some APC leaders hide under the protection of the federal government to stockpile arms and ammunition to maim and kill innocent citizens just to instill fear in them. I have personally reported this to Mr. President and to the best of my knowledge, there has not been any decisive action from him or the federal government. Instead of prosecuting these criminals, the federal government has beefed up security around them. The politicisation of national security must stop for there can be no country without security!”

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The politicisation of national security must stop for there can be no country without security