Dear President Muhammadu Buhari,
I would have loved to begin this missive with an exchange of pleasantries. However l am constrained to do so due to the fact that as against hitting the ground running, you have instead chosen to go the more nonconformist slow and steady way. As such, l do appreciate that you have so much on your Presidential plate to gobble up. So l am going straight to the point.
Integrity is one virtue that is very much in short supply in the political landscape of our dear country Nigeria. Therefore, when you signalled your intent at giving the Presidency a fourth shot having failed on three previous occasions; it came as no surprise that your party, the All Progressives Congress (APC) gravitated to you as their preferred choice for flag bearer. This is because you are perceived both locally and internationally as a man of integrity. Based on this, the fight against corruption became one of the vehicles on which your campaign was driven.
The gale of arrests and investigations by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) may have laid credence to the fact that you are out to walk the anti-corruption talk. However, not a few people have begun to get restive about this war. One of the cardinal elements of integrity is consistency but it does seem that these aforementioned incidences of investigations are perceived in the court of public opinion to have a tinge of lopsidedness. One of the most important basis of this assertion is the case of Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi.
Amaechi needs no introduction. After all, he is the loquacious immediate past Governor of the oil rich Rivers State and more importantly served as the Director General of your campaign. It is not even up for debate that Amaechi’s fiscal recklessness and authoritarian policies and approaches are responsible for the financial woes of a state that should ordinarily be buoyant. This position is underscored by the fact that in the last four years of his tenure, Rivers State earned N230B from the excess crude account. This is in addition to grossing in the minimum, a monthly average of N8B as Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) and a total loan portfolio of N112B from four commercial banks. When you factor in the accruals from the 13% derivation as an oil producing state and its FAAC allocation, one would ordinarily assume that the state would be in a healthy position of financial heaven. However, that is not the case and this has galvanized the good people of Rivers State to ask pertinent questions regarding the stewardship of Amaechi.
For instance your Excellency, how does one explain in the light of the aforementioned revenue streams, that Rivers State as at May 2015 was in default of its obligation to its workers for almost four months? How does one explain the fact that over 13,000 teachers whose services were engaged in the model primary schools built across the state by Amaechi, were unpaid for upwards of a calendar year? How does one explain the fact that for the first time in the history of the state, pensioners were deprived from accessing part of their life’s savings? How does one explain the fact that the footballers who ply their trade for the state football teams had to publicly protest for their unpaid emoluments by laying siege with their mattresses in front of The Brick House (the equivalent of Aso Rock Villa)? How does one explain the fate of Undergraduate and Post Graduate students of Rivers State origin, who have been left stranded in various UK universities because of the refusal of the Amaechi administration to release funds for their scholarships for almost two academic sessions? How does one explain the expenditure of N1.2B on the outbreak of the Ebola Virus Disease in Rivers State? How does one explain the earmarking of N12B for local government elections one week to the end of the Amaechi administration, despite a subsisting court injunction that proscribed the elections? These are questions the good people of Rivers State are requesting answers to; answers that can only be provided by a meticulous investigation and prosecution of Amaechi.
Your Excellency, if there is one question which rankles the average Rivers indigene, it is that surrounding the preposterous and befuddling mono-rail project. Amaechi’s ‘’brilliant’’ resolution of the traffic management challenge in Port Harcourt the state capital, was the deployment of a mono-rail. It covers a distance of less than 3km and is priced at a whooping cost of N150Billion. The project which has allegedly been fully paid for is only about 60% completed. You would be hard pressed finding a whiter elephant project anywhere in Nigeria. Ironically, a few days ago, Vice-President Osinbajo alluded to the fact that Amaechi is a man of big ideas based on this very project. I tend to agree with him, except that the only big thing about the idea behind the monorail project is the leverage it provided for the monumental pillaging of the Rivers State treasury.
The decibel levels for the investigation of Amaechi have reached a deafening crescendo and nothing accentuates this affirmation other than two events that took place in the last one week. At a well attended public function, no less a personality than the Executive Governor of Bauchi State; Mohammed Abubakar, eulogized Amaechi for ‘’kind-heartedly’’ providing 80% of the funds the APC utilized for its electioneering campaigns. Following on the heels of this shocking revelation, a Rivers State based Non-Governmental Organization; Integrity Network sent you a petition with very disturbing allegations of corruption against the person of Amaechi.
Your Excellency, I am a Christian by faith and the Bible is unequivocal in stating that judgement will instigate from the house of God; the church. It is simply the philosophical equivalent of the charity begins at home mantra. I am certain this resonates with you because to the admiration of your loyalists, the generality of Nigerians and a listening world audience, you have promised not to spare anyone (including your party members) in the crucial fight against corruption. The least expectation therefore is that you would demonstrably commit to match your words with actions. Having said that, l am aware that you are not science inclined based on your well publicized WAEC results prior to the 2015 general elections. But suffice it to say that the investigation and subsequent prosecution of Rotimi Amaechi provides the biggest acid test for your fight against corruption.
The time to put on that lab coat is now!
Do accept the highest assurances of my best regards.
I remain sincerely yours,
A concerned Rivers Man.
Charles Ohia is an Environmental Management Consultant. Follow him on Twitter at @9jaBloke.
Op-ed pieces and contributions are the opinions of the writers only and do not represent the opinions of Y!/YNaija.
Unfornetely those that financed our victory sopposed to be among those….. To book.