PH Mundial – Port Harcourt Online Newspaper News Across The Region
Related Articles
By Polycarp Nwaeke
As the political crisis in Rivers State lingers, the Chairman of APC Rivers State, Chief Tony Okocha says as an elder statesman and a father figure, Dr. Peter Odili should seek to reconcile his warring children, Governor Siminalayi Fubara and Chief Nyesom Wike instead of stoking the flames of division.
Odili was quoted recently as saying that Governor Fubara stopped somebody, understood to be Wike, from turning Rivers State into his personal estate.
Addressing journalists at his residence in Port Harcourt, Okocha who described the former governor as a revered leader who played father figure to many politicians, said as a father what Odili should have done was to bring his two children together and reconcile them and not to be one sided.
Hear Okocha: “What Wike was doing was to remind Odili with all profound respect to him, that you are a statesman, you are an elder, you are our father. It was Wike that introduced Sim to Odili, he did. You are a father: two of your children are fighting, you should play a role typical of a good father, just as the President did.
“You are a father in this house. This house belongs to you, and you are seeing it decimate, you are seeing it decapitate. You should have called your children together, instead of saying this or that.”
The APC Chairman said the issues at stake are the case of ingratitude and the rot in the state which Odili should wade into and settle, not the personal estate thing.
Okocha said: “I am sure you know the statement Wike was referencing, that Sim Fubara had been able to stop somebody from making Rivers State his personal estate. Is that the issue? It means the issues of ingratitude, the issues of the rot in the state cannot be settled by you.
“But as a father, nobody expects you to be one sided, bring all of us together.”
Okocha recalled that Odili was put in the dock during the sittings of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission set up by Amaechi which was headed by retired Justice Esho.
According to Okocha, that was a very bitter experience to the former Governor who allegedly vowed not to forget and forgive who was responsible for that situation.
Okocha said: “And for some of you who had followed the trends, you know that there’s one Truth and Reconciliation Commission set up by Amaechi regime and headed by Retired Justice Esho. And our sittings ground was Abuja. It used to be Sheraton Hotel, but the place had been bought over, I think it is now Continental Hotel. And our sitting room was Kwali. That’s where the panel sat, and they invited all were needed to be invited. And I don’t know how many of you knew that Odili was put in the dock. I knew because I saw him weeping profusely, that it’s his greatest undoing in life, that it’s something he will never forget and forgive.”
Okocha said after the time, and up to the time he was Chief of Staff, Odili never surfaced again until the baton changed from Amaechi to Wike. He said it was Wike that brought Odili and his family back to visibility.
Hear Okocha again: “For my own period, when I became Chief of Staff, I didn’t see him (Odili). We never extended invitation to him for anything whatsoever.
“But the baton changed from Amaechi to Wike, and we saw an Odili back to the scene. How did it happen? The Governor then, EN Wike had his convictions why he should bring the Odili family together.What transpired between them, I didn’t care to know. They were the ones now telling us this, and telling us that.”
The APC chairman said although he recognized as a revered leader and an elder statesman, he could not pinpoint his achievements as governor of Rivers State beyond the fame he brought to the state and the south south on the issue of Resource Control.
Again Okocha speaks: “…But how beit, we held him in reverence. We did. But even as a student, I tried to isolate these people who had been on the saddle in the state, what achievements, what they bring to the table. If you try to do that, you may not find a lot that can be credited to Odili in terms of performance.
“But he brought fame, he brought respect, I am sure you know there was a cap he was wearing then. It became a popular thing. They called it Resource Control. Those were the prodigies of Odili.”
Offering advice to Governor Fubara, Okocha urged him to use the new year to reconcile aggrieved politicians in order to lessen tensions in the political space and make way for peace in the state.
Meanwhile, a popular television station in the country has exhumed past speeches of Odili where he had praised Wike to high heaven.
The documentary which was aired during a launch -on Wike organized for his political associates in Rivers State, saw Odili eulogizing former Governor Wike for building the Peter Odili Cardio Vascular and Diagnostics center, which he described as world class and his huge contribution to the Pamo University as well as his investment in human capital development.
