Bringing the people of Rivers State together to create an economically sustainable and wealthy state was the primary goal of Project SMA 2023, according to Senator Magnus Ngei Abe, a former senator who represented Rivers South-East senatorial constituency in the National Assembly.
The senator recently announced his departure from the All Progressives Congress (APC), but he insisted that he will continue to be a member of the family of Senator Ahmed Bola Tinubu, the APC presidential candidate.
He said, “That was why we launched the Project SMA 2023, and the kind of reception and support the Project SMA 2023 is receiving in Rivers State shows clearly that there are very good prospects because Rivers people are interested in what we are doing”.
The people of Rivers State, not the current governor, Nyesom Ezenwo Wike, will elect the next governor of the state, according to Abe, noting that the governor has already claimed the state's citizens will elect his successor.
He said, “If the President of Nigeria, who is more powerful than the governor cannot decide who will be the next president to succeed him, then the governor of Rivers State will not decide who will succeed him.
“That issue will be decided by the people of Rivers State. And let me also quote the governor himself; he has said on different occasions that he will allow the people of Rivers State to decide his successor and I know him as a man of his word.
“I believe that he will do everything possible to create an atmosphere in which those who are interested in succeeding him regardless of their political party will have a fair chance to contest.”