Consensus candidacy caused mild rumbles in the stomach of the Rivers State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in 2015 and the party lost the governorship diadem due to a combination of reasons. The rumble became a storm in 2019 when another consensus candidacy was adopted. It led to total disqualification of all APC candidates in all the elections through court processes initiated by an aggrieved member of the party who rejected consensus method and choice.
Ahead 2023, the rumble seems to return. Many Rivers APC leaders seem worried if this would turn to another storm.
The APC in the state had since 2015 resolved that power must shift to the riverine areas of the state, after 24 years of upland domination. Magnus Abe, an influential member of the party in the state and a strong ally of the then governor, Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, first murmured against it and now openly opposes it, insisting he is the one to fly the flag of the party.
To achieve this, he insisted on direct primaries, hoping it would favour him. This was why he took the party to court in 2019 and got the state convention that gave birth to the candidates nullified. The APC crashed out of the elections.
For 2023, the party insisted that power must rotate to the riverine. This seemed to galvanise aspirants from that zone, thus over 15 have so far emerged. To control the surge, one of the leaders from Kalabari zone, George Fubara Tolofari, created a forum of riverine aspirants and got them to work together and support whoever would emerge. On April 11, 2022, the 10 at that time assembled in Tolofari’s house in Port Harcourt and accepted the resolutions, pledging to accept whoever emerged.
The essence was to narrow the riverine choice to one person who may eventually emerge consensus candidate or face whoever may come from the upland to challenge the choice.
Resolution to work together
The resolution to work together and support any consensus candidate or aspirant that may emerge was signed by Sokonte Davies, Dakuku Adol Peterside, Dawari George, Tonye Cole, Tonye TJT Princewill, Biokpomabo Awara, Francis Ebenezer Ada, Mina Tende, Ojukaye Flag Amachree, and Ibinabo Michael West.
It stated: “This communique is a fallout of series of consultations and interactions amongst the APC governorship aspirants for the 2023 Gubernatorial election in Rivers State.”
In the course of the meeting, several key points were discussed and agreed upon which include: The Progressives Aspirants agreed to work in unity and support whoever emerges at the party primaries either by way of consensus or election as exemplified by the party leadership at the just concluded national convention; The Progressives Aspirants called on the party leadership to ensure a level playing field for all aspirants during the primaries to give everyone a sense of belonging, fairness, and equity; As a way of respecting the party supremacy, the aspirants resolved that immediately a candidate emerges, all aspirants will put self and ego aside and collapse their various campaign structures into the party structure to support the flag bearer to win the 2023 elections for APC in Rivers State; The Progressives Aspirants agreed to consult other stakeholders, elder statesmen, opinion leaders and key politicians in the state to support power rotation to the Riverine-Ijaw come 2023 as a way of ensuring equity, justice and fairness in the distribution of political offices.
The forum, among other agreements, pledged unalloyed loyalty to both President Muhammadu Buhari and Transportation Minister, Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi.
The fragile consensus:Tonye Cole again
On April 22, 2022, news came from Abuja that the consensus aspirant for the riverine has emerged. He was named as Tonye Cole, the man who was in 2019 named by Amaechi and it led to the crash of the APC in the state.
The statement said Cole was to face any aspirant from any other section of the state at the primaries and would be backed by all the other aspirants. Naming Cole was however, not expected to stop those outside the riverine areas such as Abe, who had already declared to run and showed he would not toe any method that excluded him from contesting.
The statement from Tolofari after the Abuja meeting said: “Three other aspirants from the Riverine-Ijaw extraction later indicated interest in the race after the press briefing making them 13 aspirants in all.
“Yesterday 19 leaders of our dear party met in Abuja with the 13 aspirants and unanimously adopted Tonye Cole as the consensus candidate for the Riverine-Ijaw aspirants to face any other aspirant that may wish to contest the party primaries on the platform of the APC.
The convener called on all party members to put all differences aside and see themselves as one indivisible family. “We are party people and what should be paramount to us all is winning all electable positions in the forthcoming general elections, God being our helper.
