Rumours making round the city of Port Harcourt on Monday had it that the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan has scuttled the gubernatorial ambition of the Supervising Minister for Education, Chief Barr. Ezebunwo Nyesom Wike.
Chief Wike is yet to declare for any elective position in the state, but his hidden ambition to become the next governor of Rivers State is sending fears into the hearts of several politicians who are eyeing the Brick House.
Chief Wike whose political tentacles cut across the length and breadth of Rivers State had been endorsed by all the ethnic nationalities in the state.
Recently some elders from the Ijaw extraction in Rivers State met the President Goodluck Jonathan and pleaded that he should not allow the Federal Minister to contest the forthcoming gubernatorial election in the state.
Dependable sources informed this weekly that the president did not utter any word with regards to who becomes the next governor of Rivers State.
The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP stands in Rivers State today because of the effort made by the Federal Minister, Chief Wike who took the bull by the horn and confronted Governor Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi’s high handedness. The governor later left the Party for All Progressives Congress, APC.
Chief Wike has worked for the unity of the party and saved the face of the President in Rivers State.
Governor Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi at several fora lampooned President Jonathan for what he calls “ceding of oil wells in Soku”. Regrettable the Governor who is making a case for the Soku town has never visited the community. Soku community is under developed despite its contributions to the growth of the nation’s economy.
If today Chief Wike declares to contest the gubernatorial seat of the state, he deserves it, because of the several efforts, resources both physical and spiritual he has put into the PDP project in the state.
Meanwhile, former militant leaders in the Niger Delta region, Comrade Ateke Tom, and Ambassador Soboma Jackrich, popularly known as ‘Egberi-Papa,’ are currently in disagreement over which area of the Ijaw community in the state would produce a successor to Governor Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi in 2015.
While Ateke, who is also a governorship aspirant on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is insisting that the Wakrikese clan should be allowed to produce the next governor, Jackrich believes that it is the turn of the people of Kalabari Kingdom to succeed Amaechi. Egberipapa is the founder of the Kengema Unity Forum, KUF, a group advocating for a Kalabari Governor in 2015.
Speaking when members of the Niger Delta PDP Youth Movement paid him a courtesy visit at his residence in Okochiri, Okrika Local Government Area of the state, the leader of the defunct Niger Delta Vigilante Force (NDVF), said he had already made up his mind to run for the governorship based on his conviction that it was the turn of Wakrikese to take over the Rivers State Government House.
Ateke, who said he had contributed a lot to bring peace to Okrika community and that of the Ijaw Youth Council (IYC), vowed never to step down for the Supervising Minister of Education, Chief Ezebunwo Nyesom Wike, or any other contestant for that position. ###
