Rivers 2023: Abe ignores consensus arrangement, picks APC gov form

 

In a flagrant disregard for the consensus arrangement of his party for the state gubernatorial candidate, a former member of the National Assembly representing Rivers South-East Senatorial District, Magnus Abe, has said he will continue to work towards the actualisation of his governorship aspiration.

To this end, he has purchased the All Progressives Congress expression of intent and nomination forms for the 2023 governorship election in Rivers State.

The development is contained in a statement issued on Monday by his media aide, Parry Benson.

According to him, the people of Rivers State were more interested in effective governance that would return power to the people, rather than politics.

Some APC stakeholders had after a recent meeting in Abuja adopted Lagos based businessman, Tonye Cole, as the party’s consensus candidate in the state.

But Abe said, “I have already purchased my form to run for the primary election in our party, APC, and it will interest you to know that Rivers people from all across, contributed money to support me to get that form.

“Rivers people from every divide, every ethnic group, every political affiliation, every religious affiliation that you can think of, Muslims, Christians, people across the State, put in N20,000, some N1 million. They brought money to help me cross that barrier.

“I think that with that kind of background, the party members across the state have realized that I’m one of their surest best to be able to cross that bridge when we actually get there.

“Secondly, let me also say that as far as I know what Rivers people are interested in at this point in time is not so much politics, but in effective governance.

“They want a governor that will devote his time to attending to their own needs and their own challenges.

“They want a governor that understands their own problems that they face. You see, like I was talking to our children the other day at the Rivers State University when you are hungry in the school, nobody knows whether you are from Kalabari or Ogoni.

“When you don’t have a job nobody knows whether you are from Ekpeye or Andoni. At that point, our problems are the same.

“When people try to promote sentiment over reality, they are trying to use those sentiments to blind you to the reality of your situation.

“The reality of our situation today in Rivers State is that we need to work together, we need to come together across political and ethnic privileges to be able to harness the vast and enormous economic potentials that Rivers State has. We need leaders that can bring that message of unity, that message of inclusion.

“We need leaders that are humble enough to understand that being a governor is just a job, you are hired by the people to do the job.

“I have the track records to enable Rivers people to believe that when I say that, that is what it will be.

“That’s why my candidacy is vibrating across the state, not just within the APC but within the larger society, within all ethnic blocks and within groups in the state.”

He added, “I think that a lot of the members of the APC, despite our differences, realize that I have the best chance to actually deliver the governorship to the people of Rivers State”.

“I hate to play the ethnic card because when politicians do that, they take away from what should be the substance of the conversation, which is what our citizens, the voters are supposed to get from the political experience”.

Abe recalled that since Rivers State was created in 1967, no Ogoni son or daughter has ever been a governor, deputy governor, Speaker of the Rivers State House of Assembly or the Chief Judge, which, according to him, could not have been a coincidence.

He said, “There are three senatorial districts in Rivers State, the Rivers West, Rivers East and Rivers South-East Senatorial Districts, but that in all, only the Rivers South-East Senatorial District was yet to produce a governor.

“Ogonis are of course the majority in that senatorial district, which is where I come from and in our party, APC.

“The last time we met as one united party, we zoned the governorship to Rivers South-East Senatorial District, which everybody knows that if you follow the rules of equity, justice and fairness that should be the senatorial district to produce the next governor of the state.

“So, if we all equally own Rivers State, it is an injustice to treat the Ogonis unequally because they are also a major segment of the state.”