Below is a repost of an interview with Mr. Cletus Obun. I must state that my ignorance on many facets of the CRS politics is now bare. I guess that I have been out of touch for too long. It would appear that we, from the North have been doing ourselves great dis-service for over three decade. Accordingly, l kindly ask for rebuttals to these vexing allegations put forward by Mr. Obun. Thank you in advance. lmoke should not impose gov on C’River people –Obun Cletus Obun is the Chairman of the Conference of Nigerian Political Parties (CNPP) in Cross River State and zonal coordinating secretary of the group in the South South zone of Nigeria. In this interview with correspondent Bassey Inyang in Calabar, Obun, who is a leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), speaks on political issues in the state. Excerpts: What do you have to say to those who say whoever the governor feels should succeed him, should be the next governor from May 29, 2015? Those are idol worshipers; they are suffering from illusionary hallucinations; they are hallucinating. When they deify human beings, they have left the realms of reality and gone into some mystical travel because the reality of today does not make a man God. Any man who tries to play God like Nebuchadnezzar has always paid the price. It is not within the ambience and province of a man who has been given the opportunity by man and God to serve to start playing God. The governor has played on this stage. The honourable thing he should do is never to repeat the mistakes of history. Imoke should count himself the luckiest man that ever lived in this coast. Let him not play God because even the marine spirits can’t defend him, if he tries to play God on this matter. It is not within his powers to do so. And please, let it be on record that I have said, that all Imoke can do in all humility is to say, God thank you, I have played my part let me support those who come and sit down as a statesman. He has a right to contest. He has age on his side to go back to the senate like his colleagues have done. He has the right to sit down and worship God all the days of his life. But, he also has the right to commit suicide by attempting to impose on us a governor that we do not want. The PDP said it has zoned its governorship ticket for the 2015 election to the Northern Senatorial District. What do you hav to say to this? My first reaction to that is to say that it is all pretence; they are pretending. The PDP has never had the intention to be equitable. They don’t believe in zoning; they don’t believe in equity. As we speak, a government and a party that claim to believe in zoning have shown that there is no need for zoning. The zoning comes according to the caprices of those presiding. I will demonstrate this by the present offices held. This is a government and a party that encourage cronyism. In other words, the personal assistant to a commissioner can become a councillor by the simple reason that his master is a commissioner. For example, it is nothing wrong that from the same father, same mother, one is a commissioner; the other is a local government chairman. It is part of the PDP zoning. You find a party that does this, not before, now under the present leadership. And I will call names. The Commissioner for Sports is the immediate younger brother to the chairman of Obudu Local Government; same father same mother. The commissioner and attorney general is from the same village with the chairman of Boki Local Government. For a party that is so free with changing of its position; so amoebic in its decisions, can you trust it with any pronouncement? Secondly, every other thing that has gone through this party has never ever been stable. For a presidency that believes in zoning but proceeds to do everything to counter zoning, for a governorship that has never spoken its mind. If you remember, in 2010 we were told here, that there is no need for PDP to get 100 per cent of the chairmanship and councillorship seats, that it does not that it does not show democracy. That even in the primary there should be a free hand. You are aware that as soon as we departed from the hall on the 29 of May 2010, it was primaries for PDP. As we speak, you know what transpired. In 2013, the present chairmanship seats again came. Communities observed their zoning according to affinities, communal affinities. In Boki, in Obudu, in Akamkpa, in Calabar Municipality, in Calabar South, that was repudiated. It was rejected by the leadership of PDP in the state. It happened in Obubra. When you now talk of the governorship, PDP says it is zoning to the North. What is the antecedent of the PDP in zoning governorship? Under Donald Duke, in 2003, 2007, if you remember, the governorship was zoned to the North and the North came out in their numbers for the 2007 elections because the governor then, Donald Duke, insisted that it must go to the North. And to boot, he insisted that he would give it to his deputy, Dr. Walter Eneji. In selecting him, he forced the entire northern candidates to endorse his deputy as the only candidate as a condition for him to accept it. If you remember, the present governor was a minister. Obasanjo had insisted that any person in his government who wanted to run for governorship or any office for that matter should resign. The present governor, Imoke, did not resign. He gave the impression that the unholy trinity was about to loosen up. And Kanu Agabi, SAN, and all other aspirants from the North jointly endorsed, in writing, the candidature of the deputy governor then, Dr. Walter Eneji. As soon as that endorsement was handed over to Donald Duke, the governor, who had said he had zoned to the North, Imoke resigned and declared for governorship. Before then, a foundation had been laid to give support to that candidacy. First, Sonny Abang was made a chairman against (Rev. Benedict) Ikobi, who was obstinate and insisting that the governorship must go to the north. He was thrown out as chairman, midterm, for a staunch ally of Imoke, Sonny Abang. Sonny Abang having taken up the leadership of the party stood firm for that alliance. Secondly, the national officer of the party, who wanted to contest then, Venatious Ikem , the public relations officer of PDP was thrown out for indicating interest to run since it was zoned to the north. In his place, the man, Sonny Abang nominated for Commissioner for Agriculture, John Odey, became publicity secretary at the national level to defend that candidacy in the national office of PDP. The ambassador then came from the South to defend that ticket and the secretary of the party became deputy from the south to Imoke to ensure that it was consolidated. Today, reverse the equation. If you say that the governor is going to the north, you should also keep somebody in the north that will defend the party at the secretariat in Abuja. