2015 Akwa Ibom politics SEN. EFFIONG BOB: Is it Party supremacy or Akpabio Supremacy? Senator Effiong Bob, the man who represented Uyo senatorial district for two terms between 2003 and 2011, issued a very ridiculous and inane press statement early this week. In it he pleaded that since the PDP had unprecedentedly barred Uyo Senatorial District from participating in the 2015 governorship election, the people should accept the humiliation as an act of Party Supremacy. ‘Mostly affected are those who had positioned themselves to participate in the race for the governorship in 2015. By this decision therefore, they have lost both the capital and profit’, he gloated impishly in an advertorial published on page 45 of The Nation newspaper of Tuesday, November 11, 2014. In a good day, Senator Bob speaks with apparent dyslexic difficulty, but this impairment shouldn’t becloud his political intelligence and sense of pride. The rejection and humiliation of the single most populous political bloc in the state and its elders and leaders by the PDP cannot be tolerated under any guise of party supremacy. Akwa Ibom people cannot be fooled. They know that Governor Akpabio is using zoning to foist Mr. Udom Emmanuel who comes from Eket Senatorial District on the State as his successor. Before the decision of Akpabio to single-handedly appoint Mr. Udom Emmanuel as Governor of Akwa Ibom State, Akpabio had told Nigerians on live television in March 2013 during the Good Governance Town Hall meeting that he was not a product of zoning, and so would not support zoning. (Copy of the tape is available). Akpabio was right because in 2006 he contested against 57 other contestants from the three senatorial districts. Similarly, in 2011, Chief Frank Okon and Mr Imo Udo from Eket and Uyo Senatorial Districts respectively were cleared by the PDP to contest the primaries against Chief Akpabio. Chief Frank Okon and Mr. Imo Udo are currently in the Supreme Court to protest the outcome of the 2011 governorship primaries. Can a leader who speaks from both sides of his mouth be trusted? The people of Akwa Ibom State know that Akpabio is dishonest when he claims that the zoning of the governorship position to Eket is to promote justice and equity. The people know that the unilateral decision by Akpabio to impose Udom Emmanuel on the State has nothing to do with justice and equity. Or else why are other aspirants from Oron and Ikot Abasi Federal Constituencies in Eket Senatorial District also excluded from the governorship race? Why would Akpabio insist that the two most important positions (Governorship and MD of NDDC) must be occupied by only people from Eket Senatorial District alone? What has Uyo senatorial district done wrong? Why is Akpabio not talking about zoning of the Senate position in his own Senatorial District? By the Governors logic, it should be the turn of Abak Federal Constituency to produce the next Senator as it is the only federal constituency in Ikot Ekpene Senatorial District that has so far not produced a Senator? Why the double standards? Why is Akpabio out to oppress the people of Abak5 by insisting that he must go to the Senate? It should be noted that the Ikot Ekpene axis( with three Local Government Areas) where Akpabio comes from produced a Senator between 1999 and 2003. They also produced two deputy governors between 1999 and 2007 and have also produced a Governor in the person of Akpabio from 2007 to date. During the period under review, the Abak axis with five Local Government Areas has been completely oppressed and left with nothing. And now Akpabio wants to complete the decimation of the Abak axis by forcefully taking their Senate position after hounding and humiliating their leaders like Atuekong Etiebet and Dr. Ime Umana. According to Senator Efiong Bob, all these acts of impunity and injustice by Akpabio should be condoned in the name of Party Supremacy. Is it Party Supremacy or Akpabio Supremacy when Akpabio colluded with the Electoral Panel and ensured that the ward congresses for the election of ad hoc delegates were not held and yet all the names of the delegates in the 329 wards were compiled in Government House on the directive of the Governor? When Party elders and leaders (including Chief Don Etiebet and Sen. Aloysius Etok) demanded that the Chairman of the Electoral Panel should produce the original result sheets for inspection before they were shared out to the returning officers, the Chairman could not do so because he had only photocopies? The video recording of this ugly incident is available. After personally handpicking all the ad hoc delegates, Akpabio is now ready to impose Udom Emmanuel on the State as Governor. As was done in 2011, Akpabio and his family have already handpicked the 26 members of the House of Assembly for 2015; the 10 members of the House of Representatives, the three Senators and the deputy governor! Efiong Bob expects the members of the PDP and by extension the good people of Akwa Ibom State to accept these acts of impunity in the name of Party Supremacy. It is instructive that Akpabio and his wife had boasted that even God cannot stop them from imposing Udom Emmanuel on the State. Is that also Party Supremacy? Effiong Bob expects the people of Akwa Ibom State not to question why only members of the Akpabio family (including students and those who were unemployed or unemployable in 2007) have been uncommonly transformed into billionaires. He expects the people not to question why Akpabio and his wife have built multi billion Naira estates overnight in Uyo, Lagos, Ukana, etc. The people of Akwa Ibom State should not allow the likes of Efiong Bob, Anietie Okon and Idongesit Nkanga (who have been shamelessly cowed by Akpabio and his family) to turn them into slaves in their own State. Akwa Ibom people will never support the PDP for as long as it is only Chief Akpabio’s views that matter! Akpabio’s well ingrained acts of nepotism in civil service recruitments and political