ACN Dismisses S’ Court Victory Celebration, PAN Rivers Network As Uncalled For

By RiversACN

Recently, Governor Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi and his political group celebrated what they called the 5th Anniversary of their victory at the Supreme Court October 25, 2007.

The celebration was also used as a forum to dust and fine-tune Amaechi's political campaign outfit tagged PAN Rivers Network ahead of 2015 election.

To His Excellency and his political allies, there is every cause to celebrate even though we see nothing to jolly about in this miscarriage of justice.

While wishing the Governor and his friends well in this unnecessary and wasteful rendezvous, we also make bold to observe that one may know how to gain a victory and know not how to use it.

Nothing can prove this expression more truthfully than the weekend celebration of that cheerless and ill-fated Supreme Court judgment that lack future reference and relevance.

While not trying to stop anybody from joining in the celebration of this absurdity, the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, Rivers State chapter sees the celebration as institutionalization of injustice and reopening the pains of this widely condemned inhumanity in those that inflicted it, for those who commit injustice bear the greatest burden.

This is better captured in Democritus' (A Greek Philosopher) reasoning that “If thou suffer injustice, console thyself; the true unhappiness is in doing it”.

We therefore see the celebration of the 5th anniversary of the so-called Supreme Court victory as merely pretentious and self consoling.

Were the celebrants wiser, they would have considered as instructive Paul Hofman's advice that “We should wage war not to win war but to win peace”.

The crux of the matter is not who won the legal battle but what became of the victory and to what use was it put etc.

It is not in doubt that those who are privileged to adjudicate over matters of law have their own weaknesses, biases, preferences and, or attractions that may inform their decisions. Their decision may not be the right judgment afterall.

The Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, believes and rightly so that victories that are easy are cheap. “Those only are worth having which come as the result of hard fighting”.

A brief glance down the Rivers political memory lane shows that the celebrated Supreme Court victory has produced more regrets than rejoicing, jeering than joy and more hazards than happiness.

The Supreme Court victory it is, that killed and buried the all inclusive politics evolved by the Odili administration that united the people of Rivers State as one united indivisible and indissoluble entity.

An administrative approach that swept the destructive Upland and Riverine Dichotomy into the trash can of history.

This cankerworm has reincarnated into Rivers politics no thanks to the Supreme Court victory.

The brotherhood that naturally evolved and transformed into the great political family, all has fizzled out, leaving the once one impenetrable block 'to your tents O' Israel'.

The traditional true character of Rivers politics is no more. There are far more internal contradictions in the ruling party than between the State and other centrifugal forces.

Egocentricity has taken the place of selfless service, producing egregious characters rather than altruistic personalities in Rivers politics. Too bad.

Portholes have taken over the roads as though they are the roads simply because those who claim without them the Supreme Court victory would not have been, have taken over the government, and become 'We know it all' contractors.

They appropriate all the resources to only themselves without recourse to the laws of the land, not even the due process that is their own creation (an outfit used in filtering out those that were presumably not part of the Supreme Court victory train in the sharing of the spoils of office).

A Supreme Court victory that has brought about the illegal, unlawful and illegitimate removal of elected local government officers without due process.

A victory that has translated into wild power and unconstitutional and criminal withholding of federal allocations meant for local governments. A victory that confers unbridled powers to use 30% of the State annual budget at will and anyhow by the Chief Executive without account to any authority.

A victory that guarantees demolition of illegal structures and disallowed rebuilding the demolished structures. A victory that has given the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, an open cheque to mismanage government agencies as is the case with the clearing of refuse in the State by PDP contractors. A victory that cannot guarantee adequate security of lives and properties across the State. A victory that cannot win the war against lack of power and water in our homes.

A victory that prefers easy and luxurious living and acquisition of aircrafts to reconstruction of roads and rehabilitation of flood victims in the State.

A Supreme Court victory that does not know that the god of victory is one-handed, that peace gives victory to both sides of the divide.

The Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, Rivers State chapter condemns in strong terms the yearly celebration of the Supreme Court judgment, and therefore calls on the Rivers State Governor, Rotimi Amaechi to discontinue the celebration of the October 25, 2007 Supreme Court judgment, recalling that same government went to court to annul the October 27th, 2007 swearing-in date to take effect on May 29, 2007.

The ACN sees the celebration in October instead of May as contradictory.



Jerry Needam
Publicity Secretary
ACN, Rivers State

Tuesday, October 30, 2012