On Chief Anabs Sara Igbe’s recent flawed comments on Chibuike Rotimi Amaech… by Beks Dagogo-Jack

On Chief Anabs Sara Igbe’s recent flawed comments on Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi & the ongoing politics of governorship aspirants in Rivers State – by Beks Dagogo-Jack

I had decided not to engage with my younger Brother on the pages of Facebook again but somehow he keeps baiting me to violate my oath of abstinence .

Chief Sara Igbe was in 2014 one of the most committed frontline activists campaigning for a Riverine Governor. At that time he and many of us were convinced beyond reasonable doubt that it was our most opportune time to succeed at this project considering that we had an Ijaw President , a very politically active Ijaw first Lady & a very powerful Ijaw National Deputy Chairman of our Party. Our dreams were shattered as this most formidable Ijaw coalition in whom we placed our trust betrayed & sacrificed our once in a lifetime chance to instal a riverine governor.

It is therefore highly incomprehensible that today , this same Sara Igbe , seeing that the Leader of the APC in the State & Hon Minister of Transportation , the Rt Hon Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi CON , himself a non-riverine has not only been talking about power rotation but has last week walked the talk by standing openly with the riverines in endorsing the aspiration of Arc Tonye Cole for the Brick House.

Going through his piece one cannot fail to pick out some signals of personal animosity towards Amaechi over matters most probably known to only both of them.

However I consider it most inauspicious and indeed a tactical blunder for someone of his standing in the struggle to enthrone a riverine governor to show this level of ingratitude to an accomplished politician of national standing who came all out in favour of a position which has eluded the riverines since the creation of the new Rivers State in 1999. Why this summersault?

I know of no ethnic group in Nigeria which when given a once in a lifetime opportunity, rather than rally in support of their son will begin to carry out negative campaigns. This nonsense must stop. In 1999 the northern-military establishment having decided to compensate the Southwest because of June 12, preferred Obasanjo even though he was not the preferred Yoruba choice, yet they stood by him , joined his government & massively voted to reelect him in 2003. Why can’t we learn from history ?

I consider it my place to educate Chief Sara Igbe and his co-travellers out of their acutely naive mindset that simply because Arc Tonye Cole has spent his entire life in the business world that he cannot match Wike in the 2019 election. Nothing can be further from the truth. Sara Igbe ought to know by now , having been in politics for many years now , that election is a competition between coalitions & principalities & whilst the choice of a candidate remains a major success predictor, it is by no means the most important factor in the basket of factors which determine electoral victory.

Sara Igbe & co travellers should be reminded that the contest shall be between APC & PDP and anyone familiar with our elections , who wants to be honest , will concede that the APC basket of success factors weighs far far more than the PDP’s.

Another element of needless maligning of the person of Amaechi in this piece by Sara Igbe is the notion that somehow he Amaechi shut down & stifled the political space by banning persons with aspirations from coming out. This is not true at all. Social media aficionados will readily attest to the daily bombardment of various aspirant promotion posts all over the place covering all categories from Assembly to the Governorship races.

In any case what is wrong if in his wisdom as the APC Leader of the State Amaechi advises aspirants to conserve their energies & resources to limit internal conflict and wastage in order to be better unified & prepared for the electoral battle ahead. Everyone knows how much our opponent is prepared to use billions of state funds to infiltrate our ranks , sow disharmony in order to destabilize us well before the real fight. I personally commend this tactic yet it was clear that Amaechi never stopped any other aspirant who felt the need to carry out more extensive campaigns & some did.

I’m also highly dissappointed in the alarmist conspiracy theory being pushed in that piece of some kind of ongoing underground Ikwerre agenda by Amaechi & his ethnic compatriots. It’s an insult to elementary intelligence and has no room in a decent intellectual discourse.

Finally let me conclude by urging all men of honour & goodwill from both the riverine and upland areas of our State to choose to stand with Amaechi on the right side of history and to go all out & support Amaechi’s power must rotate principle & vote for a riverine governor in the 2019 election so that united together we can return our State back on the path of equity, mutual trust , security , economic development & prosperity , indices all of which have been in steady decline since May 2015.

Rivers State can and should definitely do better than this.

God bless us all.

Engr Beks Dagogo-Jack
Chairman, Rivers State APC Contact & Mobilisation Committee.