“I also make bold to say that the leaders who made the decision were not influenced by anyone but took the decision to ensure that everyone is taken along.”
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Tonye Cole said it was painful to him but that he would submit to the decision and accept to join the leader (Amaechi) in Abuja to fight for the presidency.
Sokonte however, said: “These decisions, among others, brought my dear brother Pastor Arc Tonye Cole to the fore in the forthcoming gubernatorial primaries of our party, the APC.
“God makes His own thing beautiful in His own time. I have always lived to give thanks in all situations. As a child of God, my word will forever remain my bond. We must come to agree that no two persons can occupy a seat at the same time. On this note, I fully support Cole in the forthcoming gubernatorial primaries of APC. To some, Tonye may not be the best, to some others he might also not be the desired, but I bet you, a Tonye Cole shall be far better than what Gov. Wike or the the opposition parties will present to Rivers People for the Brick House for the 2023 Governorship election.
“As for me, when I say “Amaechi leads, Sokonte follows”, I mean it with every ounce of my blood and with all sincerity. Till God speaks otherwise to me, Ameachi is and remains my leader.
“I hereby use this medium to call on my colleagues, party leaders, party faithful and Rivers people to channel our all to achieve the victory Rivers people desire. Now is the time to come together and salvage Rivers State from the manifest malfeasance in governance and state administration.
“However, for those who disagree, the race is still fresh and open for everyone who wishes to contest to do so but that should be done with decorum and without deceit. As for us, as we have said previously and severally, we are credible people; our word remains our bond and party remains forever supreme.”
Moody aspirants
Some aspirants from the riverine areas (members of the forum that agreed to accept the outcome) who said they were not happy but must as gentlemen accept the outcome included Tonye Princewill, Dawari George, and Sokonte Davies. Most others remained silent.
Volatile
Some of the aspirants that were party to the agreement to comply have rejected it. The most outspoken so far is Ojukaye Flag Amachree who was said to have gone ahead to purchase the governorship form. He has also spoken harshly against the consensus and against the leader.
He said he did not sign his birth right away and did not sign away his future. He said what he signed allowed him to go to the primaries.
Dakuku Peterside blew hot and announced a triumphant return to Port Harcourt. The crowd surged at the PH International Airport to receive him and many ears got ready for earthquakes.
But the earthquakes did not come. After saying many things about how he is loved by the party, he said he came home to consult and would make his decision known. The crowd walked back home. If he came home to consult, why did he create such a huge crowd and create such hype like someone about to shake the table, many asked on their way home.
Exploiting the logic
A close examination of the deviation of some riverine aspirants such as Amachree and Peterside shows that they may not have gone outside the resolutions reached by the riverine aspirants’ forum.
The agreement talked of primaries, not before. The cooperation needed from the aspirants was to be after the party primaries. Besides, the communiqué from Abuja asked any aspirant that did not agree with the consensus to go about his ambition in a decent way without acrimony.
“The Progressives Aspirants agreed to work in unity and support whoever emerges at the party primaries either by way of consensus or election as exemplified by the party leadership at the just concluded national convention; the progressives aspirants called on the party leadership to ensure a level playing field for all aspirants during the primaries to give everyone a sense of belonging.”
By this, those going ahead with their mobilisation may not have breached any agreement, so long as they do not haul insults or create divisions in the party.
Blame galore
Yet, insiders say the consensus process in Abuja was not properly executed. A source said they had expected the elders to talk to the aspirants in the meeting, lock them in the room for two hours, and ask them to use straw vote system to elect one of them right there, failing which the elders would have no option than to pick one of them. This way, the source said, nobody would blame Amaechi or anybody. Tolofari however, said this was what was done.
Amaechi has become a victim in recent times when everything that goes wrong in the party is blamed on him. Anybody who does not get what he wants in the party in the state also blames it on him. It has almost made him a lame duck leader.
Other sources said the method of announcing the choice was weak. Sources said they should have come back to Port Harcourt to address a full press conference and explain fully what transpired in Abuja and the processes that led to the one chosen. This would have given media men chance to ask many questions which would have exhausted all the angles of disagreement.
