By George OPARA
Rivers state gubernatorial battle has swiftly narrowed down to Hon. Kingsley Chinda of the ruling Progressives Congress (APC) and Chief Lulu Briggs of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) in the upcoming 2027 general elections.
But Spear News Nigeria gathered that much stake is placed on their ethnic backgrounds. While Chinda hails from Elelenwo in Obio/Akpor council area, his main challenger, Briggs
comes from Kalabari Rivers extraction, a riverine area that also produced Governor Fubara.
Nonetheless, the proportion of the Ikwerre to Riverine’s governorship in the state seems to dominate the political discourse in the bid to shape the guber contest.
In most political circles, Chinda is said to represents a continuation of former governors Celestine Omehia, Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi and Nyesom Wike’s governorship of the oil-bearing state.
Political pundits recalls that Celestine Omehia,
took over from Dr. Peter Odili, who hails from Ndoni, a town in the Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni council area.
However, Omehia’s governorship was highly controversial and ultimately reversed by the Supreme Court in favour of Rotimi Amaechi as replacement.
Amaechi, and Nyesom Wike are all from the Ikwerre ethnic group, an Igbo sub-group in Rivers State. Each had served as governor in the state. But Omehia: served for five months in 2007 before the apex court’s annulment. Later, Amaechi served two terms from 2007 to 2015. The latter was succeeded by Wike, who like Amaechi served two terms from 2015 to 2023.
Briggs as Chinda’s rival, political watchers said for power-balancing, the state’s age-long informal zoning principle should be allowed to remain sacrosanct between the
upland and riverine political blocs.
In the ongoing political equation, not a few expected the riverine bloc to retain power beyond Fubara’s one-term governorship.
Fubara’s sudden exit from the race has even sparked a growing tension, revolving the threshold of equity and proportional representation.
Top political pundits told Spear News Nigeria that the Briggs NDC has been generating organic supports and approvals across the three primary ethno-linguistic blocs of Ijaw, Ikwerre, and Ogoni.
From the apolitical to the political groups and individuals voters, discrete findings indicate a looming apathy to Chinda’s candidacy, another Ikwerre River’s extraction, politically positioned to wrest power from Fubara come 2027.
Yet, there are signs of discontent within sections of Wike’s political coalition, with a proportion of the stakeholders keeping reservations over the choice of Chinda and the direction of political succession in the state.
Beyond the political calculations, Chinda is facing legal challenges over allegations relating to his party status.
Questions have been raised about his eligibility to contest on the APC platform following claims that he remains a member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), under which platform, he, hitherto, serves in the green chamber.
The Incorporated Trustees of the Association of Legislative Drafting and Advocacy Practitioners (ALDAP) have petitioned the Speaker of the House of Representatives, seeking official records to establish whether a letter proclaiming Chinda’s defection to the APC and resignation as Minority Leader was formally read at plenary of the lower chamber.
Also, the group has taken a legal action to restrain the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) from recognizing Chinda as the APC governorship candidate.
Compounding the uncertainty is a recent Court of Appeal judgment, affirming an earlier High Court ruling that invalidated the APC congresses which produced the state executive led by Chief Tony Okocha
The appellate court upheld the verdict of the Rivers State High Court that recognized the executive led by Chief Emeka Beke as the lawful leadership of the party, effectively casting doubt over actions taken by the rival executive structure.
Legal analysts posit that the judgment could have far-reaching consequences for subsequent party activities, including ward, local government and state-level exercises conducted under the disputed leadership.
But political intrigue has deepened after Wike openly distanced himself from endorsing Chinda as a preferred guber candidate for the Rainbow Coalition.
Further, Wike explained that his Rainbow Coalition, which subsumed members of the APC, PDP, Labour Party and Action Alliance, had not endorsed any governorship candidate for 2027.
The U-turn has widened uncertainty that fresh calculations may be in the pipeline within the coalition as legal and political uncertainties move to impede the electoral strength of the APC Chinda guber ticket.
Exploiting the political and legal loopholes stacked against the Rivers APC, the NDC Briggs relatively has been gaining momentum.
However, Spear News investigations showed that aside from the current governor, Siminalayi Fubara, who hails from Opobo in the riverine area, other former riverine governors are Commander Alfred Diete-Spiff, the first military governor of the state who served from May 1967 to July 1975,
Melford Okilo the first democratically elected civilian governor whose tenure spanned from October 1979 to December 1983 and
Rufus Ada-George, another civilian governor during the aborted Third Republic who occupied the office from January 1992 to November 1993.
As political realignment becomes complex, 2027 general elections appears to be a major showdown between the Riverine and the Ikwerre Rivers ethnic blocs, making the Ogoni, the swing bloc.
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