Sounds of 2015 governorship election in River State are resonating loud and swinging in the direction of the Minister of State for Education, Nyemson Wike under the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). But the joy is cut-short by other ethnic nationalities in the state who are questioning the rationale for an Ikwerre indigene seeking to succeed Governor Rotimi Amaechi from same ethnic group, reports Politics9ja.
Although the 2015 governorship election in Rivers State is about a year ahead, but the sentiments and tension it has generated is sinking deep within the fold of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)
in the state. Weekly Trust gathered that the issue at stake is the candidate the PDP would present for the 2015 guber race, which has indeed taken a feverish dimension. The anticipated governorship ambition of the supervising Minster of Education, Barrister Nyesom Wike has pitched stalwarts of the state PDP against other stakeholders of the party.
Though the Minster is yet to publicly declare his intention to run for the governorship seat, but the gale of endorsements he has received in the past weeks is posing a serious problem for the party across the state. It was gathered that tempers arose high in the PDP last week.
This followed a plea by a group known as Orashi/Ogoni Alliance at a meeting in Omoku, Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni Local Government Area of Rivers State, urging Wike to step out to declare his intention to contest for 2015 governorship election in the state.
Again, shortly after an elder statesman in the state and PDP chieftain, Prince Emma Anyanwu told journalists in Port Harcourt that his Etche ethnic nationality has endorsed Wike, as the consensus candidate of PDP in the 2015 governorship election. Other ethnic groups in the state such as the Ogu/Bolo communities, the Ogonis and the people of Oyigbo followed suit by calling on the supervising Minister of Education to yield to what they described as ‘’a clarion call’’ to vie for the state governorship seat under the flagship of PDP.
Anyanwu in a crowded press conference in Port Harcourt said it has become expedient for Wike to come out and declare his intention to contest for the governorship election given Wike’s leadership position and his ability to stabilize politics in the state. He said the people of Rivers State needed the likes of Wike to pilot the affairs of the state come 2015.
Same echoes came from the people of Ogu/Bolo led by a member of Rivers State House of Assembly representing the Ogu/Bolo constituency, Evans Bipi. He urged the Minister not to delay any longer in declaring his intention to contest for the 2015 governorship election in the state.
Also, the Nigerian Ambassador to South Korea, Desmond Akawor led some members of the party from the Igbo axis of the state to endorse the Minister as the PDP consensus candidate for the same 2015 governorship election. The group cited the Minister’s performance as a former council chairman, former Chief of Staff to Governor Amaechi as well as the construction of the gigantic Afam power station by Federal Government as enough reasons for him to vie for the state’s plum job.
But Weekly Trust has observed that the purported endorsements of the Minister by some groups of politicians in the ruling PDP appears to have set the tone for protracted crisis in the party. Political pundits add that the move may set the stage for the opposition APC in the state to seize power.
Expectedly, Wike’s endorsements are eliciting angry reactions across the state. For instance, the Ogoni ethnic nationality was the first to fire the salvo. The Ogonis through its pressure group, the Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People, (MOSOP) said it did not endorse Wike as the governorship flag bearer of any political party.
The President of the group, Legborsi Pyagbara lamented that a few placated Ogoni politicians were bent on holding the nationality to ransom. Pyagbara who spoke through his media and public affairs adviser Bariara Kpalap said the MOSOP was aware of the plot to frustrate the resolve of the Ogoni to fight its marginalization.
According to him, ‘’reports reaching us is that some Ogoni members of the so called Ogoni/Orashi Alliance had alleged that the people of Ogoni had endorsed Wike for the 2015 Rivers State governorship contest. We wish to reiterate that Ogoni cannot be put up for sale, not by any Ogoni person nor any outsider’’.
Another group in the state, the Ijaw Women Forum, (IWF) also aligned its voice against the purported endorsement of Wike for the office of governor in 2015. Spoke person of the group Rachael Adasi said it is unacceptable, unfair and against common sense that Wike , an Ikwerre man would succeed another Ikwerre man in the person of Amaechi after his leadership of the state for eight years.
