OPINION

Amaechi should remain focus 

 By Odimegwu Onwumere

No matter how bad Nigerians may think the political rofo-rofo between Abuja and Governor Chibuike Amaechi is, it is essential to say that it can only be worse if Amaechi is defocused.

Amaechi should understand that wars are caused by human beings, and cannot be left for animals in the bush to fight them. Amaechi should take solace in the words of Thisuri Wanniarachchi who said that life is at its best when everything has fallen out of place, and you decide that you're going to fight to get them right, not when everything is going your way and everyone is praising you.

It is justifiably that there are different parties fighting Amaechi and want him to hate the day he became governor. But C. JoyBell C admonishes that perhaps there really is a good that exists; for a century of darkness to be eschewed by a single flame; for a decade of evil done to the heart to be undone by simple and unplanned acts of kindness! There must be a goodness, after all! But we don't find it when we're looking for it; not in church, not in a cathedral, not even in our own homes! We find it when we've fallen down so hard, are downtrodden so low; and there is one true friend who picks us up; or one random person who takes us in! And we realize goodness was never in the places we thought it was! It was all along in the most humble of places: bound up in the heart of a true friend.

Even the once good and close friends of Amaechi may be thinking otherwise now: whether to continue with him or pitch tent with the Abuja politicians, because of their perceived ditch that Amaechi has fallen into. Notwithstanding, Amaechi should focus on his most-important electoral mandate to Rivers masses, while not miscalculating in his ongoing political imbroglio with the powers that feel they are.

These powers that feel they are, are the most crusaders of national reconciliation, while at the same time fighting perceived critics, which they see Amaechi as one. Has the country not gone back to the era of tyranny?

Amaechi should not be deterred in the face of victimisation, if the caricature of democracy from Abuja can be seen as such. In "Take Care of Us Captain" it is said that there must be times when we want to give up on what we really want to do. Because it's too hard. Then take a deep breath. We just need to go slow, no need to go back.

No leader who feels that he or she is supreme can prevent all the people in a democracy not to look into the affairs of a government that operates a diversionary technique. While such leader is fighting to prevent Amaechi from looking into such affairs, the tyrannical features emitting against critics will never make the leader a winner.

It is mumbo-jumbo to win in a war without the peace; a won war without peace is the equivalent of winning more enemies over by force. This is why (Martian Fleet Commander), Richard Wakinyan says: “Regardless of the situation, don’t let the bastards win … and have no regrets … for it will be a good day!

In "Remains To Be Seen" Brandi L. Bates says that the greatest minds are like film, they take the negatives and develop themselves in darkness... Amaechi should know that confidence is inbuilt and not bought, hence those fighting him portray false-confidence because they cannot stand what they do not want to hear, and that was perhaps coming from the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF), which Amaechi is the chairman.

Randy Pausch says that the brick walls are there for a reason.  The brick walls are not there to keep us out. The brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something.  Because the brick walls are there to stop the people who don’t want it badly enough. They’re there to stop the other people.

No leader with a goofing attitude of a superior mentality can outsmart everyone in a democracy; any leader with this way of thinking is just digging his or her political grave. The fought is not always defeated!

In the principle of "Fighting for Your Dreams" experts have this to say: When things don’t go right, it doesn’t mean you have to go wrong along with them.  Goals and dreams are kind of like breathing – once you give up, there’s no hope left. Don’t do that to yourself. It’s always too early to quit. You must continue breathing, even if it’s just a series of short, shallow breaths.  Continue putting forth even the smallest efforts to sustain your dreams.  Accept the fact that if you fight through the challenges, there is always a chance you might lose, but if you do not fight at all, you have already lost.

A word should be enough more Amaechi, but since words do not make meaning without a sentence, it is imperative that more are said to him. If Amaechi’s problem started with the visit of a woman in Aso Rock to his state, we have to read this from Barbara Cohen’s Seven Daughters and Seven Sons:

“Listen to me, Amin," I said slowly. "Listen to me very carefully. Nothing is the same. Nothing will ever be the same again. There lives on this earth a woman who can be my friend and my lover. Do you understand that? Do you understand what a marvelous thing that is?"

"A friend is a friend," Uthman interrupted, "and a woman is a woman. You can't have them in one person. The whole world knows that."

"If that's what the whole world knows,...then the whole world is wrong. I believed the whole world, and I lost her.”

Let us not believe that this woman in Aso Rock is engineering her hubby to be lengthening the age-long war between the Ikwerre and Okrika people. This is what perhaps a Minister of the Federal Republic who is an Ikwerre son being used to fight Amaechi, does not realise. Has the Ikwerre taken their waterfront which the Okrika are ‘holding’ when an Okrika son was governor? Is Amnesty International now not advocating for the protection of the Okrika-occupied Rivers State waterfront because of the efforts of Her Royal Majesty in Aso Rock?

No wonder George Harrison says that it’s being here now that’s important. There’s no past and there’s no future. Time is a very misleading thing.  All there is ever, is the now. We can gain experience from the past, but we can’t relive it; and we can hope for the future, but we don’t know if there is one.

The outspoken Amaechi should be pitied by the way his friends betray him, upon his love for them; and many of them are Ikwerre he is somewhat always fighting for their rights.

In the principles of "Being Present" experts say: Do not wish your moments away. Do not ruin today by focusing on another time and place. There is only now; realize how rich you are in it.  It stands to reason that if you learn to live well you will eventually pass on well too, in complete peace.  The skills are the same: being present in the moment, and brave, and thankful for all the opportunities you have. Make your time count.  Right now you are creating history – your legacy. Don’t let it slip by without being aware of it. Life works in a strange way: You want something and you work and wait and work and wait, and feel like it’s taking forever to come.  Then it happens and it’s over and all you want to do is relive all the great memories you made along the way.

Amaechi should know that he has not murdered sleep, so he should sleep with his two eyes closed. He should know that his major fighters are his friends he once loved to a fault. While a woman who was naturally created to be a dispute settler is causing the trouble herself, she should take this advise:

In the book, "The Other Queen", Philippa Gregory who is a lady advises women thus: A woman has to change her nature if she is to be a wife. She has to learn to curb her tongue, to suppress her desires, to moderate her thoughts and to spend her days putting another first. She has to put him first even when she longs to serve herself or her children. She has to put him first even if she longs to judge for herself. She has to put him first even when she knows best. To be a good wife is to be a woman with a will of iron that you yourself have forged into a bridle to curb your own abilities. To be a good wife is to enslave yourself to a lesser person. To be a good wife is to amputate your own power as surely as the parents of beggars hack off their children's feet for the greater benefit of the family.

Amaechi should not be defocused. He should be vibrant and up and doing and be thankful.  Walt Whitman says: Keep your face always toward the sunshine, and shadows will fall behind you. 

In the principle of "Being Thankful", it is written that you are right here, right now, breathing.  Enjoy it.  You’ve got nothing to do today except to smile. Happiness is valuing what you have, and enjoying the people, places, objects and events in your life for what they are.  It’s not about changing and achieving all the time, it’s about being and appreciating.  And you can nearly always enjoy the things happening around you if you make up your mind firmly that you will.

Odimegwu Onwumere, Poet/Author, is the Coordinator, Concerned Non-Indigenes In Rivers State (CONIRIV)