Amid the struggles for generational shift in the political sphere, the country’s politics continues to reap from the strength of the youth and the wisdom of elders. Looking back at the governors, as they stood in the past year, Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State and Martin Elechi of Ebonyi State hold the batons at both ends.
Amaechi, 43, is the youngest governor in Nigeria today, while at 67, Elechi holds the position of the oldest governor in the current dispensation.
Amaechi’s upbringing happened under the shadow of struggle and his rise in politics has been lined with thorns and tenacity.
Born in 1965, he began his education in 1971 at Sacred Heart Primary School, Port Harcourt, a low class school in the Rivers State capital. He attended Government Secondary School, Ebereuma, and University of Port Harcourt.
He served former Rivers State governor, Peter Odili, as personal assistant, where he is widely believed to have cut his teeth in politics.
Amaechi rose to become Speaker of the state House of Assembly, under the tutelage of Odili. But the governor fell out with Odili in the course of accomplishing his own governorship ambition. It was a tough battle that saw Amaechi being replaced with a less popular aspirant during the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship primary. He sees the whole brouhaha that surrounded his governorship ambition as a struggle between the enthronement of a malleable governor and the rise of one with a mind of his own. Belonging to the latter, he won.
As chairman of Ebonyi State Development Association, a group that pioneered agitation for the creation of the state in 1996, Elechi was well positioned to lead the state.
Born 1941, and educated at Lovanium School of Economics, University of Lovanium de Leopoldville, in Democratic Republic of Congo, Elechi is believed to be one of the eldest and oldest serving public officers in Nigeria today.
He was Minister of Lands, Survey, and Urban Development; Minister of Trade and Industry; and Minister of Works and Housing in the old East Central State.
Unlike many of his colleagues who had difficulty winning the right to lead their people, Elechi is believed to have had a smooth ride to power. But he has been challenged by the burden of raising his typically rural state to the level of its South east neighbours.
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