Rivers 2023: The Kalabari Governorship Dilemma Deepens

With less than six weeks to the all-important 2023 governorship election in Rivers State, concern is growing in the oil and gas rich Kingdom/clan of the Ijaw ethnic nationality over the splintered Kalabari front for the election which holds March 11, 2023. Six out of 18 candidates in the race to Brick House are Kalabari. Among them, three candidates are considered front runners likely to win the race against the candidate of the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, Siminalayi Fubara, handpicked by the governor, Chief Nyesom Wike, whose second tenure expires May 29, 2023.
The six candidates of Kalabari extraction are Chief Dumo Lulu-Briggs, of Accord, Arch. Tonye Cole, All Progressive Congress, APC, Dr. Dawari Ibietela George, Action Alliance, AA, Chief Sobomabo Jackrich, National Rescue Movement, NRM, Danagogo Wenike-Briggs, Young Progressives Party, YPP and Fayeofori Churchill, Allied People’s Movement, APM.
Of these, Tonye Cole, Dumo Lulu Briggs and Dawari Ibietela George, are viewed as the top three with the structures, experience and capacity to stay the course till March 11, 2023. The three present as the front runners also on account of personal and professional achievement in their chosen professions, strides in business, social connections, political exposure and a more expansive world view, a quality sorely lacking in the governance space in Rivers State in the past 24 years. Yet, all these qualities in the top Kalabari candidates, and a search for equity by the Kalabari political bloc in the state is the source of growing concern among many informed Kalabaris, who fear that once again they may lose the race to the seat of power in the state by the presence of too many candidates for the position.
The nagging issue whispered in their homeland and often loudly debated in other places including social media fora, may have informed the call by Cole of the APC for a merging of strengths. Speaking during the flag off of the APC rally in Buguma, Asari Toru Local Government area, Cole called on all Kalabari candidates of other parties, as well as Ojukaye Flag Amachree, who ran in the APC primary in 2022 to join ranks with him to rescue Rivers State.
However, this call was not well received by some of his fellow Kalabari contestants.
In a press statement in response to the calls by Tonye Cole, governorship candidate for the other leading Kalabari candidates in the race to Brick House 2023 to work with him, Sotonye Ijuye Dagogo who heads media for Lulu-Briggs campaign responded making the point that, “Our attention has been drawn to a statement credited to the Rivers State governorship candidate of the APC, Pastor Tonye Cole in which he called on Chief Dumo Lulu-Briggs, among other governorship candidates of Kalabari extraction, to join forces with him and stand by him.
“While we do not begrudge the APC governorship candidate for seeking votes in whatever way he deems fit, we find that call made by him on the podium of a campaign rally as disrespectful, amateurish and playing to the gallery.
“The world over, political collaborations and alliances are not initiated on campaign grounds. They are serious matters that require a lot of behind-the-scene interactions, thoughts and negotiations. This is the reason we see Tonye Cole as unserious and merely playing to the gallery in this case.
“This is not to say that the Dumo Lulu-Briggs Governorship Campaign Council is not open to collaboration.”
Further, Lulu Briggs in an interview with National Point amplified his concerns noting that, “a group of Kalabari women came here about two or so months ago. Elderly women, some in their seventies, some in their sixties, a few in their fifties, expressed the same concern like you expressed. That they will like to see how we can all come together to present a common candidate. Any of such move I am in 100% support, if we can do that, so we will put our best foot forward.”
He however expressed some reservation over recent comments by Cole, “I now worry about the utterances that Tonye is making, that Tonye goes out and tells people that this campaign is between Sim and himself only.”
In response to National Point’s questions to his views about the Kalabari multiplicity of candidates which portend a splitting of the votes from the Kalabari area, Dawari George of the AA, did not appear to view this as a source of concern. “Should the Kalabari decide to back only one horse, don’t you think it might be interpreted as a conspiracy against other groups? Our liberal, cosmopolitan outlook means we are unlikely to be muzzled into backing one person conspiratorially,” he said.
Still, the concerns remain, increasing in intensity as the elections draw close. In June 2022, a mixed group of concerned Kalabari persons made up of politicians from all sides had started gingerly meetings to deliberate and seek ways to close ranks. The effort soon fell apart when the Wike administration began to clamp down on opposition parties in the state, meetings in hotels, in a now failed bid to pave the way for all the other strong contenders to crumble and his personally chosen PDP flag bearer to emerge sole strong candidate, and to stroll his way to power in 2023.
Although, all the serious candidates, across party lines, need to engage with voters from all 23 local government areas of the state, the stretching of the Kalabari vote by the sheer number of its sons as contestants in the governorship race may turn out to increase the miles in the Kalabari agonising 24 year journey to Brick