2023: Give Us Governorship Slot, Ogoni Begs PDP, APC

The two major political parties – All Progressives Congress (APC) and the People’s Demo­cratic Party (PDP) – have been enjoined to adopt the principle of equity and justice by zoning the Rivers State governorship slot to Ogoni.

Ogoni people called for ethnic justice in the state, ap­pealing that the two parties should field only Ogonis as candidates for the 2023 gov­ernorship poll in the state.

Ogoni Democracy and De­velopment Forum (ODDF), which made the earnest appeal, noted that it would amount to justice if an Ogoni leads the state in 2023.

Convenor of ODDF, and former President of Move­ment for the Survival of Ogo­ni People (MOSOP), Legbor­si Pyagbara, called on those who believe in justice to use their goodwill to facilitate the move for Ogoni to produce a governor in 2023.

Pyagbara on Thursday re­gretted that since the creation of Rivers State 55 years ago, Kalabari and Ikwerre have got a fair deal of the Number One seat in the state and mar­ginalized the Ogonis.

The former MOSOP pres­ident lamented that an Ogo­ni person has never been a governor, deputy, Speaker of the state House of Assembly or Chief Judge of the state, stating that they were being marginalized.

“We are appealing that the leaders should demonstrate statesmanship, equity, fair play and sense of justice by ensuring that a Rivers gov­ernor of Ogoni extraction emerges as governorship flag-bearers on their various political parties, particularly the People’s Democratic Par­ty, PDP, and the All Progres­sives Congress, APC.”

He noted that Ogoni has gone through many political marginalisation, economic strangulation and environ­mental degradation, which have reduced them to the lowest aspects of the society.

Pyagbara noted that poli­tics has always been an instru­ment used, among others, to right the wrongs and injus­tices done against a group of people, noting that election of President Olusegun Obasanjo in 1999 was to right the wrong against the Yorubas on the botched 1993 polls.

“The issue of political mar­ginalisation of the Ogoni peo­ple had been one of the triplets of core issues in the ongoing Ogoni struggle for justice.

“The Ogoni Bill of Rights (OBR) submitted to the gov­ernment and people of Ni­geria in October 1990 had, among others, called on the government of Nigeria to guarantee the Ogoni people adequate and direct represen­tation of rights in all Nigeria national institutions.

Credit: Daily Independent