…Atiku, Tinubu, Obi In For War
By Kelechi Esogwa-Amadi
The decision of the Peoples Democratic Party to choose Delta State Governor, Ifeanyi Okowa, as the running mate to Atiku Abubakar, ahead of Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, is likely to pose a challenge to the PDP and their presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar in 2023. For instance, it could throw votes from Rivers State open for the major political parties during the presidential election of next year. This is the view of some Rivers people who spoke to our correspondent on Saturday in Port Harcourt.
They also believe that the trio of LP presidential candidate, Peter Obi, APC presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu and PDP presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar could have equal chances of getting good votes of Rivers people in next year’s general election because of the strong bases they and their political parties reportedly have in Rivers State. According to them, this impending hot fight for Rivers votes will further be intensified by the various divided interests that residents of the state have in the three presidential candidates.
These divided interests and the looming ‘vote war’ it will ignite among Peter Obi, Bola Tinubu and Atiku Abubakar are believed to have been heightened by the alleged discontent caused by the perceived unjust treatment meted to Governor Nyesom Wike by the PDP, as many PDP members in the state are said to be unhappy about it.
Temple Ndookor, an Ogoni-born business man, believes it will be a tough fight for the threesome as long as Rivers votes are concerned.
“The reason is that when you come to Peter Obi now, Igbo people in Rivers State will like to vote for him and you know that there are many Igbos in this state. And his party – Labour Party – has a good number of members, especially civil servants. When you join their votes with those of the Igbos, you will see that Peter Obi will get high votes. As for Atiku, he also has advantage of getting many votes because PDP has more members than other parties here. In fact, Rivers State is a PDP state. Tinubu will also get some votes because APC people will vote for him. Now that the two APC factions have reconciled and Amaechi also pledged to work with Tinubu, it will not be easy for Atiku and Obi. The three of them will share the votes and it will be a tough war,” Ndookor added.
He corroborated Goodboy Sunday, a youth leader and PDP supporter who argued that the emergence of Tinubu and Obi will pose some challenges to Atiku in Rivers State.
Goodboy Sunday said: “If Governor Wike had won the PDP primaries, no other presidential candidate would have shared Rivers votes with him because he’s a son of the soil and also from the South. But as he lost, many of us here are not happy. So it will be difficut for Atiku to win all the votes here, being a northerner.
“We in the South believe it should be our turn to produce the next president. That is why Tinubu and Peter Obi will have good chances of sharing the votes with Atiku. In fact, if our governor does not support Atiku, PDP won’t get any vote here during the presidential election because we’re not happy that Tambuwal and his people betrayed
us. The way things are now, Peter Obi and Tinubu will drag our votes with Atiku. This thing has even gone beyond party politics. Nigerians want somebody that will transform the country.”
According to Chike Oguariri, a trader, the battle for Rivers votes will be between Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi.
He explained: “Rivers State is a PDP state and that is why Atiku will get votes in this state. Anyhow, we know he will spend money and he will get votes. But Peter Obi being from the South-East which is close to South-South, he will also get better support here. We know that all the Igbos will vote for Peter Obi because we believe he will do well for Nigeria. He is not too corrupt like others, that is why many people are supporting him all over the country. So, if you ask me, Obi and Atiku will share Rivers votes, maybe like 40-40%. Then, 20% will go to Tinubu. APC people will vote for Tinubu but we know that some of them who are from Igbo will vote for Peter Obi while the Hausa people in APC here will vote for Atiku. That is how it will be.”
