The coast is now cleared for the Minister of State for Education, Chief Barr. Ezebunwo Nyesom Wike to contest the forthcoming gubernatorial election in the state.
Reliable information had it that the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan has approved Wike’s ambition to join the long queue of the governorship aspirants in the state.
Impeccable sources informed this publication that the President and other major stakeholders in the state who based in Abuja, the Federal capital territory have resolved that Barr. Wike has the constitutional right to contest the guber election in the state, therefore he can go ahead and declare his intention to run.
Besides the President’s approval, some of the Abuja based Rivers Stakeholders who have accepted Chief Wike to contest are: ex-governor Peter Odili, Senator George Thompson Sekibo, Dr. Abiye Sekibo and several other prominent politicians and citizens of Rivers State.
The passport for Chief Wike to contest the gubernatorial seat of Rivers State has sent veritable fears into the heart of several political camps, including the supporters of All Progressives Congress in Rivers State.
The Minister of State for Education is regarded as a political dynamite in the state, because of his activeness, doggedness and fierceness in politics.
Since April 2013, the entire executives of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP in Rivers State from the state level down to the wards are under the watch of the Junior Minister in the Federal Ministry of Education.
With this, challenging Chief Wike in the forthcoming PDP gubernatorial primaries is like touching the tail of a lion.
The man, Chief Barr. Ezebunwo Nyesom Wike has done much for the party in terms of its reposition and mobilizing support for the President in 2015 general election.
The Junior Education Minister does this through his political outfit, popularly known as the Grassroot Development Initiative (GDI). He galvanised support for the party, through his political strategies, Wike was able to gather all the aggrieved politicians in the state to back Jonathan’s second term bid. Wike is a grassroots mobilizer and politician with a right vision. As Wike joins the league of the governorship aspirants, according to political analysts, several of the aspirants might be crashed soon, due to unpopularity and lack of resources to face the political challenges of the time.
Meanwhile, as Chief Wike gets the nod of the President to contest, he has opened campaign offices in the twenty 319 wards of the three (23) Local Government Areas of the state. Thus the essence of opening the political offices across the twenty three (23) LGAs is to mobilize effective grassroots support for his ambition come 2015 and also that of President’s second term bid. With the recent strategy of opening his campaign offices in all the LGAs in the state, Chief Wike has moved ahead of other gubernatorial aspirants as most of them do not have what it takes for opening campaign offices in their Local Government Areas. ###
