2023 Governorship: Former C'River Governor, Duke Dumps Gershom Bassey For Sandy Onor, Says There Has Never Been Zoning In The State

Duke (left) and Gershom Bassey

Former governor of Cross River State, Mr. Donald Duke has dumped his close friend and ally, Senator Gershom Bassey for the Senator representing Cross River Central, Senator Sandy Onor, as the race for who succeeds incumbent governor, Ben Ayade in next year's governorship election thickens.

Duke is one of the 'three wise men',  as they are fondly called because of a rumoured gentleman agreement the trio (Duke, Imoke and Gershom) had for them to have a taste at the number one seat in the state. Duke and Imoke have both had their turns.

One would expect the former governor to throw his weight behind Senator Bassey, but he rather chose to support Senator Onor, the preferred candidate of Rivers State governor, Nyesom Wike, who is a major financier of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

Mr. Duke also jettisoned zoning in the State, saying that anybody who meets the constitutional provisions is qualified to contest election, adding that there has never been zoning of governorship in Cross River.

The former presidential candidate stated this while hosting some PDP stakeholders in his house in Calabar at the weekend.

 

He maintained that the time has come for PDP to elect new crop of leaders who can salvage the state and reposition the party ahead of 2023, challenging governorship aspirants to go into the field and convince the the people why they should be give them opportunity to lead the state.

He said: “It is time for a new crop of leaders to mount the saddle of leadership in Cross River as governor. Note that I am not against zoning, but there has never been zoning in the first place in choosing of our governorship.

“But if they have to be zoning, then the political leaders of Cross River State across party lines (both intra party and inter party) should, in a joint meeting, sit down, adumbrate and unanimously draw up the modus operandi and modus vivendi of zoning as commonly agreed by all politicians. Not when it suits you, then you talk of zoning at other times when it doesn’t suit you, you dispense with it.

“But even zoning is well contrived, it remains a gentleman’s agreement because the Supreme Court has, in a celebrated judgment between Jerry Gana and Donald Duke (on zoning) ruled that once a person meets the constitutional provisions for contesting any particular election, he or she cannot be stopped from running that election on the basis of zoning.

“I ,therefore, call on all governorship aspirants from the southern senatorial district to go into the public space and rationally market themselves, rather than relying on the whimsical and unsettled sentiments of Zoning.”