Chibuike Rotimi Ameachi: The Man in the silhouette...

Not many Nigerians considered the possibility of General Muhammadu Buhari ever becoming the President. The tribe of the die-hard doubting Thomases failed to reckon with the man who stood staunchly behind the dream of the CHANGE that was to come the way of Nigeria.  While some of his political colleagues were still weighing their options  whether or not to leave the PDP,  former Governor Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State had long  made up his mind to move to the APC with or without them.
And as soon as he got there, he  “locked”  his eyes on  Buhari as the one who should fly the party’s presidential  ticket  even though the party had not begun the process of choosing its flag bearer.  Therefore, for Amaechi, it was Buhari, Buhari,  Buhari.    Amaechi threw  his heart and  mind right into the project. The Rivers State Lodge in Abuja practically  replaced all other earlier places of party meetings as party faithful trooped in and out on daily basis.  The first major challenge in delivering Buhari was the inability of  the APC to agree on him as a consensus candidate. The problem dragged until the party decided that primary should be conducted.   Amaechi strongly felt that left on his own, Buhari will not emerge as the flag bearer.   He joined others to build a coalition that will deliver Buhari at the primary.  The process did not only deliver Buhari, it was adjudged a spectacular success by Nigerians. Given his  big push role in the  emergence  of Buhari as the APC flag bearer, Amaechi was logically picked to be Director of the Buhari Campaign Organization.  Meanwhile, as  Amaechi was busy pushing  the Buhari project  with  all he had,  things were  smoldering  in his home state of Rivers. The state’s branch of the PDP had parted ways with Amaechi way back in 2013, opening him to fighting on many battle fronts simultaneously. His  defection to APC blew the confrontation wide open.  He was accused of illegally moving a PDP mandate to the APC.  The Presidency descended on Amaechi like a ton of bricks  by trying to scuttle his re-election as the Chairman of the Governors’ Forum, distorting the security situation in the state and using the state PDP branch under the leadership of  Nyesom  Wike, the current governor of the state, to take on Amaechi in an open warfare.  Amaechi was, therefore, torn between the deteriorating situation in Rivers and helping to deliver Buhari and APC at the centre with the likely consequence of losing the state to the PDP.  Amaechi knew that winning both battles would be an uphill task but he was iron-willed to take a shot.  Meanwhile, the battle to deliver Buhari and APC at the centre was both contentious and acrimonious. It was perhaps the most hate-filled campaign in recent memory.  There was clear risk to the life of Amaechi from the South-South as he was considered a ‘traitor’ who was planning to ruin the chances of a Niger Delta’s son and his own ‘brother.’  Despite the odds, Amaechi trudged on not knowing exactly what the outcome of his efforts would be. He was confident that given a level playing field, Buhari would win the election.  Amaechi hardly had time to support his state’s APC in their feisty battle over the elections there- even with a personal approval rating of over ninety percent. He appeared to have put most of his hope on  ensuring a Buhari-win.  He rightly believed that Rivers people were ready for change, but grossly underestimated how desperate his enemies – within APC and PDP – were. Read more on Vanguard.