Senator Magnus Ngei has slated it clear that nobody has the power to pick up a mic to zone to unzone and unzone to zone the governorship of Rivers State.
Senator Magnus Ngei Abe addressing APC party chieftains this afternoon in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital
When you want to zone, there must be a process, there must be consultations. The people that are being zoned in must understand why they are being zoned in, and the people who are being zoned out must understand why they are being zoned out. If you just stand, carry a microphone and begin to zone to “unzone”, and “unzone” to zone, everybody knows what you are doing, and I want to stand here and say that it will not work.
If that was an attempt to set the riverine people against the rest of the state, I want to stand here to say that the riverine people I know are smarter than those who are trying to use them. It is a poisoned chalice. It is a Greek gift. It will get you nothing, because it is not well intended, and it is not well intentioned.
The mind is behind every action of man. Once the mind of somebody who is giving you something is not clear, whatever you are being given you know that it will not be good for you. Don’t take it.
No tribe, no group in Rivers State can produce a Governor without the support and cooperation of others, without consultation with other groups in the state.
No one individual has that power. And definitely, the former Governor of Rivers State, Rt Hon Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi does not have that power as far as Rivers State is concerned.
We have to be very factual and honest with one another. Without honesty, we cannot make progress. Without respect for one another we cannot make progress.
How can anybody get up, in a party where we are to do registration, we have not even concluded the registration, we have not chosen one ward chairman, we have not chosen one ward ex-officio, we have not chosen a local government chairman, we have not elected a chairman of the party in the state, and even before we do any of that, somebody has come out to zone governorship of the party. Is that a sensible political action? Will it help the APC to win in Rivers State? It is an action that is doomed to lead to another round of failure, and we should not allow it.
To that extent, let me say it here, loud and clear, what the Minister expressed in OGU-Bolo, singlehandedly zoning the governorship of Rivers State 2023, is his personal opinion, he does not speak for all of us in the APC”.
