RIVERS STATE'S CRISIS, GOVERNOR AMAECHI SHOULD BACK DOWN.

Icheoku says we have seen the likes of it before and this time around the result is not going to be any different. In such situation, usually the man below in rank, the person at the lower rung of the ladder or totem pole, suffers and often to  a bitter end. Unlike a president, a governor has neither a limitless cash reserve or resources at his disposal nor does he have the command and control of the various security forces to push his way through. With these variables taken into advisement, Icheoku says it will be in the best interest of Governor Rotimi Amaechi to pull back from further "standing his grounds" against the moving bulldozer that is President Jonathan controlled Federal Government. 

The only sensible and pragmatic alternative for the governor now is to recall his senses immediately and back off the current confrontation with Aso Rock. The mission he embarked on is not a winnable one and against a side that has all the jokers including a limitless number of volunteer army, both civilian and professional, too eager to please and to do whatever is perceived as implied or expressed bidding of the man on top. To do otherwise and continue on his present trajectory would be foolhardy and akin to the proverbial small bird (nwa-nza) that after eating belly-full challenged its creator to a fight. Governor Rotimi Amaechi, Icheoku says many in the past have tried in vain what you are today attempting and got burnt and burnt severely, where they survived. Just be sensible about it, check in your ego and back-off and allow the threatening tornado to blow away. Be a smart general who lives to fight another day; so make peace and wait for your own turn or until your opportunity for a pay back calls, if ever. 

The forces marshaled against Governor Amaechi are simply too formidable for him to go up against and try to surmount. We are talking about the President, Mr Fix-it Tony Anenih, 16 or 18 NGF governors of Governor Jang's faction, Bamanga Tukur, the PDP family both national and its Rivers State chapter, South-south Governors Forum as well as possibly some members of the Governor Amaechi's inner circle who possibly, are clandestinely relaying information about what is going on in Port Harcourt to Abuja. If Governor Rotimi Amaechi is indeed truly a savvy politician, he would read the handwriting on the wall and duck; but hey those whom the Gods want to kill they first make deaf and dumb before striking them mad penultimate their demise. It is indeed a big surprise that Governor Amaechi, being  a lawyer and aware of a sleuth of antecedents including some very recent history, chose to swim in such shark and crocodile infested waters. 

Icheoku says where is James Ibori today? What happened to second Republic Bararabe Musa? Jim Nwobodo of the then Anambra State tried flexing muscle with Vice President Ekwueme and his second term was snatched away from him at the Supreme Court despite the facts on the grounds of his triumph in that election. What about Bayelsa's Dimpreye Silva? Which Nigerian have forgotten how a then sitting Governor Chris Ngige of Anambra State was kidnapped? Even a sitting Vice President Abubakar Atiku tried entering the ring with his boss Baba Iyabo, who still "dey laugh", only for him to be permanently consigned to the heaps of one of those wanna be presidents; and his despicable act of crawling on all his fours to beg for forgiveness at Abeokuta Hilltop is yet to yield any reprieve. It is indeed what Baba Fela Anikulapo Kuti calls original 'POWER PLAY' show and Atiku knows it because he has felt its scorching effect. Many people the world over and history attests to that have died trying to grab it and it is for a reason. So anyone who decides to go and goes up against someone already in power, knows that his mission is risky and his road strewn with grave pitfalls.  Some commentators have even written to suggest that such "brave" challengers should have their head examined for psychotic disorder and presently, Governor Amaechi surely fits this profile.

Icheoku says if Governor Rotimi Amaechi thinks that he can go up against a sitting Nigerian EXECUTIVE president  and commander in chief of the armed forces and get away with it, then he must have another thing coming. For him to sustain this thought presupposes one of two things:- either the governor is hallucinating as a result of some mind altering, stupor-inducing, substance or his sense of reality has been greatly eroded, clouded, compromised and obviously distorted. Icheoku does not know who Governor Amaechi's advisers are or the type of counselling he is receiving from his inner circle and how he is being deceived by the "support" he is currently receiving from his followers who are urging no retreat no surrender and not even a compromise. 

Unfortunately, the governor forgot the warning of William Shakespeare in Julius Caesar against mob mentality of plebeians, whose support usually is very shifty depending on how the wind blows. But make no mistake about it, Governor Amaechi, if he survives the current plot by Jonathan and his boys, will not come out of the war unscathed. So any smart politician, worth his political garb, would reverse his gear fast and seek a way to make rapprochement with the man controlling the federal power to save his skin and office. Icheoku admonishes Governor Amaechi to instead of continuing the present confrontation with Jonathan and all the powers and paraphernalia of his office including inexhaustible purse, various armed security agencies of the military, police and state security service as well as the EFCC, to seek a truce before it is too late. 

Admitted that as a politician the Governor is scheming and maneuvering for his personal political fortune of a future higher office and is entitled to do so; but he is certainly going about it in a wrong way that spells doom. He should be more circumspect, coy and deft going about it and in a manner that will not send sparks flying or unnecessarily cause the incumbent to panic. But any man already on the seat will interpret the governor's present actions as an effrontery and an open challenge to a duel for the office; and which man will not fight to keep his seat. Governor Rotimi Amaechi was very much around during the dark days of "Operation do or die" politics of Olusegun Obasanjo and such experience should have provided him a picture of the road block facing him. Icheoku says the governor's action is akin to standing in front of a moving armoured tank in Tiananmen Square and wishing nothing harmful happens; but unfortunately that "brave" Chinese man never lived to tell us his experience. 

Further, Governor Amaechi should have reasoned that a regional interest is at stake here and that for the South-south, the office of the president is better than that of a vice president. Just like the Igbo people say, nobody leaves where an Ozo title is taking place with all the merriment and go to visit where they are curing madness. It is as simple as that; just do the mathematics Governor Rotimi Amaechi. The people of South-south cannot abandon their already in the saddle President Jonathan for their Vice President Amaechi in the offing. It never happens and  it will not start with Rotimi Amaechi. Such stubborn, stupid calculation and scheming by Governor Amaechi for an "ordinary" vice presidential slot instead of helping to consolidate the gains of the entire Niger Delta region in securing the presidency and for a second term, depicts the governor in a bad light as overtly self-centered and VERY SELFISH. It also gives weight to the assertion by the militant/terrorist on sabbatical, Asari Dokubo, that Governor Rotimi Amaechi is "now a traitor of the South-south Niger Delta struggle." Icheoku asks is anything including any office in the land worth being so alienated or misinterpreted by any-one's people? Icheoku says WE DON'T THINK SO and hereby call on Governor Rotimi Amaechi to do a rethink of his strategy and back-down and back-off from his present confrontation of the man at Aso Rock.