For sometime now the issue of who becomes the next governor of Rivers State come 2015 has become a public debate. Socio-political groups are taking different positions on the 2015 gubernatorial election in the state. Also individuals, opinions have been divided based on their political beliefs on which ethnic group will produce the next governor of the state in February 28, 2015 election.
Some politicians believe that it is the turn of the riverine to produce someone that will succeed Rt. Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, while others are of the opinion that the governor must come from the Ogoni axis of the state. The leader of the defunct Niger Delta People Volunteer Force, Alhaji Asari-Dokubo is in support of an Ogoni Governor.
Another school of thought has it that the governor in 2015 can come from any part of the state provided he can initiate programmes and policies that would drive positive and massive development into the state.
The state has entered into a season of endorsement. Several ethnic nationalities namely: Kalabari, Bonny, Orashi, Etche, Ogoni and others have thrown their weight behind the Supervising Minister of Education, Barr. Ezebunwo Nyesom Wike as the next governor of Rivers State.
The Wike’s endorsement by these ethnic nationalities has caused so much ripples in the political terrain of the state.
Chief Wike hails from Rumuepirikom, Obio/Akpor Local Government Area in the Ikwerre ethnic nationality, while Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, the current governor of the state is also a native of Ikwerre land.
According to the critics of Wikes’s endorsement, it would be very “senseless” to float another Ikwerre man to succeed Governor Amaechi in 2015.
Despite the controversies trailing the endorsement of Wike, penultimate week’ the wife of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Dame (Mrs.) Patience Goodluck Jonathan has declared her support for the Supervising Minister for Education to eye the Brick House.
Mrs. Patience Jonathan’s support further generated reactions from different quarters of the state.
Meanwhile the wife of the Amanyanabo of Kalabari Kingdom, Queen Florence T. J. T. Princewill said that the Kalabaris cannot produce governor in 2015 except there is total unity and cooperation in the kingdom.
Queen Princewill made this known in Port Harcourt at the weekend shortly after the Management of Kalabari Times Magazine conferred an award on her to mark its one year anniversary.
She expressed worry over too much governorship contestants from the Kalabari ethnic nationality. She asked rhertorically, “If we cannot speak with one voice, how can we produce a governor?
The Kalabari monarch’s wife called for consensus candidate among the gubernatorial aspirants so as to make head way in the forth coming governorship election in the state.
Queen Princewill who had earlier charged Kalabari parents to teach their children on how to speak the Kalabari language effectively, stressed the importance of language in the sustainability of any given culture and identity. She thanked the Management of the Kalabari Times for the honour done her, and promised to do anything within her reach to ensure that the Kalabari language is preserved. ###
