Rivers APC: Magnus Abe On Familiar Turf

The 2023 general elections in Rivers state has shown every known sign of interest and drama. There is, indeed, going to be a huge paradigm shift from what the Rivers people knew in 2015 and 2019 elections. While the All Progressives Congress, APC, was on the electoral ballot in 2015, it was not so in 2019 when the party did not field any elective candidate from the local government level to the national.

This political quagmire in the state was mainly due to the internal crisis that rocked the leadership of the party. The crisis was and still being orchestrated by the Transportation Minister, Rt. Hon Rotimi Amaechi and the former member of the board of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, Senator Magnus Ngei Abe who was also a member representing the south-east senatorial district in the Senate.

While Amaechi was deep neck in getting a candidate from the Riverine part of the state, Abe and his liked-minds wanted fairness, equity and justice in giving an Ogoni son or daughter an opportunity to occupy the Brick House (Rivers state Government House) for the first time since the creation of the state in 1967.

Thispositionpushed Abeand histeemingsupportersacrossthestatetopitchtent against the former Governor of the state, Amaechi. The argument was that only a popular candidate in the mold of Senator AbecouldwintheelectionagainstthePeople’s Democratic Party, PDP, and its strong candidate, Nyesom Wike.

Statistically, APC was believed to have failed the election in 2015 because of wrong choices by Amaechi. For instance, Dr. Dakuku Adol Peterside’s LGA, Opobo/Nkoro had barely 26, 400 registered voters. Honorable Asita, Dakuku’s deputy from Ahoada West had about 23,000 (plus) votes.

If you put all the above together, you have less than 70,000 votes. Obio/Akpo has 460,000 (plus) registered voters. That is where Wike comes from. A particular Ward, Ward 10, Rumueme will dwarf Opobo and Ahoada West votes. Emohua had 110,000, Ikwerre was 98,000 voters.

PHALGA had about 350,000. How then can any good politician think he can beat Wike in a free and fair election? Won’t he have sympathy vote from Ikwerre ethnic nationality where the governor comes from! “It is better from me that I left him (Amaechi), said the former Chief of staff, Chief Tony Okocha. “Some people who are still with the Minister are waiting for their pound of flesh. Stomach infrastructure”, he said.

Just last week, April 17 which was Easter Sunday, Abe finally made his intentions to contest the 2023 governorship election in Rivers state on the platform of the APC known to his supporters. A staunch political ally of the national leader of the APC, Asiwaju Ahmed Bola Tinubu, Abe who was at B-Dera Community in Gokana local government area of Rivers state to launch the Bola Ahmed Tinubu, BAT, Vanguard, declared that he was mentally, physically and spiritually set for the race.

By his public declaration, Abe, again is up against the Transport Minister once more to stop his (Amaechi’s) men from accessing the Government House next year. While the Minister is on a nation-wide consultation tour for his presidential ambition, his foot soldiers in Rivers state are waiting for his final orders on who should take the ticket. It is going to be more of one man’s choice than electoral process.

Barely last week, or six days before Abe’s declaration, ten Governorship aspirants of the All Progressives Congress, APC, met somewhere in Port Harcourt and called for a genuine reconciliation and forgiveness among members in the state to ensure that the party emerges victorious in the Governorship and other elections in 2023.

In a communique jointly signed by the ten aspirants in Port Harcourt, Rivers state capital, they encouraged all those interested for the governorship to go about their consultations peacefully devoid of namecalling, insultsandpullingdownof one another just to gain attention.

The Progressives Aspirants enjoined the leadership of the party in the state to accord everybody a level playing field during the primaries for fairness, equity and sense of belonging. This is the greatest fear of some of the aspirants who feel that the Minister may have a choice aspirant off his sleeves.

As a way of respecting the party supremacy, the APC aspirants resolved to collapse their political structures and support to whoever will emerge as the party’s flag bearer to win the 2023 Governorship against the ruling PDP in the state.

After series of consultations and interactions, the aspirants agreed to consult other Stakeholders in Rivers state to “support power rotation to the Riverine-Ijaw” in 2023 as a way of ensuring equity, justice and fairness in the distribution of political offices.

