Edison Ehie: End Of A Legislative Era, Beginning Of A New Role

● The complete story of how events have played out since the peace deal was struck; the rise of the Ehie era; plus the chronicle of men who have been Chiefs of Staff in Rivers

By PHC Telegraph

When the Rivers House of Assembly reconvenes to perform its legislative functions, Edison Ehie who at the advent of the political crisis which engulfed the State emerged as a Speaker in rather controversial circumstances would not be one of the usual faces that will be seen on the floor of parliament.

He will henceforth work with the executive arm of government as the Chief of Staff to Governor Siminalayi Fubara. And decide to a large extent, who gets to see the Governor and how.

Recall that as 2023 came to an end, Ehie officially wrote a letter of resignation to the leadership of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, saying “This is to formally notify you of my voluntary resignation as Speaker and member of the 10th Rivers State House of Assembly representing Ahoada East Constiriency II with effect from the date of this letter.”

He however did not give any further reason for his action except to suggest in very few words that he will be back subsequently to play other roles.

 

But Ehie thanked his former colleagues in the House and expressed gratitude to his constituents for the chance he got to serve as a lawmaker.

Days after he vacated his seat, leaving Ahoada East Constituency II without any representation, Ehie was indeed back, this time as one of Fubara’s strong confidants and Chief of Staff in charge of the Rivers State Government House.

Withdrawal of Claim:

 

The eventual withdrawal of Ehie’s claim to the exalted position of the Speaker of the House did not entirely come as a surprise, given the painstaking implementation of the peace accord reached by two sides of a feuding political family in the presence of Nigeria’s President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

But his decision to completely renounce his membership of the house took many in the State and across the country totally unawares.

An exparte motion granted by a High Court which equally restricted Speaker Martins Ameawhule and his deputy from parading as leaders of the House has managed as lawyers say to remain alive.

Thus, Ehie’s exit apparently removes the platform upon which the court made some pronouncements which gave him the right to parade as Speaker, meaning that there may be nothing as things stand now that is likely to jeopardize the implementation of that aspect of the peace accord that overtly recognizes the headship of the House by Speaker Martins Ameawhule.

 

On Monday, at a crowded public event attended by Dr Peter Odili, members of the political class and other top government functionaries, Governor Fubara recognized Ameawhule as the Speaker of the Rivers State House of Assembly.

His picture was properly printed on a Programme of Events used for government ceremony.

A Sacrificial Lamb But A High Level Beneficiary: 

Ehie’s new estate: The Rivers State Goverment House that is now under his charge on the orders of Governor Sim Fubara.

 

Ehie who has risen to be Fubara’s right hand man as a result of the crisis was part of the PDP group which after the election in Rivers State that occupied INEC in Port Harcourt.

On the 29th of December, 2023, he vacated his seat. It is not clear if the lawmaker who got catapulted to the centre of the conflict consulted his constituents before throwing in the towel.

Nonetheless, as the peace deal makes
progress, the lawmaker from Ahoada East became a casualty of weeks of muscle flexing; and a sacrificial lamb of a political squabble that some say might have been ignited by him.

The Telegraph has gleaned through well placed sources that the lawmaker may indeed have been the architect of the mutual distrust and hostility that pitched Governor Sim Fubara against the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Barrister Nyesom Wike.

Sim supporters claim in drinking pubs, at street corners, inside buses and taxis that it was Ehie who alerted Fubara of an alleged plot to throw him out of Government House.

“Ehie loves Sim very much”, said an Ijaw who spoke to this publication, “That was why he fought hard enough with everything he could muster to truncate an impeachment plan against the Governor.”

There are others who also reckon Ehie who did not get the speaker’s position after being the number two man in the House created the rift for his own benefit.

In the 9th Assembly, Ehie was the Deputy Speaker of the House. Although he did not become the Speaker after his re-election, he became the leader of the Assembly, a position that gave him a leeway to lead serious debates on the floor of parliament and table state government bills.

“His ambition to be Speaker”, said one lawmaker who spoke under anonymous conditions, “led to an avoidable crisis that erupted late last year.”

Somehow, Ehie has turned into one of the most powerful men around the Rivers State Governor. Even before emerging as Chief of Staff,  Ehie had allegedly inherited the task of organizing the pro-Sim movement.

