By Gloria Boma Harry
On Saturday February 25th, 2023 most Nigerians across the Country left their homes with one single purpose, which was to use the power of the vote to decide their fates.
Men and women including the youths spent hours, in some cases, an entire day to cast their votes and also monitor the process to the point when these votes were counted and results declsred.
The thought on their minds, was to wrestle power from the clutches of the Northerners to the Southern part of a Country with a population size of about 213.4 million as at 2021.
When the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, recently announced the commencement of the continuous voters registration, about 12.29 million people completed their registration, with 4.5 million persons identified as students.
Before February 25th elections, statistics released by INEC showed that about 93.4 million people have registered so far for the Permanent voters card and 87.2 million Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) have been collected by Nigerians, with youths occupying the top position in the breakdown.
Armed with the most powerful tool of democracy, the PERMANENT VOTERS CARD, PVC, Nigerians went into town to speak the language of power shift.
In the history of Nigeria, the North which comprises the Hausa and Fulani, have ruled the Country longer than any other tribe. And this has been a talking point and a major source of concern.
This concern and perceived disparity led to the embrace of the Peter Obi and Labour Party phenomenon as vehicle for the emancipation of the South! People wanted a power shift!!.
The Presidential election ths year, was exceptionally interesting because it was clearly a battle between the north and the south. The four major contenders were One candidate from the South West, Senator Bola Tinubu (APC), who is now the President elect and another from South East, Peter Obi (LP).
Both Tinubu and Obi, being former Governors of Lagos and Anambra States respectively, had to face two northern candidates, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar (PDP) and Rabiu Kwankwaso, (NNPP) who are also former Governors of Adamawa and Kano States.
The election was along tribal and georgraphic lines rather than party lines and eventually in the early hours of Wednesday INEC, led by the Chairman, Mahmood Yakubu, announced the final results in Abuja and shortly after .presented the certificate of retun to the President elect Asiwaju Bola Tinubu.
Nigeria, a Counrty with 371 ethnic groups, the largest of which are the Yoruba, Hausa and the Igbo. These ethnic groups consist of multiple tribes enumerating up to 371, have three main religions recognised by the people; Christianity, Islam and the Indigenous religion.
This multicultural Country will have a President from the South West, a Yoruba Muslim, to oversee her affairs in the next four years, after defeating 17 other candidates who took part in the election. He scored a total of 8,794,726 votes, the highest of all the candidates, thus meeting the first constitutional requirement to be declared the winner.
He also scored over 25 per cent of the votes cast in 30 states, more than the 24 states constitutionally required, while Atiku polled a total of 6,984,520 votes followed closely by Peter Obi of the Labour Party who got 6,101,533 votes and Rabiu Kwankwaso of the NNPP came fourth with 1,496,687 votes.
Tinubu won the election in Rivers, Borno, Jigawa, Zamfara, Benue, Kogi, Kwara, Niger, Osun, Ekiti, Ondo, Oyo and Ogun states.
Atiku won in Katsina, Kebbi, Sokoto, Kaduna, Gombe, Yobe, Bauchi, Adamawa and Taraba states. He also won in Osun, Akwa Ibom and Bayelsa states.
Obi won in Edo, Cross River, Delta, Lagos, FCT, Plateau, Imo, Ebonyi, Nasarawa, Anambra, Abia and Enugu states. And Kwankwaso won in only Kano State.
Just like Nigeria, Rivers State has a rich cultural-heritage and is made up of numerous ethnic groups which include: Abua, Andoni, Ekpeye, Bille, Eleme, Egbema, Ekpeye, Kalabari, Ndoki, Ndoni, Okrika, Ogoni, Engenni, Etche, Ibani, Ikwerre, Ogba, Odua, Opobo etc. With a population size of about 7,034,973 people (source; Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia).
Rivers State has been fortunate to enjoy the dividends of democracy as Democratically elected Governors have focused on human and Infrastructural development.
The issue around who governs the State has always been on the front burners and adequate considerations have been given on how such individual should emerge.
The founding fathers had put in place a formula for power shift which moves between the upland and riverine. In a bid to foster oneness and brotherhood.
From 1999, that arrangement has been in place, particularly ensuring that every Senatorial District produced a Governor for the Brick house. The first democratically elected Governor at the wake of this Democratic era from 1999, Sir Peter Odili, is from the Rivers West Senatorial District, and the Governorship moved to the Rivers East Senatorial District which has produced three Governors including the incumbent Chief Bar. Nyesom Ezenwo Wike, CON, PoS Africa.
The continuous retention of the Governorship in Rivers East Senatorial District has caused a distortion to the original plan of the founding fathers, that supports power shift between Districts with particular reference to riverine and upland.
Nigerians will once again go to the polls on March 11th to decide who should be their Governors and members of the various State House of Assembly.
With the power of our votes fresh on our minds and the newest phrase of being “Obedient”, my worry is that we might unknowingly make a costly mistake that will hunt us for the rest of our lives in Rivers State.
What is this expensive mistake you might ask? For those people chanting the Obedient slogan and insisting on voting for the Labour party, it is important that they realize that a vote for the Labour party at the Governorship polls will mean a vote for another Ikwerre Governor.
My one penny advise would be to vote for the candidate from the Senatorial District that is yet to produce a Governor, and that zone is the Rivers South East Senatorial District. Rivers people should throw their weight behind the Governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP and a riverine candidate, Siminalayi Fubara from Opobo Nkoro Local Government Area, in the interest of fairness and equity.
Rivers State should not only have similar characteristics like Nigeria but should also be part of history by electing an Opobo son to break the hold our Ikwerre brothers have on the Brick House because it is not an “Ala nam” but it is the seat of power.
Let’s be Obedient by becoming Simplified on March 11th. That is the right thing to do. ( Gloria Boma Harry is an award winning Publisher, and a renowned novelist)
