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By Des Ogini
There have been various forms of agitations for who the next governor of Rivers State would be. Such agitations range from “Where will he come from?” “Who will he be, and what criteria will he pass through to become?”
From the benefit of hindsight, some key political players, by their actions right after the last general elections in 2015, surfaced as the governorship seat front-runners.
When Chief Dumo Lulu-Briggs decamped from the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC), it was assumed by political pundits, followers and stakeholders that the Abonnema-born lawyer cum business man did so with clear plans to pick the guber ticket of the APC for Rivers State in 2019.
It was also the same expectations and permutations for Prince Tonye Princewill, who dumped the Labour Party and joined APC, saying he would prefer to work with Rt. Hon. Chibuike Amaechi and others to re-position the state.
Across Rivers State, through the creeks to the seas, up to the farms, it was a known fact that Senator Magnus Abe, representative of the Rivers South East Senatorial zone in the Senate, would step into the ring for the 2019 governorship contest in the APC.
There were also Dr. Dakuku Peterside, Director-General of the Nigeria Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), APC’s guber candidate in the 2015 general elections, Dr Dawari George, former member of the House of Representatives for Akuku-Toru Federal Constituency and then, Dr Sokonte Davies, who is the executive director, Marine and Operations of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA).
Interestingly, the most heard of among the guber hopefuls in APC has been Senator Magnus Abe, who even opened his campaign office known as Freedom House some months ago.
It is on record that Rivers State had been operating the riverine/upland political system whereby if the governor of the state is riverine, then his deputy must be from upland. Examples are Chief Marshall Okilo/Chief (Dr) Frank Eke, as well as Dr Dominic Anucha, and Chief Rufus Ada George/Dr Peter Odili.
However, a new twist has been strongly introduced into the political equation of the state with a disregard to this established system of distribution of political offices along senatorial zones.
Every state in Nigeria has three senatorial zones. For Rivers, there are Rivers West, Rivers East and Rivers South East. In 1999, Dr Peter Odili (Rivers West) got the governorship ticket and chose Sir Gabriel Toby (Opobo, Rivers East) as his deputy.
When Rt Hon. Chibuike Amaechi (Rivers East) took over in 2007, he stuck with Hon. Tele Ikuru (Rivers South East), the choice of Sir Celestine Omehia (Rivers East) who was in office for five months, from June to October 2007.
Odili, as governor, served for 8 years (1999-2007), while Chibuike Amaechi also did 8 years.
Going by the movement of the governorship seat and its rotation, the Rivers State Government House, popularly known as the Brick House, was expected to move to Rivers South East, where Dr Dakuku Peterside and Senator Magnus Abe hail from. That was not to be as Chief Wike and the PDP in 2015 “did everything they could” to take power from the APC. Wike, of Rivers East, that had already done 8 years, won and “violently” halted the flow of rotational guber.
Presently, the arguments for who the next governor would be include, but not limited to, which zone should the person come from, should Wike not complete his constituently allowed two terms, and whether it is now the turn of the riverine.
For some observers, Wike should not be allowed a 2nd term, given that he ‘shortchanged’ the people of Rivers South East in 2015, thus giving Rivers East an uninterrupted 12-year stretch at the Brick House. Others recount that with Wike on the seat, the riverine axis would be out of power for 20 years by the time he completes his second term in 2023.
So, extending the tenure of the current governor is tantamount to shutting out the riverine from power for another 4 years, without any hope of getting it in the next 12 years going by the senatorial arrangement, which was punctuated in 2015 by Gov Wike.
Meanwhile, the Ogonis who form the majority of the constituents in Rivers South East have been clamouring for a return to the governor-by-senatorial zone arrangement. This desire naturally upsets Governor Nyesom Wike’s ambition because it denies him the basis to contest again. The riverine refrain also causes deep upsets for Wike, especially so given that the one who appears to be the chief driver is his avowed enemy, Rt. Hon Amaechi, former governor of Rivers State and now minister of Transportation and leader of the APC in the South South and Rivers State.
Several proponents of the ‘Ogonis and the Rivers South-East for governor’ and ‘the Riverine for governor’ were therefore all hard-hit when news filtered out on Friday, August 31, 2018 that the leader of APC in the state, Rt. Hon Amaechi had made a choice of his preferred aspirant. The choice is Architect Tonye Dele Cole, a business mogul and son of a one-time presidential aspirant under the platform of the now defunct Social Democratic Party (SDP), Ambassador Patrick Dele Cole, an indigene of Abonnema, headquarters of Akuku-Toru Local Government Area (AKULGA).
Tonye Cole is a top grade entrepreneur with serious business interests in oil, gas and energy in Rivers, Lagos and other states. He is said to have the financial muscle and administrative competence to contest the 2019 guber election in Rivers State and to superintend competently and unbiased if he wins.
Ironically, at a time the Federal Government has prioritized the fight against corruption, with its eye on more effective and efficient management of available resources, the choice of Tonye Cole for the APC guber primaries by loyalists of Rt. Hon Amaechi and himself has sparked off a galaxy of activities in the political firmament of Rivers State.
For Governor Wike, the preference for Tonye Cole by Rt. Hon Amaechi for the governorship race would be a long walk, as he (Wike) has vowed that “I will never allow business partners to take over our state,” in a clear reference to the business relationship between the minister of Transportation and the business mogul. Nyesom Wike, the following day, September 1, 2018 went on to declare his intention to run again for governor on the platform of the PDP in 2019.
Senator Magnus Abe and other stakeholders in APC, such as Chief Dumo Lulu-Briggs and Dr. Dakuku Peterside have reacted differently to the choice of Architect Tonye Cole.
For Lulu-Briggs and Peterside, they appear to have accepted the position of the leader, as echoed by Senator Andrew Uchendu and Hon. Dr. Chidi Julius Lloyd, former majority leader of the Rivers State House of Assembly.
Some persons have asked, both in print and the social media, whether Tonye Cole is actually a member of the APC in Rivers State, and whether he knows the location of the polling booths in his hometown, Abonnema, all of which define no less a character than a neophyte in politics.
However, Senator Magnus Abe has opined that Tonye Cole is just somebody’s choice and not the people’s choice, one who should emerge through direct primaries to ensure that the winner is a project of the whole.
The political heat stirred by Tonye Cole’s name is so hot and offensive, especially to the Ogonis. So much so that Dr. Medee, president of KAGOTE (Khana, Gokana, Tai and Eleme), an apex socio-political organization of Ogoni people, has decreed that “no Ogoni man/woman should accept to deputize Tonye Cole, or he/she would be declared to be a vulture.” ‘Vulture’ in Ogoniland means the highest level of treachery against the land and its people.
Tonye Cole has apparently taken up the challenge of seeking to be the next governor of Rivers State by resigning from the board of directors of Sahara Oil, his company, and traveling back to his hometown, Abonnema, to build political structures.
