The ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, confirmed a Lagos based billionaire businessman, Prince Tonye Cole, as it consensus governorship candidate in Rivers State.
Cole had emerged as the APC consensus candidate days ago, but it still needed to be confirmed. This was after a long process of deliberation, screening and consultations among the party leaders and other stakeholders in the state. According to a report by Daily Post, Amaechi was absent from the meeting and the processes. Speaking on Amaechi, the APC Spokesman in Rivers, Chris Finebone, revealed that the Minister declined to take part in the process and instead stayed away.
Cole is a long time associate of Amaechi. He was heavily backed by the Minister to emerge the APC candidate ahead of the governorship election in Rivers State in 2019 but things took another turn leading to the thwarting of the plan. That was because Senator Magnus Abe went to court to challenge the process and the court nullified the process. The court still went ahead to bar APC from fielding a candidate or taking part in the Rivers governorship election that year. That was how Cole was edged out of the race.
With APC out out the race, Governor Nyesom Wike of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, had an easy victory as he went ahead to win his second term. Now that Cole has emerged the consensus candidate of APC, it is left to be seen if he would eventually be on the ballot or win the election itself.
We are in n an era of consensus however, what are your thoughts on the politics of consensus?