2015 AND JOHN AKPANUDOEDEHE BY COMMANDER ANDY After my article was published in this column last week, someone demanded to know from me what I thought about Senator John James Akapanudoedeghe who comes from Uyo Senatorial District if my opinion, as stated in that write-up favoured Eket governor. In the first place, that article did not advocate that the next governor should come from Eket Senatorial District. Rather what I said was that we should search for an Akwa Ibom governor regardless of where he comes from instead of talking about a tribal governor. I added quite reluctantly that since we are yet to mature politically, we may allow someone from Eket Senatorial District to come on board in 2015 so as to satisfy those who are more ethnic conscious than being politically conscious. But I did not see how that could make us to be politically mature as we may start demanding for governorship based on local government areas until we get to clans and villages and families. We are aware of the fact that in the United States of America from where we borrowed our democratic experience, there had been instances where two brothers from the same parents became governors in two different states and heaven did not fall all because Americans being mature politically do not base their elections on ethnic sentiments. Secondly, although I did not mention it in that last article, there is no constitutional provision for rotational or zonal office of governor or president in Nigeria. The so-called zoning of offices is solely a PDP affair which does not and ought not to apply to other political parties. It is rather unfortunate that in Akwa Ibom in particular and Nigeria generally, we tend to believe and accept PDP programs as if they were binding on all citizens just because it is the ruling party. This is a height of ignorance. We should not allow PDP mentality to affect us the way it has done. What has PDP zoning policy got to do with APC or any other political party? This herd instinct can be very dangerous in many ways. We cannot be compelled to see things from a particular point of view no matter how plausible those things may be. Thirdly, if we actually believe in justice the way we talk about it, we have to come face-to-face with the grim reality or fact that the PDP DID NOT WIN the 2011 governorship election in Akwa Ibom. Even Justice Abdul Kafarati, President Goodluck Jonathan, the Inspector General of Police and all the Judges in Nigeria, including the Nigerian Bar Association know and still know and can swear by Zuma Rock secretly that the Peoples Democratic Party brazenly stole the mandate given to Senator John Udoedehe at gun point and later applied technicalities in the tribunal and the courts to dismiss the case. We all know that the judgment that Kafarati gave was not the one he meant to deliver. Many things happened to change it. Sadly, this ugly event has gone down into the annals of history against Nigeria and PDP which no one will be able to erase since history is irreversible. Now, if it is true, as a matter of fact, that the Senator won the 2011 governorship election at the polls (not at INEC), don’t we think that in fairness to him, if we are talking about justice and fairplay, he has the right to recontest the 2015 election in order to reclaim his stolen mandate? Let everybody in Nigeria put his feet into the Senator’s shoes and then tell the people why he should withdraw from the race so that someone from Eket Senatorial District can be governor. In Joel 2: 25, my Bible says; “And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten, the cankerworm, and the caterpillar, and the palmerworm, my great army which I sent among you.” God allowed these destructive insects to “eat” the mandate that belonged to John Udoedehe as punishment for installing PDP in the state in 2007 to the detriment of the generality of the people. But when John repented and earned the pardon of Obong Victor Attah whom he did hurt deeply and the pardon of heaven, God then said he would restore unto him the eight years that these destructive insects has eaten him and the rest of us. God did not stop there. He further said; “I will overturn, overturn, overturn it: and it shall be no more, until he come (who? APC?) whose right it is, and I will give it to him”, Ezekiel 21: 27. In the same way these wicked insects ate John’s mandate, they have also been deployed to eat the right of Engineer Frank Okon. But it is instructive to note that every beginning must have an end. I believe that God cannot allow things to go on like this in this state and the nation ad infinitum. Something will happen that will shock many people and send a lot of cold running down their spines. Already nemesis has begun serious work among those who thought that our destinies were in their hands and that they could do to us whatever they liked without anyone to call them to order. Only a fool says in his heart that there is no God. Even Satan fears God and trembles how much more these small demons in human form? I am one of those people who cannot be carried away by sentiments. I refuse to rely on the hysteria of the crowd for my stimulus. Above all, I am one who cannot celebrate thieves and robbers. Some people have suggested that on account of the zoning “policy” in the state, which, of course, is only a PDP affair, John Udoedehe should back down and allow the next governor to come from Eket zone. This is good talk, but whatever argument is put forward to support this is standing only on one leg and for that reason, it is non sequitur. Others have said that John should allow another candidate to emerge from the newly registered APC having tried and failed in ACN. These last groups are people and I should describe as broken reeds because apart from being cowardly, they are unreliable, they are easily carried away or swayed by public opinion which, in most cases, are faulty. They surrender very easily because of the spirit of cowardly conformity which proclaims itself everybody’s friend in the hope that everybody will obligingly return the compliment. It was Theodore Roosevelt who said: “Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to take ranks with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in the grey twilight that knows not victory nor defeat.” Anyone can float downstream with the current, as do many who have no nerve to stand straight on their own, but it takes determination and resoluteness of purpose based on justice to go against the tide. If the Senator decides to reclaim his stolen mandate by recontesting the forthcoming governorship election, he should not be seen as trying to deprive Eket Senatorial District of their “opportunity” to produce a governor. My sister, Senator Helen Esuene, is from Eket Senatorial District and in PDP. If she has indicated her intention to contest for this much coveted office, nothing stops her from doing so, and it would be unfair for me to tell her not to contest or aspire because an Oron man is contesting since Oron people have never produced a governor since the creation of Akwa Ibom. What I am saying in effect is that “He who can let him receive it” Matthew 19:12. The ways of God in Nature, as in Providence, are not as our ways; nor are the models that we frame in any way commensurate to the vastness, profundity, and unsearchableness of His works, which have a depth in them greater than the well of Democritus. I will support and vote a candidate who is an Akwa Ibom in body, spirit and soul no matter where he comes from provided he or she is not married to an Ibo person and has no Ibo blood in him or her. This is because the Ibos are to us what the Philistines and the Canaanites were to Israel. If you accuse me of being tribalistic, I will ask you to explain why Jesus never appointed a Gentile into His inner cabinet of 120 Disciples from which He chose 12 Apostles. He even gave instructions to the twelve not to go beyond the lost sheep of the house of Israel when sending them out on preaching practice. It was not until the time of Paul when the Gentiles accepted to become “Jews” that they were brought into the Covenant. The Ibos are yet to prove to us that they are truly one with us in spirit and in truth before we can accept them. For now let us keep them at arms length.
Posted on: Fri, 16 Aug 2013 22:47:49 +0000
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