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By Amaechi Okonkwo
Introduction:
This is 2022. And if the earlier proposed timetable by the Independent Electoral Commission, INEC, eventually stands, most of the pre-election activities would be concluded this year.
So it is appropriate that political activities including all manner of agitations are already heightening among politicians, political parties and other political interests, general and sectional. Consultations, negotiations, alignments, realignments and trade offs are also going on at different levels of the political space for the achievement and fulfillment of different political aspirations.
All these therefore are setting the tone for the nature of the political engineering that would characterise the new political dispensation, come 2023.
Emerging Narratives:
In Rivers State, a particular scenario is gradually being drummed up and might at the end define the toga of campaign by political parties and actors when the lid is lifted off electioneering campaigns.
And this toga might as well, for the state, be the almost forgotten issue of upland and riverine dichotomy.
Presently, advertently and inadvertently, individuals and groups seeking political offices are already playing up that particular sentiment in trying to bring home their argument for control of political power in the state.
Ogoni first to fly the kite:
The Ogoni seem to be the group seeking to renew that line of political argument when recently through one of its political bigwigs and former senator, Sen Bennett Birabi it called on the two major political parties in the state to ensure that their governorship candidates are selected from the Ogoni nation.
To demonstrate the seriousness of his campaign, he chose a carefully organised press parley with major media organisations in the state to present his demand.
Though he termed it an appeal to the two political gladiators controlling the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and All Progressives Congress, APC, in the state, his kinsmen in lending their support to his “appeal” went further to add threats of boycott of any of the parties that would ignore their demand.
Birabi had said the called was imperative in the spirit of justice, fairness and equity, as other ethnic blocs in the state had produced governors, deputy governors, speakers and chief judge except the Ogoni bloc urging the two political gladiators to pick any of their supporters from Ogoni extraction, to appease the people over 55 years of neglect and marginalization.
He explained that his call was to awaken the consciousness of Rivers people to the neglect and marginalization of Ogoni people in the state that they call their own, for the past 55 years.
“I have called this press conference purposely to appeal to the two leaders of the two political parties in Rivers State, namely Governor Nyesom Wike and Rotimi Amaechi, leaders of the PDP and APC respectively.
“My appeal is based on six fundamentals of justice, equity, fairness, reason, conscience and political morality. They are the authentic basis for any state or country to exist in peace, grow and develop.”
He said Ogoni has suffered a horribly devastating internal crisis resulting in the death of her prominent leaders and over a thousand young men and women in varying circumstances, which resulted in pains and anger that have persisted till date.
He lamented that every government in Rivers State instead of helping to heal the wounds, has taken advantage of “our weakness and continued to water the seed of disunity and disinformation to keep Ogoni in perpetual subjugation almost to the level of political slavery”.
He added; “We don’t even decide who should represent us in any election or speak for us in our internal issues. Government decides. Concerned citizens of Rivers State to make matters worse, the present government, has unwittingly further widened the divide by taking sides with one faction and turning around to blame the entire race for not uniting when in fact the government is fueling the disunity. Unity has become the excuse for our marginalization.
“I want to ask the two political party leaders, if unity was the criteria for concession of political power, how united was the Ikwerre tribe when Dr. Peter Odili handed over power to the Ikwerres? They were far from united but he simply did it because it was expedient.
“Also at the national level, following the annulment of Abiola’s election and his subsequent death, the Federal Government conceded the presidency to the Yorubas and both parties had to choose a candidate from the West amidst the obvious disunity in the West. It was not done because the Yorubas were united, it was done because it was expedient.”
He said in the 55 years of Rivers State, every political block, namely Ikwerre/Etche, Orashi, Kalabari, Igbani, Andoni, Okrika block has at one time or the other headed one or two or all three of the arms of the government except the Ogoni.
“Can I ask these two gentlemen who run the parties in Rivers State, “if you were from Ogoni, would you be happy to be called “fellow citizen(s) of Rivers State?”. This is a matter of conscience and I would like to know who in his right mind has the moral high ground to claim that Rivers State has been fair to all concerned.
“There must be someone amongst his minions from Ogoni that he can trust to continue the works he has started. Also, Governor Amaechi during his own tenure, mortgaged the whole of Ogoni to one or two of his own Ogoni minions who were ready to lay down their lives for him.
“Will it not be also spiritually rewarding for him to reciprocate such loyalties for the Ogoni people? We agree that politics is a contest, but with the examples cited above and for the sake of equity, justice, fairness and political morality, I am appealing to Rivers people led by their political leaders in the two political parties to pick their next candidate from Ogoni.
“The choice should be at the discretion of the two political parties, who they think will best serve the Rivers people. If the issue of unity is still a problem, I thank God, Dr. Peter Odili is still alive, they may need to consult him on how to hand over government to a disunited people.”
The Concerned Citizens (Riverine Ijaw) Response:
But less than 48 hours, while news of the former senator was still trending, a socio-political group under the aegis of ‘Concerned Citizens of Rivers State’ came up with its own appeal to the conscience of political leaders in the two leading political parties PDP and APC to field governorship candidates from the Riverine Ijaw bloc in 2023 general election.
And just like the Ogoni, it argued that granting their appeal would ensure peace, equity and fairness in the state.
The group also made its presentation through a press briefing during which its spokesman, Hon Ken Robinson, presented a well-articulated statement signed by six members of Concerned Citizens of Rivers State.
The group argued that it was only fair and just for the political pendulum to swing to the riverine part of the state after the upland had consecutively produced four governors since 1999.
“We therefore appeal that the Riverine Ijaw sections should be supported by all political leaders and stakeholders, the entire people of Rivers State and indeed friends of the state to occupy the position of governor after Governor Nyesom Wike’s tenure in 2023. This is the just, equitable, fair and reasonable thing to do if we are to allow our conscience to rule our desires,” the group said.
It went on to react to Senator Birabi’s appeal for the Ogoni’s saying it is unfair to refer to the short-lived Chief Rufus Ada George’s administration as a full term in the upland and Riverine political equation.
Robinson reminded the Ogonis and Rivers people that the emergence of Chief Olusegun Obasanjo as President of Nigeria in 1999 was to compensate the South West for the annulment of June 12, 1993 election, which Late Moshood Abiola was adjudged to have won, stressing that the same treatment should have applied to the Ada George’s case, whose tenure was truncated by Gen Sani Abacha.
The Concerned Citizens of Rivers State emphasized that if another upland governor is allowed in 2023, it would mean that a section of the state would have held sway as governor for 32 years, saying it was unfair in all ramifications.
It therefore appealed to the conscience of political leaders in Rivers State not to destroy the legacy of their founding fathers, who took cognizance of the Upland and Riverine arrangement as a natural political divide in the state, by allowing a candidate of riverine extraction to emerge governor in 2023.
Robinson posited that the Ogonis fall under the upland that has occupied the Brick House in Rivers State for the past 24 years, stressing “But Senator Birabi also understands that the Ogonis belong to the upland, which since 1999 has occupied the governorship seat exclusively. The kernel of his clamour, therefore is to perpetuate the existing situation whereby for 24 years the upland would be at the helm of affairs of Rivers State by 2023,” the group posited.
Conclusion:
By this clamour emanating from the two major blocs, for which they both have unassailable argument to support their positions, it becomes imperative that the Upland-Riverine sentiment would dominate argument and consideration of where the governor of Rivers State would emerge from come 2023. But in the meantime all eyes would be on the leading gladiators who would play major roles on how the clamour would be eventually resolved.
