By Rotimi Fasan
IT’s no longer news that all hasn’t been well between Chibuike R. Amaechi, RiversState governor, and President Goodluck Jonathan.

The outcome of the contest for the leadership of the Governors Forum which Amaechi won in spite of efforts to thwart his ambition by forces in the PDP believed to be working for President Jonathan has only accentuated what had lain hidden for so long.

In spite of denials by the Presidency, the latest being the one by Reuben Abati in the immediate aftermath of the Governors Forum’s election, many Nigerians know better than to believe that President Jonathan is uninterested in the outcome of the election.

Or put differently, many believe Abuja would rather not have Amaechi returned as Chairman of the Forum which has in the last few years assumed far more significance than one would ordinarily expect of an informal gathering that it is supposed to be.

Yet this informal association has widened the breach in the relationship between two South-South politicians that probably started for reasons traceable not to any personal animosity between them but the bad blood generated by the outburst of Mrs. Patience Jonathan who embarrassingly chided Governor Amaechi for actions she considered targeted against the good of her people.

It is not impossible that in the many months since this open attack on Governor Amaechi, Mrs Jonathan has succeeded in turning her personal antagonism for the Governor into her husband’s. It wouldn’t be too far-fetched then to believe that the unfolding drama between Jonathan and Amaechi is traceable to Patience.

Now things have fallen apart and one of the two parties involved in this bruising fight is claiming his life is in danger. We may be having a glimpse of just how messy things could get before they’ll get better, if ever things could get better between these men again.

But then these are politicians and nothing changes ever so often among them as the friends they keep. This may be timely warning to those presently queuing up behind both men in anticipation of the battle ahead. When this hurly-burly is over and done with, the collateral damage would belong to the unfortunate bystanders who chose to turn mere politicians’ battles into their own private war.

Yet the truth must be out- Jonathan, no matter how he tries, has shown himself to be behind the war drum that seeks to drown out Amaechi’s victory song and, if possible, his political career. Even if Patience may be indirectly responsible for the animosity between Jonathan and Amaechi, the ambition of both men has done much to worsen that relationship. Not many outside the South-South are enthusiastic about another term for President Jonathan but finding a suitable replacement for him has been a touchy issue.

The assumption has been that challenge to his continued stay in office could only come from among politicians of Northern extraction, a product that might be very difficult to sell. But a politician from within the Niger-Delta even if only paired as Vice President with another from the North changes the game for Jonathan and he knows it. For quite a long time now, the news has been around town that Amaechi, a two-time governor, might be nursing presidential ambitions. In recent times, the story has taken on a life of its own and this must have unsettled Jonathan in no small way.

There is no doubt that many Nigerian politicians at some level believe themselves superior  to Jonathan, especially those who were already governors before fortune smiled on him to make him their boss.

They also couldn’t see what this President has done to make him more qualified for the office of president than they. Jonathan probably not only senses this in the action and utterances of some of these politicians but also feels it viscerally. He senses the lack of respect if not disdain, a point a woman as ambitious as his wife would drum into him until he begins to act in the crude manner that expresses itself in the kind of unconscionable display of power that led, first, to the grounding of Amaechi’s plane and later the attempt to prevent his return to the seat of chair of the Governors Forum.

This is not saying that Amaechi is entirely blameless in the matter or that he was right to be flying an aircraft without proper licence if one could justify his flying an aircraft at all in a state whose public transport system is the same nightmare it is in every other state. But the point is that it took the disagreement between him and Jonathan to alert the aviation authorities to this apparent violation of air safety regulations.

The build-up to the election that produced Amaechi as chair of the Governors Forum was fraught with expectations and many could have mistaken it for a contest into some elective office recognised by the Constitution. It was clear the Presidency had an interest in the outcome and was in fact sponsoring candidates. Thus, when the result came and Amaechi was announced winner or was reported to have won, it all seemed like a defeat for the President.

It’s, therefore, not surprising that the PDP would crudely join the fight by suspending Amaechi from their party for so-called anti-party activities that couldn’t in their reckoning  be resolved without further violations of laid down procedures. Nobody should be trusted with power and by the manner Jonathan has played his hand in the entire saga, he has shown himself to be no better than his predecessors in office.

Especially President Obasanjo who many believe could very often appropriate state power for purely private battles. Jonathan, the barefooted boy from Otuoke, could prove a poor but more deadly student of the Obasanjo School of Power Profiteers.