Many supporters of the Governor, worried that Ehie would lose out completely were reportedly happy when the news of his appointment as the point man in Government House broke.

Most of them have taken to their Facebook and X handles to eulogise Governor Fubara and hail Ehie’s elevation as the Chief of Staff on social media.

Still on social media, the resignation of the former claimant to the position of Speaker is being seen by anti-Fubara campaigners as evidence of what will happen to all who turn traitors.

Peace Accord on Course: 

 

So far, the terms of understanding reached in the presence of President Bola Tinubu who waded into the Rivers crisis are being meticulously implemented.

About six out of eight resolutions reached at the roundtable talks held in the Villa have been fully implemented.

Not only have cases in court been withdrawn, the Assembly has since put an end to its quest to impeach the Governor, Sir Siminalayi Fubara.

Rivers lawmakers held a special session during which a formal motion to halt the impeachment process was presented and adopted.

In return, Fubara who has no hands in the choice of the venue where members of the 10th Legislature will carry out the conduct of their normal business has similarly paid outstanding allowances owed to the lawmakers.

Political insiders say what is looking as the non interference of the Executive  in the activities of the  Legislature in Rivers State, following the outcome of the peace talks has established the extent of freedom which the Constitution envisaged for the country’s National Assembly and the various Houses of Assembly in the States.

The peace agreement obviously anchored on the principle of equal reciprocity further establishes the constitutional right of state lawmakers anywhere in Nigeria to legislate purely on all matters of a legislative nature that are consigned to them by the Nigerian Constitution, without let or hindrance.

On Monday, Fubara acknowledged Speaker Ameawhule’s position publicly, indicating as the Port Harcourt Telegraph has earlier reported, that a bipartisan understanding might verily point the new way forward in the way government business is conducted in Rivers.

Two items contained in the eight-point deal are yet to be fully dealt with even though the foundations for their implementation are being skillfully laid.

They are the representation of the 2024 budget before a full House and the formal restoration of the commissioners who resigned from the Fubara administration in the wake of the crisis.

Men Who Have Been Chiefs of Staff:

The first Chief of Staff  was named during the administration of Dr Peter Odili. His name was Fred Alasia, a man many in that era referred to as the ‘Prof’.

Although he was Chief of Staff, Government House, Alasia for some inexplicable reasons operated from outside the seat of power, occupying an office in a building belonging to Radio Rivers that was built along William Jumbo, a road that runs behind Government House.

 

After Odili completed his tenure and Sir Celestine Omehia momentarily sat as the Governor of Rivers State, he appointed Chief Glory Emeh as his Chief of Staff.

Emeh, a former Commissioner in the Odili administration, unlike Alasia operated from within Government House.

It was the first time since the office became part of the political culture of the State that the effective installation of a Chief of  Staff in Government House will take place.

Remarkably, the arrival of Emeh on the scene began the process of the consolidation of the influence of the Chief of Staff.

 

But it was under Chief Nyesom Wike who took over as the Chief of Staff during the period of Governor Rotimi Amaechi’s first tenure that the actual power of a Chief of Staff was seriously established.

His influence could be felt within and outside Government House, turning him into one of the most powerful office holders of that era.

When he exited to be Minister, Tony Okocha stepped in as the Chief of Staff in the second lap of the Amaechi government.

He was succeeded as Chief of Staff by Dr Emeka Woke, a former local government chairman from Emohua.

To date, Woke is the longest serving Chief of Staff in Rivers State. He served for eight years.

Chidi Amadi appointed by Siminalayi Fubara when the Consolidation family which ran on a mantra of a New Rivers Vision stood together may turn out to have enjoyed the shortest tenure in history as Chief of Staff.

Whereas Emeh’s short tenure ended in the wake of a Supreme Court ruling which brought Amaechi to power and sent Omehia out of Government House, Amadi’s tenure came to an end as a result of a serious power tussle which ensued after Fubara was sworn in as Governor.

With the arrival of Ehie as Chief of Staff, many are waiting to see what latitude the Fubara administration will allow as he takes up responsibility for managing Government House as well as other state duties that his boss may shift to his desk from time to time.