By Jimitota Onoyume

PORT HARCOURT—Rivers state is symptomatically different from other states in the South -South region when it comes to politics.

Wike and Amaechi

You could without fear of contradiction single out one person as the most influential politician in other states of the region, but in Rivers, it is a different ball game.

The unpredictable state of affairs is as a result of the rumbling political divide in the state.

Governor Chibuike Amaechi came on board as governor of the state on the platform of the People’s Democratic Party, PDP.

Nonetheless in the middle of his second term in office, he parted ways with the party, voyaging to the All Progressive Congress, APC, an audacious stroke that has made the APC the ruling party in the state with the PDP as a sturdy opposition.

Amaechi’s power

Unmistakably, on matters of governance,Amaechi exercises the final authority by virtue of his position as governor of the state.  It is surefire that he is a resilient and influential politician.

Political loyalty

But when Niger Delta Voice sought the views of citizens on who is the strongest and most influential politician in the state, many from our observation, spoke largely from the slant of their political allegiance.

Some asserted that the upcoming general elections will determine the most powerful politician in the state, adding that at the moment, the focus should be identifying the most powerful persons in the two top contending political parties.

Between Amaechi, Wike

They said that within the APC, Governor Amaechi calls the shots and is the rallying point, while within the PDP, the Minister of State for Education, Mr. Nyesom Wike, is the issue. Wike is believed to have the state structure of the PDP in his firm grip, so he determines very largely what happens within the party in the state.

The battle within

This probably explained why some governorship aspirants recently rallied a group, Save Rivers PDP to lobby that the state executive be replaced with a caretaker committee on grounds that the former was serving the interest of the minister.

2015 holds the ace

“Rivers state does not have this type of ‘almighty’ political leader you find in some other states. So this issue of who is the most powerful politician in the state should be looked at from the angle of the weight the person exercises within the two top parties”, a resident, Fred Kpeba said.

Another resident, ThankGod Friday, said if the state government had remained the way it came, a PDP state, it would have been easy to say Mr. A or B is the ultimate factor in the politics of the state.

“However, as it stands now the election in 2015 will answer the question of who is the most powerful politician in the state,” he added