Adasi who is also the Woman Leader of Ijaw Youth Congress (IYC) said the next governor should come from the Ijaw extraction which comprises Kalabari, Okrika, Bonny, Andoni and Opopo/Nkoro Local Government Areas of the state.
Furthermore, the Etche People’s Liberation Congress has dismissed Prince Emma Anyanwu’s endorsement of the Minister. The group said Prince Anyanwu’s endorsement of Wike is self-serving as he lacks the authority to speak on behalf of Etche people.
Also another group that goes by the name Rivers Mainstream Coalition (RMC) called on members of PDP in the state to disregard the alleged endorsement of Wike. The group’s coordinator, Sotonye Ijuye Dagogo said ‘’the Minster’s friends can support his ambition, but it does not mean the party has endorsed him as it’s candidate.
An Ijaw elder statesman Chief Sara Igbe said the endorsement of Wike would spell doom for the PDP in the 2015 election. Igbe in an open letter to the national chairman of the PDP, Alhaji Adamu Muazu alleged that the PDP in the state has been hijacked by the Minister through his Grassroots Development Initiative, (GDI).
He advised the PDP National Chairman to intervene in the crisis rocking the state chapter of the party and warned that Wike’s endorsement would spell doom for the party in the state.
Governor Amaechi on his part said Wike cannot succeed him considering the fact that both of them come from the same Ikwerre ethnic nationality. The governor said sarcastically at a recent event in Port Harcourt that ‘’Wike said he wants to be governor. We are waiting for him. Let him come’’.
However, Wike is widely believed to be President Jonathan’s hatchet man in the political crisis rocking Rivers State. Before now, he was one of those that stood by the governor during his political travails. He was rewarded with an appointment as the Governor’s Chief of Staff, when Amaechi reclaimed his mandate in 2007.
The duo later fell apart and have since become political enemies and have been at each other’s jugular. Wike’s governorship ambition appears to be heating up the polity in the State. But many say, the fact that he hails from the same ethnic nationality with incumbent governor Amaechi, which has produced governor of the state for eight years, it would be difficult for him to achieve his ambition.
Analysts are claiming that the governorship slot may likely move to other ethnic groups in the state that have not produced agovernor.They insist that conceding PDP ticket to Wike will spell doom for the party in the state.
“If the true spirit of equity, justice and fairness is to be followed, an Ikwerre man should not be asking for a governorship slot for now”, a source added.
Analysts believe PDP will have a hard task if the party presents Wike as its governorship candidate. But if he eventually clinches the PDP ticket the opposition APC would be at a vantage position to win the 2015 election. The APC in Rivers State is very united and all its members are loyal to Governor Amaechi.
The party’s structures are spreading like wide fire across the 23 Local Government Areas of the state. Unlike PDP which political structures have been taken over by Wike’s GDI, the APC is waxing stronger across the State.
It is observed that PDP has no administrative structures at the local government level. The Party has only State Chairmanand secretary. It has no local government officials. Those that are coordinating the local government structures of the Party are Wike’s GDI members.
On this background, the APC in the State has challenged the Minister to come out and contest for the Governorship election. APC through its media adviser in the State, Chukwuemeka Eze said recently that it would organize a fasting prayer for Wike’s 2015 governorship ambition.
The party is invariably making mockery of the Minister.
Disturbed by the heat the purported endorsement of Wike has generated in the State, the Party has come out to deny it has endorsed the Minister for 2015.
The Party in a press statement signed by its secretary, Walter Ibibia reiterated its openness to all qualified and vibrant members to feel free to aspire to any political office of their choice. He assured all aspirants of equity and fairness but sounded it loud and clear that it would not compromise quality and competence in favor of those who want to cut corners, hiding under the quest for zoning and patronage.
Weekly Trust also observed that zoning has been the sharing formula abducted by elites and political leaders of the State to determine where political positions would swing. Political positions in the past had rotated between the Upland and riverine parts of the State. But if PDP says the zoning formula and the political understanding adopted is no longer in vogue, the party may be heading to the rocks.
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