Amaechi’s trouble with the party’s chairman, according to sources, began after the Rivers APC primary crisis, which he believed could have gone his faction’s way had Oshiomhole played according to his dictates. Sources said the former Rivers Governor expected Oshiomhole to have agreed to the suspension of Senator Magnus Abe or stood by his faction during the lingering legal tussles.
Explanations by Oshiomhole that he couldn’t have done anything after the court rulings that stopped the primary were unacceptable to the minister, who vowed to bring down the national chairman at all costs. Amaechi sees himself as leader of not only Rivers but the Southsouth zone whose word should be the law. Against all known canons of democracy, he imposed Tonye Cole on the Rivers APC as governorship candidate and Victor Giadom as his running mate. Even when the court ruled that action should be stayed on the state’s primary, he ignored the order and went on with the exercise. He believed he could have his was but the appeal court castigated the party for not obeying the court order before seeking reliefs .
At the Supreme Court, the APC lost again. The party lost the state to hubris, impunity and the despotic tendencies of one man . Rather than blame himself, he is holding others responsible for the terrible fate that befell the party in the state. To him, Oshiomhole must be kicked out for not taking instructions from him. A good opportunity presented itself with the ruling of the FCT High Court that restrained Oshiomhole from acting as national chairman having been “suspended” as a member of the party by his ward in Edo state. Who else is to nail Oshiomhole than Giadom Amaechi’s political errand boy who got into the National Working Committee (NWC) as Deputy National Secretary.
With Giadom, Amaechi was almost having his way until reason prevailed. Armed with the ruling of the FCT High Court, Giadom, summoned a National Executive Council (NEC) meeting, where Oshiomhole was to be removed. He was dancing to Amaechi’s drumbeats.
Many APC stalwarts believe Amaechi may be working for opposition elements to destroy APC the same way he facilitated the decapitation of the PDP in 2014. As chairman of the Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF), Amaechi led eight other governors to the APC in 2014, a major move that weakened the PDP ahead of the 2015 elections.
The Minister, who has more friends and associates in the PDP, will be easily welcomed back into the fold.
Under him, Rivers APC is as good as dead. Without a home base, having lost his ward and local government in 2019 to the PDP, Amaechi, analysts believe, is not even a political lightweight. His electoral value has taken a serious dip, almost to ground zero.
Despite his penchant to grandstand as APC Southsouth leader, he commands no followership in the region to hold such view of himself. In Rivers, he is not only politically irrelevant but seriously diminished. Without a strong structure in Rivers and the region, they wonder what value Amaechi brings to the APC

By Sunday Oguntola