Under the aegis of Progressives Aspirants Forum, PAF, the ten Aspirants expressed their unalloyed loyalty to President Muhammadu Buhari and the Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, in particular, for his bold declaration to run for the office of the President next year. “We commend him for his courage to declare his interest to run for the office of President in the 2023 Elections”.

Some of the aspirants who signed the communique include Dr. Dakuku Peterside, Dr. Dawari George, Prince Tonye Princewill, Architect Tonye Cole, Hon Ojukaye Flag Amachree among others.

Shockingly, just few days after the agreement was signed, suspected gunmen stormed the residential home of Prince Tonye Princewill and made straight to his bedroom. Unfortunately, they could not find him neither did they cart away any valuable item from the house. It is was apparent that they went to inflict harm on the politician who is also a very popular contender for the sole ticket of the party.

Nevertheless, Abe has made it clear that he would not kow tow to any cooked up plan that avoids a clean, clear and credible process in order to exclude him from clinching the governorship ticket of the APC, as well as deny the teeming members of the party in the State from choosing their preferred candidate for the elections.

He made it abundantly clear that the Transportation Minister, Rotimi Amaechi cannot anoint a candidate for the Brick house, adding that only Rivers people have the power to choose who becomes governor of the State in 2023 and end the long reign of the PDP since 1999.

In what was his response to the APC governorship aspirants meeting, Abe, who mocked the pact, said such arrangements would not work, particularly as it tilted towards supporting somebody from the riverine region of the state.

“I heard that some people gathered to say they are gubernatorial candidates of the All Progressives Congress (APC). They have reached a pact, that it is a riverine governor and that they have agreed to whatever they said. Did you see me there? Will it work? We all know that it is not going to work.

“I don’t want to say anything about them because they are my friends and they have not done anything wrong. They are following somebody who has no plan. They are going to do thanksgiving when they have not put any plan on ground in Rivers State that will help the APC to do better than it did the last time”.

Still throwing the jabs, Abe said “it is wrong to drag God into what you are doing, when you are not doing well. When you plan, you dedicate your plan in a dedication service; it is when you win, that you should have a thanksgiving service.”

He vowed to resist any attempt aimed at excluding him from contesting for the governorship ticket under the platform of the APC, noting that he would support whoever emerges via a credible process.

“I have not said that Senator Magnus Abe must be the candidate of the APC in Rivers State, I have always said and will repeat, if we have a fair, free, equitable contest and somebody emerges from that process, I, Magnus Ngei Abe will support whoever emerges from such a process and the person will win.

“But if you go and cook up a process, you are cooking up to exclude me, it is not me that you are excluding, they are excluding all of you, if they exclude all of you, will they win? They will not win, so it is not rocket science. We don’t need a riverine or upland candidate that is known to Ameachi. What we need is a Rivers candidate that is known by Rivers people with the capacity and integrity to deliver.

“That is why I, Senator Magnus Ngei Abe, will contest for the gubernatorial ticket of the APC in Rivers State.

Reminding the leadership of the party of the past crisis that rocked the state chapter of the APC, Abe advised the party that “we have been through this road many times. We should not make the same mistake again. There should be an end to political rascality in Rivers State, we should not disregard the people and expect a good result.”

Earlier, at the event, a former Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice in Rivers State, in the government of then Governor Amaechi, Barrister Worgu Boms, said that Abe remains the most qualified candidate for the job of governor of Rivers state.

By virtue of the just concluded APC national convention in Abuja where Chief Victor Giadom, Amaechi’s diehard ally, emerged as the south-south national vice chairman of the party, with over one thousand votes against Barrister Wogu Boms, supporters of the Minister went on wild jubilations.

For them, the APC crisis in the state has come to its dramatic end. And the structure of the party has unarguably been given to the Minister. It was on the strength of the above that the APC governorship aspirants met with Amaechi and he told them to go out there and come up with a consensus aspirant that would be backed by others for the battle ahead.