On May 29, 2023 Rivers State becomes a witness to not just history, but something different since 1999. Social justice and equity raise a signal from yesterday’s ashes of “might is right”. The embryo of a new convention among politicians comes alive. It is to ensure fairness and inclusion between ethnic groups and clans in the three Senatorial Districts. This is what the inauguration event unfolds.
But will it hold? Will Rivers people rise as true stakeholders of a State that holds so much promise as beacon for the Niger Delta, will the people rise to secure a foundation of social justice and equity to have a celebrated present and commanding future?
It is a story of many firsts.
A first of its kind is happening in many respects, but some old concerns linger.
The succession of Amaopusenibo Siminialayi Fubara as Governor of Rivers State with Professor Mrs Ngozi Ordu as the Deputy Governor, is a first time for the People’s Democratic party (PDP). Sine 2007 the party has not successfully installed its first choice governorship ticket, to succeed an out-going Governor and Deputy Governor.
His Excellency Nyesom Ezenwo Wike is the first Governor to witness the swearing-in of a successor that is PDP’s first choice from it’s candidates’ selection process. His Excellency has served as the State Leader of PDP for 8 years.
In 2007 the succession plan by then Governor Peter Odili was truncated when President Obasanjo as National Leader of PDP caused public amusement by his announcement that the governorship ticket had a “K-leg”. Those who had a good laugh at what they thought was a Presidential joke, soon learnt otherwise. The first choice of PDP under Governor Odili was the former Speaker of the House of Assembly Chief Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi. It took a tortuous court process and the intervention of the Supreme Court, for Rt Hon Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi to take over as state Governor.
Succession took an even more dramatic turn, eight years later in 2015.
Rivers PDP was rattled by the fear of “sudden death” penalty, which is well known to football fans: One kick decides the game! The seating Governor and leader of the party in the state decamped from the party along with all the connections of government and their networks. His Excellency Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi decided to join to form a new party at the national level which became a political train that was suspected to be heading to Katsina. As then Governor, Amaechi was assumed to stand as one of the reliable pillars of President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan’s PDP government at the national level. But not only did he decamp, he also became a prominent face of a new Political Party (All Progressive Congress- APC) whose mission was to chase out President Jonathan and the PDP from political power at every level. This political move by the Governor of Rivers State split the PDP into mutually suspicious and broken camps. It generated so much headache that even the old time headache medicine called APC, could not cure the headache by a political party that shares same name with it. Even now the words of the bible still apply to APC: physician, cure thyself.
In 2014-2015 what was left of Rivers PDP quickly rallied behind a warrior from Abuja. He left no one in doubt of his readiness to save the state from what appeared to be a coming political storm. Niger Deltans were aggrieved by what they saw as a deliberate attempt to cut short the political tenure of a President who is a son of their region and a minority man, in what has become a strategy of “big battalion politics” by majority ethnic groups in Nigeria. The groundswell of regional disagreement with Governor Chibuike Amaechi and his political connections, drew a line across the shores of Rivers State: Any one who appeared not to be on board the new political train to transfer political power to the North, was left in the cold on the other side of the river. Legislators, Traditional Rulers and even the courts became casualties of sorts, in a raging fray without people- based principles or mutual respect.
It was a battle ground the PDP in Rivers State did not bargain for. What was left of the party had to indulge in the political equivalent of a deliverance crusade. The man who led the crusade was a well known political figure in his own right. Chief Nyesom Ezenwo Wike, a former LGA Chairman, former Chief of Staff who managed the engine room at the inception stage of Governor Amaechi’s administration from 2007 and a former Minister in President Jonathan’s government. He didn’t need to beat his chest. Armed with a GDI battle helmet and bubbling pockets of popular support in various LGAs, he landed like a rocket -propelled grenade against opponents of the Presidency.
The inauguration in 2015 saw that His Excellency Nyesom Ezenwo Wike had successfully reclaimed Rivers State from some of his old friends who had jumped into the attire of a new party! The lead to the 2023 general elections showed a Governor Wike on 24/7 guard duty with flame throwers to see that no one friend or foe, even tries to steal his thunder. Those who dared are still wearing ice packs on their scalded fingers!
But the inauguration of 2023 is a first time when one event is like a double barrel. It is the first time the South East Senatorial District has been honoured to occupy the position of Governor of Rivers State, just as it is the first time the ethnic groups of Ahoada East, Ahoada West, Ogba –Egbema and Abua- Odual LGAs in Rivers West Senatorial District are producing a Deputy Governor. To Bonny LGA in the Senatorial District, it has a first time to celebrate kinship right as an Ibani son becomes a Governor!