At the end of the exhaustive briefing, the case being made by various aggrieved aspirants would have been squeezed off.
Other sources said the favoured person would have moved fast to negotiate with the other camps to douse tension.
Conclusion: After rain comes shine – Tolofari
Tolofari, the convener and coordinator, seems to have listened to the criticisms and moved to douse tension. He addressed the the soul of the party faithful thus: “Once again, as a follow up to my last message, I write with a deep sense of commitment and loyalty to our great party and to all of you who have stood to defend this party, her leadership and her ideals over the years.
“The event that took place on Friday, 22nd April, 2022, has brought about mixed feelings and reactions from across many quarters because some expectations were not met. Many of you were disgruntled, sad, shocked and even surprised to say the least. Some of you as a result have reached out to me and other party leaders privately and openly to vent your spleen. Sincerely, we feel your frustration and understand how it feels when the lot does not fall on you because we’ve all been there before at one time or the other.”
On what transpired in Abuja, Tolofari revealed thus: “What many of us may not know is that all the aspirants from the Riverine Ijaw extraction came together and surrendered their rights to the party to choose for them since they could not reach a consensus amongst themselves. Hence, the decision taken by the committee was in the best interest of the aspirants, the party and all of us after a thorough scrutiny of all concerned.
“Some of you have erroneously accused and cast aspersions and insults at our leader for imposing Tonye Cole on the party, but unknown to you, our leader, the Hon. Minister of Transportation recused himself from the process and asked us to freely exercise our rights in the best interest of the party which we did. I appeal to us all to stop the unwarranted attacks on our leader because he has done nothing wrong, rather he set the stage for free deliberations and consultations. If he had wanted to impose a candidate on us, he would not need to set up a committee. He would have just announced his preferred candidate and asked us to support him, but this he didn’t do. It may even surprise some of you that our leader’s preference may not have emerged but he allowed majority decision of the party elders to fly.
“I was part of that process and all decisions taken by the larger majority of the committee members are binding on me. I will say that again for emphasis. Although expectations of all party faithful may not have been met as some of us had wished our ‘principal’ emerged. I do not believe in that system where when it favours me, I applaud leadership and it’s process and castigate leadership and it’s process when it does not favour me. As painful as it is, we must exercise restraint. We must not destroy APC because we didn’t get the endorsement of the leadership this time around.
“Many of us have been beneficiaries of same consensus decisions at some point in time and when it favoured us, others were probably displeased and when it favours others we may be displeased also. That is common human factor. I, George Tolofari benefitted from consensus in the past. Dakuku Peterside, Sokonte Davis, Emeka Beke, Victor Giadom, Dawari George, Ojukaye Flag Amachree and a host of us are all beneficiaries of this same system however, it was arrived at. So we must learn the principles of give and take at times like this and also understand what party loyalty means. Loyalty is a very costly commodity and difficult to find and it’s no loyalty until it is tested. Indeed, we are in for a loyalty test once again. Let me borrow the words of Bill Hybels; ‘Storms draw something out of us that calm seas don’t.’
“I have advised our dear friend, Tonye Cole, to roll his sleeves and go down to the grassroots to meet with both big and small, young and old, because everyone is important and I know he is already doing that because he confirmed this to me today when we spoke earlier.
“As the storm of our frustration begins to simmer, I will advise we take the counsel of Mattie Stepanek where he said; ‘Remember to play after every storm.’
“Finally, I want to appeal that we desist from taking our party’s internal affairs to the social media as doing so will send the wrong signals and give our opponents enough tools to attack us during the campaign period. We are in the contest to win and Tonye Cole is not yet the party’s candidate until after or when he emerges at the primaries in a free and fair contest with other aspirants either from the Riverine or Upland area. He was only adopted as the riverine consensus aspirant. The party has also made it clear that any aspirant that is not satisfied with the decision of its committee can still go ahead, pick up the form and contest against Tonye Cole at the primaries. We shall play again after night fall because it is yet morning again in APC Rivers State.”
