“God save me from my friends, I can take care of my enemies”, Anonymous.

“In every mess I find a friend’, Charles Dibdin, 1745-1814.Sometimes being prophetic and turning out to be right can cause as much anguish as being wrong – when catastrophe results. About five weeks ago, I wrote in an article titled” PRESIDENT JONATHAN: AMAECHI SHOULD NOT DIE, that given Governor Amaechi’s open feud with Jonathan and the alarm that somebody wants him (Amaechi) dead, then it is the President’s duty to ensure the governor does not die. The fingers of suspicion will point in one direction.

Then, two weeks ago, writing under SS MUTINY: PDP’S CANTERKEROUS ELEMENTS, I also wrote about PDP – the President’s party. “What we are witnessing now is probably the warm-up to 2014 mayhem. By this time next year, a few funerals would have followed the fights. There is absolute bedlam in that “ship” [PDP]. The picture on the front page of PUNCH on Wednesday, July 10, 2013, showing a member of the Rivers State House of Assembly, a lawmaker, wielding and actually hitting a fellow member with a weapon in full view of cameras, has proved my point beyond all reasonable doubt. PDP is home to a nest of mindless killers who would commit murder just to gain power. The victim could have died; and, quite obviously, the attacker, until now presumed to be a responsible citizen, would not care. The question is: what has Jonathan got to do with it?

Dr Doyin Okupe, Jonathan’s intelligent, but not wise, Senior Adviser, while reacting to the call for the impeachment of President Jonathan by Lai Mohammed of the ACN, made the following observation. “The President is not, has not, and will never engineer any act that can cause disaffection between Governor Rotimi Amaechi or any other Governor and the state legislature or any other institution of government”.

I totally agree that President Jonathan cannot be impeached without absolute proof he planned the fiasco in Portharcourt. But, poor Okupe, he should undertake a course in advanced communications. He would have learnt that perception is vital. Whether a person is a villain or hero, in a matter such as this, is a function of the person’s credibility; and the public’s perception of him.

It is also dependent on the situation in which the event occurs. And, finally, it is influenced by whether the “accused” is generally popular or not. Furthermore, Okupe must have easily forgotten our national experience with the third term bid by Obasanjo. Until it failed, none of those working and benefiting from Obasanjo’s bid admitted that such an attempt was being made. Later, people like Professor Jerry Gana came out to admit what Nigerians had already known themselves. Okupe, as an employee of President Jonathan is not a credible witness – given his antecedents in the presidency.

Okupe must be the only adult in Nigeria who does not realize that Amaechi and Jonathan are engaged in conflict – which had divided the PDP in Rivers State and Nigeria. As every grown up knows very well, once your “antagonist” is attacked, whether you instigated the incident or not, you become the number one suspect. Especially, as in this case, the culprits are known to be your friends and the security agencies, which could have prevented the attack, were suspected to have done nothing to avert disaster.

While Okupe is entitled to his delusions, President Jonathan should be aware that, although he did not promote the attack, some people, who are labouring under the wrong impression that they were expressing solidarity with him, have inadvertently smeared the president with mud. One unintended consequence of this ill-advised way of “supporting” the president is the take over of the Rivers State House of Assembly by the Federal House of Representatives – a den of political lions ready to embarrass Jonathan.

Even, the Senate is not exactly supportive of the President and they are going to conduct independent inquiries. The Chairman of the PDP, as well as the Chairman of the Board of Trustees, BOT, who should ordinarily step in, and quickly put out the fire, are known to be partisan in the conflict between the President and the Governor. That limits their roles almost to the point of making them redundant. Yet, the president needs to move quickly to stop the situation from escalating and from more blood to flow in Rivers State.

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