A professor of public law at the Rivers State University, Ritchard Wokocha, says politicians in Rivers State who recently defected to the All Progressives Congress (APC) have effectively aligned themselves with President Bola Tinubu.
Speaking on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily on Wednesday (today), Wokocha said the mass movement signals a clear political shift in the state.
“What it implies is that for him [Governor Siminalayi Fubara] and his house, they have decided to embrace the President by joining the President’s party,” he said.
Wokocha explained that although the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, remains a member of the Peoples Democratic Party, he currently serves within an APC-led Federal Government.
According to him, this places all major political actors in Rivers under the same national leadership.
“The FCT minister may be in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) but is working currently under an All Progressive Congress government. If the state structure has moved to the All Progressive Congress, it should mean that they are together now because they are under the same leader and are not taking different instructions from different directions,” he said.
The legal scholar noted that the alignment of political forces could open a new chapter for stability in the state, which has been rocked by months of political turbulence.
He said the development “signifies a new possibility for peace and opportunity in Rivers State, because at the moment it feels like all the segments of Rivers’ political theatre, where they had all the drama, are now aligned to one side and have allegiance to one leader, which is the President.”
Wokocha added that with political power blocs now unified, the intense internal conflicts that dominated the state’s political scene may begin to fade.
He believes the development “signifies a coming together, and we should expect less negative drama, as we have seen in the past.”