“Turning and turning in the widening gyre; the falcon cannot hear the falconer; things fall apart, the centre cannot hold; mere anarchy is loosed upon the world, and everywhere the ceremony of innocence is drowned …..” – W. B. Yeasts.
W.B. Yeasts, the Irish Poet who penned these lines, portrays vividly the confusion and anarchy that reign supreme in the world, while Chinue Achebe who adapted a line from the poem as title of his novel, Things Fall Apart, satirizes the confusion Britain brought into Igboland and Nigeria with her colonization agenda.
In Nigeria’s political landscape, the ruling party, All Progressives Congress (APC) has become an example of confusion as espoused by Yeats and Achebe. Confusion reigns everywhere in the party.
At the national level, its chairman, Adams Oshiomhole is behaving like a dictator, arrogating to himself the powers of the president. He dishes out orders to Buhari’s ministers, letting them know that he is in charge. The other day he warned Minister of Labour and Productivity, Chris Ngige that he would discipline him if he refuses to adhere to his instruction. The APC governors are up in arms against him because of the way he is running the party like his personal estate.
Here in Rivers State the party is in disarray, following the emergence of Ojukaye Flag Amachree as its chairman.
Senator Magnus Abe’s group believe that Amachree emerged through a kangaroo state congress, and have vowed not to have any dealings with him.
They had gone ahead to form their own faction of the party and recently opened their own secretariat at Waterlines, Aba Road where they are carrying out political transactions in defiance of Ojukaye Flag Amachree’s warning that there should be no parallel secretariat.
Not long ago, the secretariat was vandalized by thugs suspected to have been sent by Amachree. Chris Finebone, the APC spokesman in the state, denied the allegation.
Shortly after his emergence as chairman, a group in the camp of Abe took Flag Amachree to court in an attempt to remove him as chairman, but recently a court of competent jurisdiction pronounced Amachree led faction as the authentic Rivers State APC. The National leadership of APC led by Adams Oshiomhole has however rejected this verdict and threw its weight behind Abe’s group.
Thus a titanic battle is waiting to be waged between Abe’s group and Amaechi’s group, and in the event that the national leadership backs Abe’s group as being envisaged, Amaechi may have to rely on a higher authority to be able to wrestle power from Abe.
Amaechi’s case is made worst, by his recent imposition of Tonye Cole as the APC guber aspirant for the 2019 guber election in the State.
In Rivers political circle, Tonye Cole is not a well known name and does not seem to have contributed much to the development of APC in the State.
Senator Magnus Abe, Dakuku Peterside and Dumo Lulu-Briggs, stand above Cole in terms of popularity and contributions to the party. And the three of them are gunning for the ticket of the party to contest the governorship position in 2019.
Why should Amaechi abandon them and went behind to anoint Cole, a business mogul of Kalabari extraction, who had not been associated with politics, at least openly?
Insinuations were rife that Amaechi anointed him because he planned to do business with him. Past records and reports allegedly show that Amaechi sold a good number of Rivers assets to Sahara Energy, a company owned by Tonye Cole when he was a governor.
Prince Tonye Princewill, a fellow Kalabari man had alleged in 2014 that Amaechi sold the assets to Sahara Energy to fund APC and Buhari’s presidency. He had further alleged in a report by Premium Times that over $800 million realized from the sale of the assets was diverted to the funding of APC, saying no proper account was kept for the money. He had named the assets sold to Sahara Energy to include, Gas Turbines, Olympia Hotel and Abonnema Wharf.
In the same vein, the Justice Omereji Panel Governor set up in 2015 also indicted Amaechi, with some portions of the report showing that he sold the above named Rivers assets to Sahara Energy owned by Cole and to other of his cronies.
As it does appear that business was their motive, Governor Wike has vowed that he will not allow two business partners take over Rivers State in 2019. He accused the duo of selling Rivers Gas Turbines, Olympia Hotel and Abonnema Wharf to themselves, saying such would no longer be allowed in the State.
Amaechi’s anointing of Cole has remained a source of crisis for APC in the State.
Already, Senator Abe has rejected it, saying he will go ahead to contest the governorship in 2019 why calling for a level playing ground based on direct primaries.
Dumo Lulu-Briggs, another APC governorship hopeful also said he was still in the rest, saying Amaechi, APC leader in the state did not appoint Cole, but merely threw his support behind him.
Dakuku Peterside, the NIMASA boss, who was touted as Amaechi’s choice, said feebly that he had accepted Amaechi’s position, but from the way he said it, it was deduced that he was not happy about it.
The confusion and cacophony of voices are sure to worsen the crisis in Rivers APC and the party at the centre which was why political observers are calling on the PDP to put its house in order and capitalize on the mess to wrestle power from the floundering party at all levels in 2019.
