dared those plotting his removal from office
saying he is satisfied with his stewardship first
of all as Speaker of the State Assembly and later
Governor for which he would be remembered.
Addressing an inter-party summit with the
theme "Cohesive inter-party relations as a
panacea for peace and sustainable development
in Rivers State", in Port Harcourt, the state
capital on Tuesday, Governor Amaechi stated
that any government which could not attribute
its victory to the people's votes would not be
responsible to the people.
According to Amaechi, "Indeed, it is only the
Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) that has the
guts to suspend a governor without a reason. I
leave them to God and to you (the people)…. We
must come together to defend Rivers State. It's
not about me, I have served eight years as
Speaker, nearly six years as Governor. Even if I
am removed tomorrow, I am satisfied that this
state, this country and history will recognize and
remember me.
"If there is no history that I have made, the one
God has helped me to make is the one that I
stood out and fought for my right and became a
governor. You voted on my behalf and the
Supreme Court confirmed that when you people
were voting, you were voting for me. But you
also need to make your own history and that
history is that let Abuja know that you can stand
for your right, whether you belong to PDP or
APC or any other party.
"If you listen to me yesterday (Monday) when I
was addressing Rivers youths, I told them 'all
those from 18 and above should please get up'
and they got up. I asked them to sit down, they
did and I asked again, 'all those that have voters'
card should please get up' and a lot of them did
and I said we shall punish irresponsible
politicians with our cards. So what I expect from
all of you whether you belong to APC, CPC,
where ever you belong to, start now to mobilize
the state for one man, one vote. We will not
allow them intimidate us with police or
anything. Instead, we shall intimidate them with
our votes", Amaechi said.
Keynote Speaker and Chairman of the Senate
Committee on Petroleum Downstream, Senator
Magnus Abe, urged politicians in the state to
preserve and not destroy the state by their
actions.
He lamented the lack of participatory democracy
among political parties and the sole desire by
parties to acquire and hold on to power for
selfish interests.
Abe said, "In Nigeria, the evolution of our party
politics has been less than satisfactory. I say this
because our country today is deeply divided
along ethnic, religious and cultural lines. The
main challenge facing our country has been the
development of national political parties that
will promote issue and idea-based contest for
power. In other words, the contest for power will
be a contest of ideas. The parties in Nigeria have
evolved into vehicles strictly for the acquisition
and retention of political power. In this
evolution, our political parties have lost one of
the key attributes of participatory democracy,
that leadership should be a contest not of
persons but of ideas."
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