Rivers women call for riverine governor in 2019

Women across the 23 local government areas of Rivers State are calling for a riverine governor in 2019, to succeed Nyesom Wike of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), since governors from the upland part would have governed the state for 20 unbroken years.

The women, under the aegis of Rivers Women Alliance (RIWA), a non-political and non-governmental organization, with a view of total chatter for united Rivers society, made the call yesterday at a news conference in Port Harcourt.

RIWA, through its Coordinator, Ibiba Omotoso, who was accompanied by the group’s Secretary, Myne Wilfred, and many Rivers women, including non-indigenes, indicated that it was striving for even development of the crude oil and gas-rich state, as well as to ensure justice, equity and fairness.

It said: “Women of Rivers State observe with total dismay how the leadership of our state has been domiciled in a particular section of Rivers State, whereas the state is made up of upland and riverine brotherliness. From 1999, Rivers State has been governed by the upland brothers. The call for a Riverine governor in Rivers State in 2019 became very necessary, as that is the only path to equity, fairness, justice, togetherness and the enhancement of peaceful coexistence in our dear state. It is only fair for every Rivers son and daughter to rally round a riverine governor to taste the seat of power in our dear state.

“Our unity, well-being and togetherness are sacrosanct. Hence the need for rotation of power between the upland and the riverine parts of the state. We remain committed to this cause and it is our belief and trust that in 2019, a riverine son or daughter will emerge in any of the political parties as the governor of Rivers State.

Read Also: INEC right on Rivers by-election

“We believe it will not be too much to allow all concerned in a common heritage to have a fair share of the commonwealth in service. Equity is in vain, when oppression is the order of the day in an indifferent society. The deliberate assent of this clarion call to rotate power in Rivers State is just, finest and clinches the order of the day.

“We call on all Rivers elders, the political class, traditional rulers, youths, women and every facet of life in Rivers State to join hands, so that our call and advocacy of truth, fairness, equity, justice, and togetherness can be a fulfilled will.”

Rivers women also stated that in their course of reach-outs, they had come across some asserts that Chief Rufus Ada-George, from the riverine part of the old Rivers state, was once elected governor in 1992/1993, but noted that the old Rivers state was made up of Bayelsa state and the present Rivers state, at a period when governance was managed and administered by the military at the centre and eventually the administration was cut short by the same military government that formed it.

RIWA noted that other people of Rivers state must not be alienated, insisting that everybody must live in oneness, without a heart full of troubles and seeming oppression, with the women declaring that on a riverine governor they firmly stood.

The post Rivers women call for riverine governor in 2019 appeared first on The Nation Nigeria.