Governor Amaechi has opened up on why he stormed the State Assembly during the July 9th free for all in his home state. He spoke to an audience in central London, at the Chatham House where he delivered a lecture on “Resource and governance in Nigeria”.
He said: “When I heard the members of the Assembly had been attacked by thugs, I went there with my security attache to rescue them because the police assigned to the Assembly had been compromised.
“I abhor violence. The first thing to condemn are the policemen who had refused to perform their duties of protecting the lawmakers.”
Amaechi said: “I used to be the speaker of the house and the law is that you are not even allowed to bring your walking stick in when entering. How did these people manage to bring in thugs, weapons, a fake mace and cause mayhem while the police were not only looking on buy aiding them?”
Amaechi also said that the current political crisis involving him was “based on the assumption that I want to run for 2015 elections”.
“But again, there is no law that criminalises ambition in Nigeria, It is sad because people do everything to bring you down. If this crisis continues, one group will lose and that is the people of Rivers State.”
“Should the state suffer for the so-called ambition of the governor?” he asked.
Speaking on his achievements in office, Amaechi reeled off a list of developments spanning agriculture, and education sectors.
Amaechi said: “The academic structure we inherited was very bad as many children could not stay in school and those who did got a very poor education. We are building schools and uniforms, sandals, bags and books are free, while with healthcare, we have built 60 health centres and 70 more will be commissioned before the end of the year.
“We send 300 every year to the UK and Canada on scholarship and we have established palm oil and banana plantations that employ workers. By the end of our tenure, we would have laid the foundation for a more robust and less oil-dependent economy in Rivers State.”
He said his current travails stemmed from suspicion in Aso Rock that he was nurturing a political ambition for 2015. He said the implication was that even projects in the State were being affected.
Amaechi said: “When the Federal Government suspects that you have an ambition, they do everything to bring you down. For instance, we have two helicopters to monitor security that they have refused permission to be brought into the country and they have frustrated plans we have to open a syringe manufacturing factory in Rivers State.
“Even if they have an issue with me, why should the whole of Rivers State suffer? We have numerous projects which we have signed agreements with the Federal Government to introduce and implement but since this crisis began, they have suspended all of them and the people feeling it are the ordinary people of Rivers State.”
Amaechi every good Nigerian is for u, we need the likes of you, Fashola, Adams, Rochas to lead this country better still we go and beg Col. Umah to come and lead us, as for this GEJ he has failed us, we d good Nigerian may nt ve d resouces but be sure of our prayer N our support. There is nothing wrong in aspiring to be anything in life, cos if u dnt aspire u will expire. God will guild u for us