BY JIMITOTA ONOYUME
PORT HARCOURT: THIS is certainly not the best of times for the Rivers state chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party,PDP. The party is torn between the upland and river-rine people regarding which area should produce the next governor of the state?

The dilemma has sown animosity among some chieftains of the party particularly with the rumoured ambition of the Supervising Minister of Education, Mr.Nyesom Wike to run for governor of the state in the next year’s general polls.

WALSON JACK

Like President Goodluck Jonathan who has not personally announced his intention to run for a second term ,his Supervising Minister of Education, Mr .Wike has also not declared publicly that he wants to run for governor.

However, in a phone-in-radio programme, he said that he is qualified to be the next governor of the state.

Even if Wike has not made a public pronouncement on his political aspiration for 2015, the activities of the party’s leadership at the state level and in some local government areas have continued to polarise the party along the divide of the river-rine and the upland.

Groups like Rivers PDP Third force Movement within the party in the state led by Oprite Amachree was among those that first took on the state Chairman of the party, Mr. Felix Obua ,for allegedly saying, “Mr .Wike would emerge standard bearer of the party in the next general elections.”

The group in its statement , vowed to mobilise and see to it that the expression of the state Chairman did not come to pass.

For the group, it was the turn of the river-rine people to produce the next governor of the state. A front-line member of the party and publisher of a provincial paper, .Mr. Opunabo Nko-Tariah also added his voice to statements condemning move by the party leadership to concede the governorship ticket to Mr. Wike, who is also from the same Ikwerre ethnic group with governor Chibuike Amaechi who would have done two terms of eight years by 2015.

At the moment , a long list of chieftains of the party are aspiring to succeed governor Amaechi at the end of his tenure. They  include, a former governorship candidate of the defunct Action Congress, AC, Prince Tonye Princewill and the former General Secretary, Nigerian Bar Association, Mr. Nimi Walson-Jack.

Minister of State for Eduction, Barrister Esenwo Nyesom Wike

Princewill who spoke to newsmen recently on his governorship aspiration dismissed insinuations in several quarters that the Supervising Minister, Mr .Wike had already been anointed by the presidency to succeed governor Amaechi. Wife of President Goodluck Jonathan  in media reports pledged to support Wike to become the governorship of the state.

Princewill during his media chat said that all aspirants would slug it out during the primaries of the party. He said he had set up a committee to advice him if he should run and if the body says he should no force within or outside the party would stop him

Fielding questions from newsmen on a day he announced his intention to run for the governorship seat on the platform of the party, Mr Walson-Jack who was also a former Electoral Commissioner in the Rivers state Independent Electoral Commission, RSIEC said the upland/riverine dichotomy was a political divide created by nature for the state. According to him, it explained why the state had governors from the upland area with their deputies from the riverine and vice versa.

Mr Walson-Jack argued against zoning of the governorship seat along senatorial lines, insisting that it had never been so in the state. According to him, in some senatorial district, you find both upland and riverine people, so rotating office along senatorial district would amount to shortchanging a section of the state if care was not taken.

Princewill Tonye

A view which appeared to redefine the boundaries of upland and riverine dichotomy came from the former Chief Press secretary to governor Amaechi, Mr Blessing Wikina. According to him, any part of the state now accessed by road should no longer be labelled riverine, arguying that they were riverine in pre historic times.

He further argued that almost all parts of the state is bounded by river.

Meantime, the factional Speaker of the state House of Assembly, Hon Evans Bipi recently led some Okrikans to endorse the Supervising Minister of Education, Mr Wike as their governorship candidate for the next election.

“All members of the PDP of Okrika extraction, comprising Okrika and parts of Port Harcourt city local government area of Rivers state are by this statement compelling Chief Bar Ezenwo Nyesom Wike to pick the governorship form when they are out for sale and contest the governorship seat of Rivers state on the party’s ticket and he is sure to get the full backing of the Wakirike ethnic nationality”, he said during the exercise.

Felix Obuah

How the PDP manages the issue of which area between the upland and riverine dichotomy should produce the next governor of the state will largely determine the fate of the party in coming elections.