The general elections of 2023 are still reverberating. It is a political tendency that is predicted to spread throughout the federation’s States, regions, and geopolitical zones.
It’s not only about the normal electioneering campaigns, propaganda, voting, and contentious election outcomes this time. The desire for equity and fairness in all of the country’s micro-zones appears to be at the forefront.
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This is the situation in River State, where the people are demanding equity from the governing political bloc in the uplands.
The ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and the All Progressives Congress, APC, as well as other fringe parties, are vying for the 2023 gubernatorial election in the state.
Senator Magnus Abe and his primary competitor, Tony Cole, are both APC guber candidates from Rivers.
Cole is supposed to be the consensus candidate in the APC camp led by former Transport Minister and APC presidential candidate Chibuike Amaechi. Despite being in the same party, Abe and Amaechi each have their own APC parallel structures.
Abe recently accused Amaechi of attempting to “sell the spirit of the State” at a ceremony in Okrika town.
“We are here to inform you that the soul of our dear State is on the line,” he said. The red flag has been raised, indicating that danger is approaching. Rivers State’s soul cannot be sold.
“Our transformers, the Olympia hotel, were purchased by Tony Cole. They will sell the entire state if he returns. The Minister began the process of his second imposition by plotting out those who worked with him, just to bring in a guy from Lagos to lead us for the second time.
“I implore you to join me in opposing the plot against our country. Tonye Cole is unfamiliar with Rivers State, and Rivers State is unfamiliar with him. We don’t want a governor who is far away. If Amaechi wants him to be our governor, he must first restore all of our property that Amaechi sold to him while he was in office.”
Felix Obuah, former PDP State Chairman, Padonson Gabriel, Senator Lee Ledogo Maeba, and Hon. Isaac Kamalu are among the prominent PDP candidates from the upland Rivers.
Kamalu was finance commissioner and immediate previous commissioner for Budget and Economic Planning, as well as former Chief Whip of the State Assembly, while Maeba was a PDP Senator representing Rivers South-East from 2003 to 2007.
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Gabriel was also the former chairman of the Gokhana Local Council Area and afterwards served in the legislature for the Gokhana State seat from 2003 to 2007. He also served as Chief of Staff to the ill-fated Omehia governorship.
Wike, on the other hand, has his own hidden strategy. According to sources, the furious Governor is already displaying fake confidence as he considers appointing a crucial and trusted member of his cabinet as his successor in 2023.
Wike’s intentions included using the State’s Accountant-General, Fubara Siminayi, as his successor, according to further inquiry. Siminaye comes from the riverine Opobo-Nkoro political bloc and was the previous Director of Finance, DF, of the Government House.
The Governor is currently rumoured to be considering Tammy Danagogo, the Secretary to the State Government (SSG), as a prospective replacement. Danagogo hails from the state’s riverine Akuko-Toru Council Area.
Danagogo had also worked with the state and federal governments in a variety of positions. He was the chairman of the Akuko-Turo Local Government Council, the former Commissioner for Urban Development under Amaechi’s governorship, and the former Sports Minister under former President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan’s presidency.
There are three senatorial districts in Rivers State. Senatorial districts Rivers East, Rivers West, and Rivers South East are the three.
The senatorial district of Rivers East includes Ikwerre. It is the most populous of four main local government areas. The Ogonis are the next most populous tribe. Kana, Gohkana, Taia, and Eleme local council regions make up Ogoni.
The riverine people, which include the Ijaw and Ogoni ethnic groups, are currently declaring that it is their time to create the next governor of the state. The Ogoni have even claimed that they have never held the offices of Governor, Deputy Governor, or Speaker of the State Legislature.
To the exclusion of the people of the South East and Rivers West senatorial districts, only the upland people of Rivers East senatorial district have alternatively been chosen governors of the state.
People from the Rivers upland have been occupying the BrickHouse, the State’s administration structure, turn by turn since the fourth Republic began on May 29, 1999.
Former Governor Peter Odili was the catalyst. His term as governor lasted from 1999 until 2007. The governorship of Celestine Omehia was short-lived. A court ruling cut short his term, although he was quickly succeeded by Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi, who served as governor for eight years from 2007 to 2015. Amaechi and Omehia are first cousins.
Amaechi resigned from the then-ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, the platform on which he ascended to prominence, to the then-newly formed All Progressives Congress, APC, ahead of the 2015 general elections.
He intended to use his incumbency to transmit the governor baton to another zone, but his long-awaited plan fell through.
This is due to the fact that Hon. Dakuku Peterside, the 2015 APC governorship candidate and former Director-General of the Nigerian Maritime and Safety Administration, NIMASA, hailing from the Riverine Opobo-Nkoro council area, lost to Governor Nyesom Ezenwa Wike, the then PDP flagbearer and 2023 PDP presidential aspirant. Wike is from the highland Ikwerre hegemony’s Obiakpor Council Area. He is a two-term governor whose term will expire on May 29, 2023, according to the state constitution.
It is, nonetheless, a truth that the people of the Rivers upland are in charge of the state politically and economically. With a sizable election war chest at their disposal, it will only take a strong political will to correct the state’s glaring power inequities.
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By May 29, 2023, the Rivers upland will have had 24 years of uninterrupted government rule.
The littoral people of the State have elevated the stakes of their agitation for power rotation in 2023 on these premises.
However, the upland political establishment has long ignored this solitary demand for a governorship rotation in the state.