appointments which have had been well documented have contributed immensely in building his supremacy. The PDP is not owned by Akpabio and his family. Akwa Ibom State is not owned by Akpabio and his family. Our people have been asking why did the PDP decide to treat Akwa Ibom State differently from other states like Rivers, Oyo, Delta, Kogi, Benue, etc where certain sections of the state had not produced a governor? Shouldn’t party supremacy be founded on single standard, justice and fairness? What is so peculiar about Akwa Ibom? Why our state? Why us? Since we are convinced that the PDP is inconsistent and discriminatory on the issue of zoning, the people of Akwa Ibom State will reject this discrimination together with Senator Effiong Bob. The PDP has shown clearly that it has no respect for our leaders like Obong Victor Attah and Chief Don Etiebet, both of them members of the party’s Board of Trustees, who have consistently called for open, all-inclusive and free and fair primaries. Other leaders like Otuekong Jackson Sunny Udo, Obong Rita Akpan, Dr. Ime Umana, Dr. Ime Okoido, Dr Maurice Ebong and many others have lent their voices to these basic tenets of democracy. Why should the PDP humiliate and disrespect our own leaders while such senior citizens like Chief Tony Anenih and Chief Edwin Clark are adored and held in high esteem by the same party? Are Akwa Ibom people second-class members of the party? It is actually Gov. Godswill Akpabio who had laid the foundation for the humiliation the PDP has meted out to the people of Uyo senatorial district. He systematically instituted the culture of excluding our leaders and elders from the affairs of the party and his government and then started humiliating, diminishing and insulting them publicly. Our former governor, Obong Victor Attah; Dr. Ime Umanah, Chief Don Etiebet, Gen. Edet Akpan (rtd); Chief Ufot Ekaette and his wife Senator Eme Ekaette; Late Mrs Grace Anwana; Senator Alloysius Etok and Chief Edet Nkubre are just some of our leaders that have been thoroughly and publicly ridiculed by Chief Godswill Akpabio. Our traditional rulers who have over the generations been accorded due respect and recognition have also seen the rough end of the Akpabio stick. Infact, Chief Akpabio has over the years boasted that his mission is to whittle down the influence of the Ibibios as the majority ethnic group in the state. He has also applied the same principle in oppressing and marginalizing the people of Abak 5 with five LGAs in favour of his Ikot Ekpene axis with three LGAs. Even the people of Ini and Ikono who are in his senatorial district have been totally rejected, abandoned and marginalized, and their leader, Sen. Aloysius Etok, has been consistently insulted and ridiculed by Akpabio. The criminal neglect and maltreatment of the five LGAs of Oron Nation by his administration is also well known and documented. It is difficult to understand Akpabio’s hatred for the Ibibios. We remember that it was the Ibibios, especially those of Uyo senatorial district, who made sure that he was elected governor in 2007. Akpabio has also turned around and inflicted harm and pain on Chief Don Etiebet and Dr. Ime Umana, two prominent Akwa Ibom leaders, who immeasurably assisted him early on. Dr. Umanah as the Chairman of Champion Breweries assisted Akpabio to pay for his Law School education while Chief Etiebet gave him his first post graduation employment. Akpabio’s inspiration, he once said, is the Tutsi minority ethnic tribe who launched genocidal war against the Hutu majority in Rwanda in 1994. But will he escape the wrath of God? As a socio-political and cultural group, Akwa Ibom Democratic Assembly (ADA) is persuaded that Chief Akpabio’s supremacy has replaced party supremacy in Akwa Ibom State. Even during military régime, Akwa Ibom people were not relegated to the background as much as we experience in Akpabio’s PDP. In fact as far back as the pre-civil war years, people like Chief Efiong Okon Eyo (well known as Eyo Uyo) and Chief Nyong Essien were visible and audible in the politics of that era. Chief Eyo was so prominent that he was crowned as the first and the only Obong Ikpaisong Ibibio ye Annang. During the war, Chief N. U. Akpan served as an influential Secretary to the Biafran Government. New set of leaders who emerged after the war like Dr. Clement Nyong Isong, Justice Udo Udoma, Chief Christopher Udom Eshiett, among others played important roles in regional and national politics. It is however a big shame and painful disappointment that because of the bread and butter politics of persons like Chief Effiong Bob and Senator Ita Enang, the stature and role of our people have been greatly diminished during the Akpabio era. They have wittingly or unwittingly connived with Chief Akpabio to inflict trauma and pain on our collective psyche. People like Effiong Bob and Ita Enang can continue to dine with Gov. Akpabio at the detriment of our people, but they should not pretend that they are acting on behalf of the people. We will never be reduced to second class citizens in their God-given land. After May 29, 2015, Akpabio will stop using the State aircraft. If he buys a new aircraft, he must explain if the funds came from the stadium project built at the scandalous cost of over 100 billion Naira - another uncommon record in corruption. It is instructive that Akpabio spoke for one hour to glorify himself but failed to mention the cost of the project! Whether Akpabio likes it or not Akwa Ibom people will know the true cost of the Stadium after May 29, 2015 and will question why over 8 billion Naira was spent to commission the Stadium. Akpabio has barely 6 months to leave Government House.It is only a matter of time before Akpabio learns the hard way that only God is truly supreme AKWA IBOM DEMOCRATIC ASSEMBLY Aka-Etinan Road, Uyo Ubong Gabriel Akpan (President) Onofiok Ufot (Secretary)
Posted on: Sun, 16 Nov 2014 18:51:51 +0000
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