President Jonathan Running A ‘One-Man Show’ in PDP, Says Amaechi

There seem to be no end in sight to the no love lost between Rivers State Governor Rotimi Amaechi and President Goodluck Jonathan as the governor has once again fired another salvo at the President.

Amaechi, in an interview he granted the Financial Times of London, accussed Preisdent Jonathan of turning the Peoples Democratic Party into a “one-man show” and of condoning “impunity and authoritarianism” in an effort to ensure re-election in 2015, adding that the President and his wife, Patience, were bent on removing him from office.

He traced his ordeals in the hands of the President and his wife to the erroneous believe that whoever was in charge of  the Nigeria Governor’s Forum had the capacity to influence  the presidential election in 2015.

“There is this fear in the Presidential Villa that whoever chairs the governors’ forum will influence the presidential election,” Amaechi  said.



He alleged that “what has happened has been engineered to the point where the President and his wife are trying to remove me from office.”

“We are seeing an absence of law and order that can breed anarchy. It seems those at Federal Government level are not interested in democracy, but impunity and authoritarianism. The President needs to check this,” the governor added.

Amaechi also told the FT that he had not decided on his plans for 2015. He said that efforts by some in the PDP leadership to claim that he had lost the governors’ forum vote, despite him obtaining 19 votes to his challenger’s (Jonah Jang of Plateau State) 16, was a concerning sign ahead of  2015.

“If they can accept 16 over 19, people should be worried,” he said.

But spokesman for the President, Reuben Abati,  denied that Jonathan  and his wife  were in any way involved in  Amaechi’s travails.

“This is all local Rivers politics,”  Abati  said. “It’s convenient to drag the President into this, but it is not true. All these allegations are baseless.”