Okafor Ofiebor/Port Harcourt
The surprise appearance of Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, immediate past Minister of Transportation at the wedding ceremony of kechikanma Omehia, the daughter of Sir Celestine Ngozichim Omehia, also former Governor of Rivers State on Saturday, May 6, has sent political tongues wagging.
More surprising is the meeting of the former Governor with his political ‘foes’ for the past 16 years and counting in Rivers State at the wedding bantering and backslapping.
Ordinarily, Amaechi attending the wedding of his niece held at the Corpus Christi Catholic Cathedral, Port Harcourt, is not supposed to stir up public comments and debates in political circles. But for the previous sharp and rancorous political divide between him and Omehia, his cousin about 16 years gave reasons for discourse among their supporters in State.
Going back in time, their political rift started when Amaechi who was a two-time Speaker of Rivers State House of Assembly won the 2007 Peoples Democratic Party,PDP, gubernatorial primaries and was the anointed candidate of Sir Dr. Peter Odili (the incumbent Governor).
Odili at the time was vying for office of the President of Nigeria and paid less attention to the politics of Rivers State.
Amaechi contested for the PDP gubernatorial primaries along side Austin Opara (former Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives) and won as the Governorship candidate for the party.
Unfortunately,at the South-South PDP rally in Port Harcourt where flags where presented to South South PDP Governorship flag bearers, Olusegun Obasanjo (President of Nigeria as he then was) did not give Amaechi his flag on the grounds that “his Governorship ticket had developed K-leg”.
Obasanjo said he took the decision based on the reports available before him and he instructed the leadership of the PDP in Rivers State to replace Amaechi with someone else.
Odili in his book “Conscience and History – My Story” stated that the National leadership of the party acting on the orders of President Obasanjo told him to either name a candidate or have one named for him.
Odili in his wisdom replaced Amaechi with his Cousin, Sir Celestine Omehia. Amaechi was Celestine Omehia’s best man in his wedding. They were very close.
Amaechi who felt disappointed and betrayed decided to institute a legal fight. There were series of meetings and it was obvious Amaechi was not going to back down.
Amaechi’s support base was ably led by Nyesom Wike (then the Chairman of Obio-Akpor LGA – one of the richest LGAs in Nigeria) who decided to go to court to reclaim the mandate. PDP later won the general election with Amaechi’s name already submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission,INEC, but Celestine Omehia was sworn in as Governor over the “K-Leg saga”.
Omehia as the newly sworn in Governor was battle ready to fight to ensure he remains Governor. Amaechi’s wife and children fled the country for their safety following the inauguration of Celestine Omehia as Governor.
After a six- months legal battle, precisely on the 26th of October 2007, the Supreme Court delivered a landmark judgment that sacked Omehia as governor and ordered that Amaechi be sworn in immediately stating that Omehia all along was usurping Amaechi mandate.
Since 2007 that Omehia was kicked out of office as Governor for his cousin and Bestman, Amaechi during his wedding, became political foes.
Amaechi enjoyed his two tenures of eight years until he was expelled from PDP over as a sitting governor over political intrigues within the party.
He later defected to the newly formed All Progressives Congress, APC, where he made new alliances. But his political foes stayed back in PDP, including Omehia,the current Governor Nyesom Wike and others.
However, as they say in politics the “enemy of my enemy” automatically becomes my friend, Amaechi has also been a political foe of Wike(his successor) since 2015. However, he seems to have mended fences with Omehia by his attendance at Kechikanma’s wedding and sitting in the front in church with Omehia and his wife. The camaraderie among the former political foes, especially from the top Politicians loyal to Atiku Abubakar PDP Presidential candidate radiated ceremony.
The wedding on Saturday also witnessed the attendance of top politicians in the State who fell out of favour with Wike because of their support for candidacy of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar as the Presidential Candidate of PDP.
They include:Austin Opara former Deputy Speaker, House of Representatives, Senator
Lee Maeba,former senator Rivers south east senatorial district, Abiye Sekibo, former Secretary to State Government,SSG,former Minister for Transportation,Prince
Uche Secondus, former National Chairman,PDP.
Others include; Senator George Thompson Sekibo serving Senator Rivers East Senatorial District.
The friendly atmosphere at the wedding of Omehia’s daughter, coupled with the bantering between Amaechi and his former political foes have sent tongues wagging that Amaechi and his hitherto political enemies maybe on their way to forming a coalition. The coalition maybe to deflate Wike’s political structure as he exits office as Governor in a few days time.