A former Commissioner for Information under Dr. Peter Odili administration, Mr. Emma Okah, speaks with CHUKWUDI AKASIKE on the crisis rocking the Peoples Democratic Party in Rivers State
HOW would you describe the current political crisis in the state?
It is normal within a democratic dispensation in Nigeria. In partisan politics, it has always been about disagreements which will eventually lead to agreements or sometimes, agreements will eventually lead to disagreements. As far as I am concerned, all sides in the crisis have their right to express their views and I don’t see anything totally abnormal about it.
But the current crisis appears to be intractable.
Yes! It would seem so, but like I said, in many other places in Nigeria, we have seen things like that. So, it is not as if it is totally new. Things like this happen day and night in the political arena. They also happen in states, even at the federal level, you also see things like these. You also see things like these in other political parties as well. It is not totally a Rivers State thing or PDP thing. It happens all over the place.
The governor of the state was recently suspended from the Peoples Democratic Party. Do you think that suspension was deserved?
You cannot take the suspension of the governor of the state in isolation. You must look at it from the perspective of what has been the issue in Rivers State. The governor of Rivers State seems to have operated in a manner which rendered him vulnerable to attacks by his own party. He has become the ladder through which the opposition is climbing to the roof of his party and as far as I am concerned, that looks like a disservice to the party that has brought him into relevance. But let us even address the specific issues here, which is one of the major reasons which the national PDP gave for the suspension.
They (national PDP) is saying the governor did not do enough or do anything at all to get the reversal of the suspension of the elected chairman, the vice and the 17 councillors of Obio/Akpor Local Government Council. Now, you are arguing: was the party right? Another argument says: was Rivers State Government and the House of Assembly right in doing what they did? Why did the House of Assembly suspend the local government chairman, the vice and the councillors? A high court in Abuja gave judgment, which ousted the PDP exco led by G.U. Ake and enthroned a new one led by Felix Obuah. Instead of obeying that order, the Amaechi government decided that the only way they could get back at Obuah was to imagine that he was being supported and strengthened by Nyesom Wike, the Minister of State for Education, and used that to get back at the Obio/Akpor local government. That was it. Obio/Akpor local government chairman was not given an opportunity to defend himself by Amaechi or by the House of Assembly or anybody. What we heard from the House was that 17 stakeholders wrote a petition. On the strength of that alone, the House swept the entire executive of the council. That in itself is wrong.
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