An intellectual work titled “Through the Slippery Slopes of Rivers State Politics A Personal Memoir” written by a former Chief of Staff, Chief Tony Okocha has been unveiled.
The book which documented the personal experiences of Okocha as regards Rivers State Politics was launched on Friday May 5, at the Banquet Hall of the Hotel Presidential Port Harcourt.
At the unveiling, Tony Okocha received a barrage of commendations for producing the intellectual work.
Dr. Rowland White, Permanent Secretary Rivers State Ministry of Youth Development said Okocha having played practical politics and transverse local, state and national politics, put together his experiences in the great intellectual work and lauded him for it.
Describing it as a great work of art, the book reviewer, Dr. Gift Worlu, a senior lecturer at the University of Port Harcourt said Chief Okocha was concerned with Rivers State Politics, the numerous problems bedeviling the state, persons putting efforts to make it great and those degrading it with their negative politicking.
Worlu decried the absence of ideology in Rivers\Nigerian politics, stressing that Okocha’s book was a lesson in the failure of leadership in Rivers State, Nigeria.
The reviewer who did not exclude Okocha in the failure of leadership, said politics of god-fatherism was not allowing social contract to work here and commended the former Chief of Staff for showing in his work that power is transient.
The book he discloses, also dwelt on the 2023 general elections, the balkanization of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state and the achievements of the administration of Chief Barr. Nyesom Wike.
Chief Okocha said his book is an intellectual work which aim was not to malign anybody, but to pinpoint the good, the bad and the ugly in Rivers State politics.
He told the august gathering that people were free to counter what he had written with superior arguments, warning of the dangers of indulging in unnecessary diatribe in an attempt to respond to his book.
The Commissioner for Education Rivers State, Hon.Chinedu Mmom , assisted by other invited dignateries unveiled the well-packaged book.
Meanwhile, the former Chief of Staff has described as blatant lies Tonye Cole’s statement that Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s visit to Rivers State was a private one.
Okocha at a press briefing in Port Harcourt said far from the lies Cole told, the President-Elect’s visit was a state visit, two-day-working visit and that members of the APC in the state were informed before hand and being the leader of the party, confirmed that they participated and played their roles in the visit.
He wondered why Tonye Cole who he accused of working against Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, especially during the campaign periods should now be worried that they were not informed of the visit and seemingly positioning to benefit from the victory.
Okocha alleged that Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi did not also participate in Tinubu’s campaign rallies except in Plateau and Adamawa states, stressing that his participations in those states was because he had special relationships with some people there.
The straw that broke the camel’s back, Okocha said was that two days before the Presidential Election, Amaechi had called for a meeting where he allegedly ordered his group to vote for the Presidential candidate of the PDP, Atiku Abubakar.
The former Chief of Staff reiterated that it was his group that made the victory of Tinubu possible in the state and commended the Governor Nyesom Wike for the great role he played in bringing it about.
