The All Progressives Congress (APC), Rivers State Chapter has conferred on the Minister of Transportation, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi the status of the leader of the Niger Delta region, stressing that he is in the category of other nationalists including Obafemi Awolowo, Ahmadu Bello, Nnamdi Azikiwe and Tafawa Balewa.
The party made this known in a statement issued by Chief Chukwuemeka Eze, the Senior Special Assistant on Media and Public Affairs to Chairman of APC in the state, Ibiamu Davies Ikanya. It was issued at an event organized by the Ikwerre Youth Movement (IYM), the foremost socio-cultural organisation in Ikwerre land to “solemnize the Chieftaincy title earlier conferred on Chief Amaechi by the Ikwerre Traditional Rulers as “EZE OCHI ALIRI 1 of IKWERRE Land”. The title means the person who stands tall to take on and ward off any challenge in a family or Community.
The statement read in part;
Briefly, he is the “Redeemer of His people” (Ikwerre) or ‘The wise Defender of the Ikwerre kingdom’. The event unprecedented in recent time in the annals of social and political gathering in Rivers State commenced with 21 traditional gun shots to welcome Amaechi and over a million of persons from Ikwerre the largest ethnic group in Rivers State with friends and supporters to accord honour to this great son of Nigeria and to thank President Muhammadu Buhari for the honour done to their son and Leader of Rivers State politics.
In short, Amaechi is our own Zik, Awo, Balawa and Saraduna combined. He is the record breaker. A prophet is honoured everywhere except in his own hometown and among his relatives and his own family” (New Living Translation) but Amaechi with the event of today have dusted this truism with the millions of Ikwerre sons and daughters his brethren agreeing as one people to honour him for his sterling and outstanding inputs towards the emancipation of the Ikwerre people and for becoming a great Iroko and one of the pillars through which the politics of Nigeria currently rotates.
With this title and recognition Amaechi becomes the most influential Ikwerre man on planet earth. Today, Chief Amaechi is not only changing the face of Transportation in Nigeria as the Minister of Transportation but stands out as one of the key and influential member of President Buhari’ s political Team.
Refers in some quarters as the Lion of Niger Delta Politics, this great son of Rivers State has being reappointed to lead APC to victory come 2019 as the Director General of the Presidential Campaign Council. No son of Rivers State has achieved such feats to warrant his ethnic tribe to have so honoured him in this manner.
To the Ikwerre Youth Movement, “Amaechi is our liberator. He is the man who broke the shackles of political timidity and wrenched the chains of economic naivety in our domain. This colossus of a man brought political freedom to our very doorsteps and we will henceforth stand by him in all his political calculations.”