As candidates, the PDP ticket of Amaopusenibo Siminialayi Fubara and Professor Mrs Ngozi Ordu seems to be the First ticket or the most prominent instance of one to bring political opponents in Opobo / Nkoro and Andoni Federal Constituency together. This development has taken many by surprise. The South East Senatorial District holds the record of having the longest tenure as Deputy Governor from 1999 to 2015 when prominent sons of the district served in that office respectively. The first was Wari-Alabo Sir Dr Gabriel T. G. Toby who won an award as “Best Deputy Governor in Nigeria” given by the Senate. The next was Engr Tele Ikuru who showed courage to change political direction from that of his Principal, by a public ceremony where he washed his hands like Pontius Pilate, in the build-up to 2015 general elections.
The Senatorial District arrangement came to life as the Fourth Republic was birthed by the military to usher in a new dispensation for politicians in the country in 1999. It changed the lines of competition that had held sway in the Second Republic (1979- 1983) and in the aborted “diarchy” of the Third Republic where elected Civilian Governors tried to govern their respective States (1991-1993) under a military government that covered its true intentions in dark eye glasses. Literally so.
Whether in 1978-79, 1982-83 or in 1991-93 the contest for the office of Governor in old Rivers State, went beyond party identity. Each setting usually threw up social identity features that became conventional leverages ( not constitutional ones) to achieve inclusion or “displacement politics”. Members of the public engaged in discussions and media exchanges that characterized different candidates as coming from either an Upland or Riverine LGA. This tended to help or hinder the chances of candidates, sometimes even before they started their race.
While front runners in 1979 were Chief Melford Okilo for National Party of Nigeria (NPN), Chief Nwobidike Nwanodi of Nigeria People’s Party (NPP),
Chief Cdr Alfred Diete- Spiff of Great Nigeria People’s Party (GNPP) and Chief Wenike Briggs of Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN), there was a quiet undertone of Upland or Riverine identity to the line-up. Upland or riverine LGAs were not necessarily homogenous ethnic entities. Several ethnic groups and clans could be sharing an LGA under an Upland or Riverine category. Politicians raised a consistent argument and made efforts against either the Riverine or Upland group from “monopolizing” the seat of power in Brickhouse Port Harcourt.
So in 1982-83 the governorship primaries especially in the two leading parties NPN and NPP, gave an indication of the underground arguments. Chief Melford Okilo as incumbent Governor was shaken by the high number of contestants in NPN which included former State Attorney General Chief Idamiebi Brown and a former Minister Chief Ken Green. There was also Chief Aminasoari Dikibo. Of the three eminent sons of the state, two men were from Bonny and Dikibo was from Okrika. All three came from Eastern Ijaw as Riverine part of old Rivers State. In contrast Chief Okilo was from Ogbia part of Riverine Ijaw but in the kitchen formula of politicians Ogbia Ijaw was regarded as far from Eastern Ijaw.
The race in NPN also included Chief Woluchem (Ikwerre ethnic group) who was a Chairman of one of the big banks in the country at the time and Chief Kogbara (Ogoni ethnic group), himself a former Chairman of NPN in Rivers State. Both of them were from what was regarded as the Upland side of Rivers State but to those who were anxious to control the soup pot, Upland Rivers had different ends.
Of course Chief Melford Okilo the incumbent Governor won the NPN primaries in a tense but colourful competition. And as expected it came with a fair dose of corruption. Finally in a 3-horse race between Chief Okilo, Chief Ken Green and Chief Woluchem the owner of Areta Estates. Senator Uba Ahmed who led the Party’s National Committee appointed for the Primaries in Rivers State, set up the encounter at the Alfred Diete-Spiff Civic Centre. It was like an indoor entertainment event such as a football match. But each of the three camps didn’t see any entertainment in the Primaries. They were dashing to and fro, such that you could hear their hearts pounding! All day they manned a campaign stand trying to persuade party delegates to sign for “envelopes” that had nothing innocent in it. This was news for those of us who were accredited Media representatives. When news went round that some delegates were cashing in by attempting to show up at more than one camp for envelopes, a smart idea hit the two campaign organizations.
Chief Ken Green’s group was positioned in one of the GRA properties around Hotel Presidential, while Chief Woluchem’s camp operated from a big house in Areta Estate. Both camps found a way to detain those who came to sign for the envelope and to move them in a bus to the Civic Centre venue by 11 pm.
But the wise ones in Chief Okilo’s group opted for a different strategy. Sitting above sea level on the 4th floor in a convenient hall of then prestigious Hotel Olympia, the group had enough space to display. Those who came to sign, were told not to bother looking for a pen. All that was required was just dip your right hand into a decorated water pot in front of a Chief Priest and collect any envelope you touched. The Chief Priest said nothing, but his silence left no one in doubt that it was a life and death assignment. Anyone who had any fancy ideas about cheating, quickly perished the thought once the costume around the water pot came into view!
