Former senator representing Rivers South-East senatorial district at the National Assembly, Senator Magnus Ngei Abe, has said that the main objective of Project SMA 2023 was to bring the people of Rivers State together so as to build an economically viable and prosperous state.
The senator recently announced his resignation from the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) but said he will still remain in the family of the APC presidential candidate, Senator Ahmed Bola Tinubu.
Abe spoke yesterday when he appeared on a live programme of the African Independent Television (AIT), which was monitored in Port Harcourt, the state capital. The former Secretary to the River State government insisted that the future of Rivers State is more important to the people of the state than the pleasure of any individual.
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”.
Abe stated that it was the people of Rivers State that will determine who will become the next governor of the state and not the incumbent, Governor Nyesom Ezenwo Wike, pointing out that the governor had on several occasions said the people of the state will decide 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.”
