A new book unveiled in Port Harcourt at the weekend traced the introduction of violent politics in Rivers State to former governor, Peter Odili, and blamed former governor Chibuike Amachi and the incumbent, Nyesom Wike, for continuing to benefit from it.
The revelation is contained in volumes one and two of the series titled, “Footprints of Nkpoo Sibara, Dele Giwa and Ken Saro-Wiwa,” written by Patrick Naagbandon, a travel journalist and author.
The books are broken into chapters and are mainly a collection of articles initially published in the writer’s column (The Town Crier) – starting from 2005 – in several local and national newspapers like Port Harcourt Telegraph, National Network, The Guardian, National Concord, Sahara Reporters, The Neighbourhood, Daily Sun, Vanguard, The Humanity, and The Beacon.
In the 297-paged volume one, for example, Naagbandon said Odili celebrated his 60th birthday in Abuja because Port Harcourt was unsafe due to the activities of armed youths, most of whom took their career in the period Odili was governor. He wondered how Odili is touted as a man who governed well when he can no longer live in the state.
Pressed during an interview with newsmen, Naagbandon said unequivocally that Odili laid the foundation of what was happening today. For cultism, he empowered criminal gangs, which he used for election purposes during his time as governor between 1999 and 2007.
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The author of The Last Militant and The Fury of a Fisher Woman also said the guns-empowered youths were now running rampage, making Port Harcourt and Rivers State, at large, unsafe.
He also indicted immediate past Governor Rotimi Amaechi and the current Governor Nyesom Wike for building on and benefiting from Odili’s creation of insecurity, instead of nipping the evil at the bud. “He (Odili) laid the foundation for arms struggling and gun struggle in this place. These are issues highlighted and I am not just saying it because I want to make any cheap point out of that.”
While the books also explore the life and events – good or bad – of many popular characters like Dele Giwa, Ken Saro-Wiwa and former Enugu governor, Chimaroke Nnamani; Naagbandon said his reason for highlighting Odili’s unknown past was because he had no other home except Port Harcourt. I stand by every word contained in the book, he said.
“I am saying it because I am angry; because, some of us, we do not have any other home. This is our home. Nigeria is our home and if this society eventually collapses, where are we going to run to? That is why we must fight to rescue this society out of that (evil). That is why this book was published.”
Rivers State has in recent times been a reference point when it comes to conflict and violence, especially those traceable to cultism.
It has been the case since the reign of Peter Odili, with the situation hitting high heavens during election seasons when several deaths are usually recorded.
For example, several communities in Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni, Ahoada West and East local government areas were run and ransacked by rival cultist groups, leading to economic crippling and displacement of hundreds of natives in such communities as Egi.
Between 2015 and 2016 when the general and rerun elections were conducted in the state, not less than 20 persons were reportedly killed.
Former Governor Rotimi Amaechi and current Governor Nyesom Wike have since 2013 been at loggerheads, each accusing the other of sponsoring violence and insecurity in the state.
Given that Amaechi and Wike worked under Odili as speaker and chairman, respectively, Naagbandon’s indictment could be read to mean that all three – Odili, Amaechi and Wike – are familiar with the insecurity situation in the state but all failed – as governors – to initiate a policy framework that would tackle insecurity and plan to sustained peace.
Amaechi, however, declared militants as criminals and took the war to cultists. The effort was disrupted by the political crisis that came in 2012 and remained to this day.
