…Launch ‘OP-10,000-4SMA’
By: Felix Ikpotor
As politicking for 2023 takes centre stage, some students in Rivers State tertiary institution are now calling on Senator Magnus Abe to contest for the 2023 governorship elections in the state.
The students drawn from the University of Port Harcourt, Rivers State University, Ken Saro-Wiwa Polytechnic, Captain Elechi Amadi Polytechnic, Rivers State College of Health Management Science Technology and others who gathered under the aegis of Progressives Students Network (PSN) yesterday in Port Harcourt, said they are calling on Abe to contest because he is a leader that understands the challenges of the youths.
Rivers State coordinator of the group, Endwell Otonnah, who spoke during the inauguration of the PSN at Freedom House said: “Rivers State students are going through a lot of challenges; there is no scholarship, no bursary, no skill acquisition, no empowerment. There is a man who has the students at heart, who can meet the demands of the students and he is Abe, so we call on him to present himself as the next governor of Rivers State. We have confidence that when he comes, there will be no need for protest”
Responding, Abe, a former representative of Rivers South-East Senatorial District at the National Assembly, noted that the future belongs to the students.
“No one should tell you that you are too young on deciding issues of the future, no matter how big or small you are, as long as you are above 18, you are entitled to decide the future,” he said.
Abe however said, he has not yet decided to run for governor in the 2023 general election as he was still consulting.
The former senator urged the students to participate actively in the next election, as politics is what determines every sphere of human endeavour.
‘The future belongs to you and if you sit down when the future is being decided, then, you don’t have any right to stand up and make demands tomorrow,’ he said.
‘You are not too young to participate in the electoral process and determine who should be elected.
‘I have not yet declared to run for governor in 2023. I am still consulting. And that’s why I am consulting with you now. I don’t need to consult only with the big people. I must also consult with the youths and students.
‘I am elated that you are urging me to run and I am also elated that you are assuring me that you will give me the support when the time comes.’
The youth leader of the Abe APC faction, Kingsley Ibanichuka, urged the students to take the message and spread it to their friends and families.
He said the event was to launch the ‘Operation 10’000 Students for Senator Magnus Ngei Abe’.
The youth leader added: “This ten thousand cuts across all the tertiary institutions in Rivers State and the various ethnic blocs in the students community because politics is local and the essence is for the students to campaign and win their units for the party”.
He stated further that: “PSN is to engage intellectually. You don’t need to argue and talk like others because our principal is an intellectual genius and there is none like him among the politicians in Rivers State so you have the best candidate to sell. Engage meaningfully, appeal to people and make them love him”
He urged them to go all out and market Senator Abe to all Rivers people across party lines and not to be deterred by opposition.
