Rivers Guber: Women Professionals Okay Upland/Riverine Dichotomy

A PDP decampee to All Progressives Congress (APC), Hart Lawson Atemie (left), destroying his PDP membership card in Port Harcourt last Tuesday

The Women Professional
Wing of the Eastern Delta People’s Congress  (EDPA) in Rivers State, has justified the need to maintain the zoning arrangement between upland and riverine  areas in the choice of the State governor.
The women in a unified statement made this known recently at the Eastern Delta Women’s Convention with theme: “Equity, Equal Opportunity and Political Leadership: The  Role of Women in Rivers State” organised by Eastern Delta People’s Association in Port Harcourt.
Speaking at the convention, wife of the former State Deputy Governor, Dame Christy Toby, said the only avenue to strengthen unity, equity, fairness and justice was to allow equal opportunity in leadership between upland and riverine areas of the state.
Dame Toby who was the Chairman of the occasion,  urged women in the Eastern Ijaw of the State to wake up and support their men counterparts to ensure that the next governor of the State was from Ijaw.
She also expressed the need for women to use their numerical strength to ensure gender equality in the leadership of the State and Nigeria in general come 2015.
According to her, 35 per cent gender affirmative was no longer relevant, but credible and God-fearing leadership irrespective of sex.
She noted that, almost all women in the present government both at the federal and state levels were performing better than some of their men counterparts, and therefore encouraged women to fight constructively to liberate themselves from political and economic slavery in the country.
Dame Toby warned women against unnecessary criticisms  and politics of bias, saying, such ill activities were capable of creating bitterness and as well as dwindling democracy.
In her keynote address, Professor Bene Willy Abbey expressed the need to exchange opinions and information to tackle the challenges facing women in the Niger Delta, especially the Eastern Delta region.
According to her, the challenges required trans-regional and trans-institutional efforts to tackle.
She called on the women in the region to reflect on the challenges, and take necessary and proactive  steps to change the plight of women in the region.
The chairperson of the association, Hon. (Mrs) Manuella Izunwa said the women’s convention was to contribute ideas on how to reposition Ijaw women in the mainstream of politics in the state and Nigeria in general.
While calling on Ijaw women to support a God-fearing person of the Ijaw extraction for 2015 governorship election, Mrs Izunwa also called on politicians and professionals in the state to stand united in making just and fair demand on all political parties to produce candidates from the Riverine area for the 2015 election.
“We, the EDPA believe that the sure way is to have a God-fearing governor of  Ijaw extraction in 2015.
“It is our view that after 15 years of our democracy, the Riverine people should also be given an opportunity  in the governance of our dear State as we seek to promote an egalitarians society” , Mrs Izunwa said.

Enoch Epelle