All Progressives Congress (APC) Interim National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed spoke with reporter in Oro, Irepodun Local Government Area, Kwara State on the crisis in Rivers State. Correspondent Adekunle Jimoh reports.

Rivers State has been embroiled in political crisis.

What is your take on the development?

What is happening in Rivers State should not be seen as a local matter. Even in a war, war starts on a very insignificant misunderstanding. But what is happening in Rivers State is worrisome in many respects because, it is clearly not manufactured in Rivers. It is manufactured in Abuja. It is a proxy war between the President on one hand and the Governor of Rivers on the other. And it has much to do with the perceived impression of the President that Ameachi would be a stumbling block not just to the party PDP, but his own ambition to run for a second term.

Now, what is the genesis of the Rivers State problem? It started with the perceived role of Governor Ameachi in his position as chairman of the Governors Forum as being too confrontational. And that he is behaving as a unionist. But Amaechi's defence was that he was speaking on behalf of his colleagues as governors. Issues such as the Sovereign Wealth Fund or the excess crude account or issue that border on federalism, Amaechi became the mouthpiece of the governors to advance their position against what they saw as the overbearing influence of the centre. But the presidency and the PDP saw that as being confrontational. That was what earned him a bad name in their book.

The unending internal crisis in PDP, which has pitched the governors against the chairman of the party, is again, a sore point in the presidency. The governors as a block were unhappy when former governor Oyinlola was removed as the secretary of the PDP; they were unhappy also with the treatment Adamawa State Governor Muritala was getting. So they asked Amaechi to speak out their minds, which he did, that again, was counted against him.

The disputed oil wells between Bayelsa and Rivers states, when Amaechi suddenly discovered that the funds accruing from this disputed wells, which was put in suspense account, had now been credited to the Bayelsa State government. Of course, he naturally got upset and he led the delegation of the elite in the state to go and complain to the President. Again, that didn't endear him to the President. Overall, there is the issue of no love lost between Amaechi and the President's wife, who also happens to be from Rivers state. On many occasions, there have been reports of his being snubbed by the first Lady. Matters came to a head during the Governors Forum elections. The presidency was very unhappy and uncomfortable and mounted a campaign against Amaechi's second coming. Despite the fact that the PDP has a controlling majority number of 23 governors, when elections were held, Amaechi came tops and the President did not behave statesmanly.

If the President had immediately issued a letter of congratulations to Amaechi, that would have probably given the image of a statesman, but he went the other way by recognising the Jang's faction. That means he does not believe in majority rule, he does not believe in the rule of law.

I think the humiliation that the President suffered from the Governors Forum that is now spiraling into what is happening in Rivers.

How would you react to the role of the police in the crisis?

We must be honest, the role the Police have played in this matter is condemnable. When you have a police commissioner that says the problem in my state is the governor, then you know that he must have had some assurances from somewhere else. So, when we in the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), said put all the problems on the doorsteps on the President, this is what we were saying.

There is no way the President can wash his hands off this matter. Unfortunately, Nigerians like compromises. Until the truth is told, that the President is behind the entire problem in Rivers, so long shall we have bitter crisis, not only in Rivers but elsewhere. What it translates to is that it does not matter whether you are 27 or 30 if you have just two or three who have the backing of the President and the police, they can make the state ungovernable for you.

Is it true that IBB, Atiku and others are jostling to become BOT chair of the APC?

The Nigerian rumour mill is the most active in the world. And it amuses me, when some stories make page one of headlines of newspapers. A party which is yet to be given its certificate of registration; a party which is yet to have permanent offices; a party yet to have its convention at which ward, local and state officials would be elected; a party that has not even got the guidelines for primaries election within and outside the party, how can that party, all of a sudden, now start talking about Board of Trustees (BoT). I think the alleged jostling by General Ibrahim Babangida, Abubakar Atiku and others for the BoT chair of the APC is a figment of the rumour peddlers' imagination. The people you have mentioned so far, am not aware that they have indicated interest to join the APC. So, where will the issue of fighting for the chairmanship of the BoT come from?

Do you think the registration of the APC is being delayed?

In the history of Nigerian politics, there has never been a merger. This is he first time some political parties are merging. What we had before were alliances and cooperation. The implications of a merger are huge. The day your certificate is issued, names of all the merging parties would cease to exist. We have met all the requirements.

How do you see the APC vis-a-vis 2015 general elections?

The 2015 elections will not be about one party replacing the other or about one president being refundamental because it will be about how do we avert imminent civil war again. That is why the leaders of APC must be able to make the ultimate sacrifice to rescue Nigeria. In Nigeria today, there is a low burning war. The entire North-east is like it is not part of Nigeria. The insecurity in the Northwest is palpable. The ACN has restrained itself from making further comments on the Boko Haram insurgency because of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and others' mischief. They are quick to label us as an Islamist party. That is completely untrue. But as long as we are unable to address the root causes of Boko Haram, for so long will the solution elude us. We are not saying that there might not be religious overtones in the issue of Boko Haram, but bad governance, corruption and hardship has created a fertile market for Boko Haram.