Several intending supporters actually back-pedalled their way out of the line of sight of the Chief Priest.
The race in NPP also showed signs of attrition among Upland stalwarts in the party. At the end, the baton for the governorship race went from Ikwerre custody over to an Ogoni aspirant in the person of Chief Kemte Giadom.
Were all the conventional underground questions answered in the two election cycles of 1979 &1983? Not quite.
Those knowledgeable about the language of the underground in Rivers politics, were not surprised when in 1991 Chief Rufus Ada George an Eastern Ijaw riverine, emerged as the Governor under the National Republican Convention (NRC) party. He emerged without any any voting tension, because an equally prominent NRC politician Chief Zebulun Abule was disqualified at the primaries.
Then came 1999 and the Fourth Republic . The lines of division in the political convention, were redrawn by the politicians on Senatorial District basis. The prospect of the South East Senatorial District attaining the pinnacle of political power in Rivers State, first came to the public domain like a prophesy, on May 4, 2010. It was Governor Amaechi at a Town Hall Meeting in Opobo Town that dropped the hint. He asked politicians in Opobo / Nkoro to stay exemplary, in order to position the LGA to produce the next Governor. He followed it up with his support for Amaopusenibo Dr Dakuku Peterside in 2015, as the governorship candidate of APC.
Surprisingly, in 2019 and 2023, the APC ticket was given to a person from a different Senatorial District!
But Governor Nyesom Ezenwo Wike stood firm by his conviction that social justice must be the new foundation of Rivers politics. Like a mountain he refused to bow to violent winds and storms, but affirmed that his successor as the next Governor of Rivers State, must come from the riverine part of South East Senatorial District. It is the only Senatorial District that had not attained the office of Governor since 1999. Also the riverine part of the State has finally been treated to a sense of fairness by the election result of March 18, 2023. This was an answer to the clamour for an Ijaw mandate by various groups, for example an “Ijaw Wari” association led by a harmless looking Iroko called Pastor Somina Wokoma.
As the 2023 inauguration holds, sadly it won’t be the first time that the issue of worsening economic deprivation and attendant increase in poverty level in the Niger Delta, will stare Rivers people in the face. It has been so since 1999. According to a publication of November 2022 by NBS and Nairalytics, 50% of Niger Delta is digging deeper into an uncomfortable poverty zone in Nigeria. More than 30% of the population in each state cannot feed or meet basic needs. Pensioners and government contractors are moaning while Civil Servants claim nothing has changed positively in their pay slip for 10 years! And in a series of studies conducted by GRAIN Consulting in every Presidential election since 2007, the issue of disrespect, arbitrary use of power and impunity by people in public positions, continue to rankle among top 5 concerns of 16 Stakeholder groups in Niger Delta. In 2023 it didn’t change!
Rivers State under Governor Nyesom Wike built 12 quality fly-over structures in Port Harcourt within 30 months and erected new facilities for different purposes. It set a new record in Nigeria like Governor Diete-Spiff did in 1972-75 with public infrastructures, but Diete-Spiff also focused on decentralization of economic investments. So this new administration can wipe the tears of pensioners, civil servants and other aggrieved people by setting a deadline to clear all legitimate complains and claims. Many public institutions appear to be drifting: no secure niche to contribute to state development. The Diaspora community appears consigned to the side line, or left to serve as security pidgeons to live on commissions from diverting state revenue into private accounts overseas for some key people in each administration.
This administration needs to be seen to take a different route to make 2030 the target year to celebrate Rivers State niche position in key sectors of Africa’s global market competition. It needs to launch an economic blueprint to lift Rivers State to be Africa’s pace setter. That is the way to address our ancient Kingdoms that have since fallen into decay due to no viable local economies to support an active resident population. Upto the early 20th Century, City States of the Oil Rivers, demonstrated commercial sophistication of Niger Delta people as celebrated by Mercantile Houses in Europe and beyond. According to I.F Nicolson by 1912 Lord Lugard’s itinerary on his maiden visit to the Oil Rivers made Bonny and Opobo part of his priorities as major port towns, while first Euro-African industrial investments such as BOPs (Bulk Oil Processing plants) of old, were integrated ventures dotted across coastal communities that are linked to hinterland markets such Abonnema, Buguma and Ogbakiri.
Rivers State can lead the way again by implementing a NEW Vision of a productivity- driven economy and a place where citizens can be at their best !
By Amaopusenibo Bobo Sofiri Brown with reports by Chief Emma Obe and Boma Dick.
