An embarrassing personal spat between the two senior public officials; one a cabinet Minister; the other, a sitting Governor has escalated with both trading invectives and casting banal aspersions at each other, with President Goodluck Jonathan watching helplessly.
Rivers State Governor and chairman of the Nigerian Governors Forum (NGF), Mr. Rotimi Amaechi, fired another salvo on Monday, saying the Minister of Niger Delta, Elder Godsday Orubebe, had failed the region and should honorably resign. Amaechi told a town hall meeting with Rivers State indigenes in Houston, Texas, USA that the leitmotif for the creation of the Ministry of Niger Delta was to develop the region, but: “under Orubebe, what development have we witnessed? None.”
Amaechi’s scathing indictment of Orubebe in Houston was the continuation of a schism between the two men which had gone public; with both men making comments which observers have described as “pathetic” and accusing them of bringing embarrassment to the ruling PDP; the government of President Jonathan and on their own selves. Amaechi told the Houston meeting that Orubebe’s ranting was a strategy to distract the Niger Delta people by trying to hide all his failures. “I have gone through the region and no presence of his ministry is felt anywhere in the area of meaningful or people oriented projects…I challenge him to a debate for every one project Orubebe can show me that he has done in the Niger Delta region. I will show him 10 of such projects in Rivers State.
The two men have been at loggerheads for weeks after Orubebe accused Amaechi during a public function of disrespecting President Jonathan. The Minister was particularly piqued by what he saw as Amaechi’s disrespect for the person and office of President Jonathan, a behavior he stressed would no longer be tolerated. “Today, he sees himself as the governor of governors and he begins to feel that he is even bigger than the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. But I want to let him know that he must have respect for the President of this country.”
Orubebe took swipe at Amaechi for saying the South-South states governments want the federal government to hand over the construction of the East-West road to them. Orubebe, who was visibly angry at the suggestion, asked Amaechi to mind the business of governing Rivers whose capital city, Port Harcourt, has degenerated since he assumed office. “Port Harcourt used to be the Garden City of this country. Today, Port Harcourt is a slum; you cannot move in Port Harcourt. “I think he should concern himself with utilizing the resources that are in there to develop Rivers and the people of Rivers.”
Amaechi fired back accusing the minister of trying to divert attention from his own gross ineptitude and abysmal failure to deliver on the deplorable East-West road as Minister of the Niger Delta Affairs. “We did a 41-km road to Opobo under water, yet the East-West Road on land he cannot complete.” Amaechi, in a statement by his Chief Press Secretary David Oyifor, noted that contrary to Orubebe’s position, Amaechi has tremendous respect for the office of the President of Nigeria and Jonathan.
“The office of the President of Nigeria is a big institution that deserves utmost respect and it would be grossly irresponsible for anyone to disrespect the President, which unfortunately Orubebe is doing by dragging the President’s name into his inability to deliver on the East-West road,” he said. Oyifor accused the minister of conveniently forgetting that as the governor of Rivers State, Amaechi led Rivers people to overwhelming vote for and gave Jonathan the highest votes by any state in the country at the last presidential elections.
“Orubebe should please tell us what respect, regard and show of love is bigger than that? Orubebe’s attack on the person of Amaechi is a dubious, but obvious attempt to divert attention from his abysmal failure to deliver on the East- West road. “This attempt to drag the President’s name into it is what is most disrespectful and irresponsible,” he said.
The governor challenged the Orubebe to show the world projects he started and completed in the Niger Delta as Minister of Niger-Delta affairs. He also demanded that Orubebe show the world one project he started and completed in Rivers State with the huge resources allocated to his ministry, wondering whether Rivers is not part of the Niger Delta Orubebe superintends as minister. In the same vein, the governor challenged the minister to come to Rivers State at anytime of his choice to see Amaechi’s developmental strides and projects.
“What an irony, for an appointed minister, who has failed woefully, who has been unable to complete one single road, to cast aspersions on an elected governor…It is no longer in doubt that Orubebe does not like Rivers State. Orubebe should please face the simple task of completing one road, just one road—the East-West road—as this diversionary attempt to attack Amaechi will not complete the road that is most dear to the hearts and lives of Niger-Deltans,” Oyifor said.
Amaechi also told the gathering in Houston that “if Orubebe wants us to go public any day, I am ready. I often tell them that the problem with me is that I am not an old man. I am equal to the task of confronting anybody who confronts me on issues that are mundane. “I advise him again to face his work, and make his presence felt in the region. After all, I don’t have any mansion anywhere, but I know Orubebe’s mansion. If he wants, we will show the world his mansions.”
Monday’s meeting came in the wake of a business forum to attract foreign investors which was hosted by Rivers State. The forum was declared open by the Mayor of Houston, Amise Parker, who was impressed by the performance of Governor Amaechi in Rivers State. The Mayor said that a group of Texas businessmen would visit Rivers State next month to explore investment opportunities. Huhuonline.com learnt that the choice of Houston to host the forum was strategic as Texas is the hub of business in the South-East United States with combined investment portfolio of over $4.5 trillion.
On his part, Ambassador Geoffrey Teneilabe, the Nigerian Consul-General, said Rivers State under Governor Amaechi had witnessed unprecedented developments, adding: “It is blessed with a dynamic and visionary leader with remarkable achievements in virtually every sector.”
Meanwhile, Orubebe has disclosed that the federal government needs over N200 billion to complete the road by December 2014, even as critics said this was not realistic, given the slow pace of work by contractors. Briefing journalists in Uyo after an extensive tour of the 338 km road that starts from Warri, Delta State and terminates at Oron in Akwa Ibom State, the minister said of the N348 billion earmarked for the project, over N134 billion has so far been disbursed.
