Some efforts may be required to get over the controversy engineered in Rivers chapter of APC, following the choice of Dakuku Peterside as its preferred governorship candidate for 2015 elections, Assistant Editor (South South), JOE EZUMA, writes.
The unease in Rivers State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) by the November 26 endorsement of Dakuku Peterside as its favoured candidate for the 2015 governorship poll in does not seem to be an issue that would die off in a hurry. The action has, for instance, sparked off waves of disquiet in Rivers South-East and even the riverine areas of the state. Signs of the uncertain development began to emerge when protests rocked parts of the state on Thursday, November 27, a day after the endorsement. Concerned observers had viewed the APC endorsement of Peterside as a bit hasty, especially coming some days ahead of the party’s primary.
In the protest that ensued, thousands of Ogoni youths took to the streets and major roads to demonstrate their displeasure over the endorsement. The Kalabari ethnic group also grumbled, thus exposing the party to knocks from its two major support bases.
The Ogoni had, in November, stated that any political party in the state that failed to pick its governorship candidate from the area would not get their votes. Analysts saw the remark as a warning signal for the APC from one single major ethnic group that has not tasted power at the governorship level since the creation of Rivers, but has suffered most for rising to the demand of fairness, even development and justice for the people of the state, from both Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) and the Nigerian government.
Ogoni react
The youths, who blocked major junctions of the East-West Road at Eleme, Akpajo and Tai, later turned up at Azikiwe Road and began moving towards Brick House (Rivers seat of government), Port Harcourt, chanting war songs, denouncing Peterside as the choice of the party.
The youths were irked that Governor Chibuike Amaechi betrayed the ethnic group by dumping Senator Magnus Abe (Rivers South-East) and Chairman, Senate Committee on Petroleum Downstream, their kinsman. Abe was considered a frontline contender to the governorship ticket until APC stakeholders chose Peterside as their preferred choice for the 2015 gubernatorial election.
The youths, in their protest, destroyed some cars at the parking lot in front of Government House, prompting the police to start shooting into the air and firing tear gas canisters to scare them away.
Speaking to journalists later in the day, the Public Relations Officer of the Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People (MOSOP), Legborsi Esaen, accused the governor of betraying the group.
“We have resolved to support any party that presents an Ogoni as its governorship candidate. We are no longer prepared to play second fiddle in the politics of Rivers State. It’s either governorship or nothing,” Esaen lamented.
Abe cries out
Even as the Senator has asked his supports to keep faith with APC, there are indications that he is yet to get over the shock of the surprising choice of Peterside by the party’s stakeholders.
These were the signals at a Senatorial stakeholders’ meeting he held with the people of his constituency and some party big wigs on Sunday, November 30, 2014.
His speech at the meeting expressed deep feeling of disappointment that enveloped the Ogoni nation and her sympathisers across the state. Abe, who agreed with the philosophy that the consensus thing was a party decision , noted: “That decision was painful to a lot of us, not necessarily for me but for my people. Regrettably, a lot of people did not understand or respect the sensibilities of the issue.
“My people, the Ogoni people have a dream; they too, like other people in the country would like to one day produce a Governor for Rivers State. That dream is real, that dream is alive and that dream will not die. It is not a dream about Magnus Abe, it is not a dream about any individual. It was the hope, aspiration and expectation of a people. And I felt that if it was not meant for political exigency, it was not just a feeling of the Ogoni people. There were people all across Rivers State who felt sympathetic with that aspiration. And in a political setting where there are always much pains, some of those feelings would have been better respected and that is one of the things I did not like.”
Enter the Deputy Speaker
To underscore the anger in the land, Deputy Speaker of the state House of Assembly, Leyii Kwanee, emphasised that the Ogoni cannot afford to play second fiddle this time no matter the political persuasion. Kwanee who has ironically been a die-hard Amaechi loyalist , asked his people, especially the eligible voters among them to “remain calm in the face of the political permutation that appears to have horse traded the Ogoni in the state APC”.
Exhorting the Ogoni, especially those from his constituency, to ensure participation in the on- PVC Collection exercise, Kwanee noted that this was the surest way for the Ogoni to determine their future as an ethnic nationality ahead 2015 elections.
But reacting to the rising apprehension about the purported endorsement, the State chapter of the party tried to douse the fire of disenchantment, saying: “It is important to properly situate what has happened to prevent avoidable misreporting by the media and not to play into the hands of detractors and mischief-makers”.
Kalabari on rampage
While the Ogoni from the South-Eastern front are flexing muscle, the deep South riverine Kalabari are disenchanted with what they consider manifestation of hate for them by Amaechi administration, accusing the governor of deceit.
The people in their reaction to the choice of Peterside from fringe riverine area of Ndoni/Opoba said: “It’s now clear and evident that Amaechi has only used and dumped ‘our’ people, by promising the governorship candidacy of the All Progressives Congress, APC to the Kalabari and at last, giving it out to his robot, and business associate from the Rivers South-East Senatorial District.”
TheNiche however gathered that Amaechi and APC may overcome the crisis and beat the flock into line. This is based on certain permutations. Peterside is from riverine, albeit the fringe zone. It is estimated that the Kalabari, Okrika, and Igbani who are the major riverine could be persuaded to accept him in assuaging the quest for riverine power shift.
Meanwhile, Peterside, has extended the olive branch to other aspirants for the position, assuring that he would carry them along in his plans and activities. He specifically singled out Abe, whom he referred to as his brother whom he holds in high esteem, in the exercise.
He said: “Those who are trying to sow seeds of discord between me and my elder brother, Most Distinguished Senator Magnus Abe, have already failed. Distinguished Senator Abe is not only my friend and elder brother but has also been my close ally in most of the strategic planning we have done in the Amaechi political family, so it is given that he will be at the centre of our march to the Brick House. Together we will shame our detractors and claim that which God has destined us to be.”
Curiously, the choice of Peterside may have gained acceptance from some social formations in Ogoni, including some ex-militants from the axis. For instance, the Ogoni Stakeholders Forum (OSF) in the U.S. has unanimously endorsed him as an Ogoni choice.
On his part, Chief Solomon Ndigbara, former Niger Delta fighter and agitator, commended the APC leadership in the state for choosing Peterside who he described as “original Ogoni man” as its governorship candidate for 2015, pointing out that the party had by the action showed it is sensitive to Ogoni feelings and aspiration.
, JOE EZUMA, writes.){kind=link}