A former governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress in Rivers State, Tonye Cole, has described the political atmosphere in the state as deeply troubling and chaotic, stating that “everything seems wrong” in the current landscape.
Speaking on Politics Today, a Channels Television programme aired on Sunday night, Cole lamented Rivers State’s persistent appearance in national news for negative reasons.
He pointed to a lack of political clarity and governance structure as key issues plaguing the state.
“Rivers State always seems to be in the headlines for the wrong reasons. I’ve said this over and over again, and one of the things that concern me most is that we continue to use Rivers State as an experiment of any type of politics,” he said.
Cole criticized the ongoing confusion regarding political affiliations in the state, particularly the unclear status of Nyesom Wike, Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, whose political loyalty remains ambiguous.
“We don’t know which party is in existence in Rivers State. Is it the PDP or the APC? Or is it a mixture of both. You know, everything just seems wrong,” he noted.
He further emphasized that without the restoration of proper governance and the rule of law, meaningful progress in the state remains out of reach. “And so one of the things that we are very concerned about is that we must establish good governance and the rule of law in Rivers State for anything to begin to work,” Cole stated.
Affirming his position within the APC, Cole maintained that he remains the leader of the party in the state, despite ongoing uncertainty about Wike’s political alignment. “As a gubernatorial candidate in Rivers State, I remain the leader of APC in Rivers State. Now that depends on what the President says, because we don’t know where Wike is.”
“I have no idea whether it’s in PDP, whether it’s in APC, or whether it’s a mixture of both,” he continued. “There’s that faction of it, but then there is an APC in Rivers State that continues to be legitimate, of which I lead. And I continue to lead that APC faction in Rivers State, and we’ll continue doing that.”
Cole’s remarks highlight the growing concern among political stakeholders over the prolonged instability and leadership crisis in Rivers, a state that has become a flashpoint in Nigeria’s political discourse.
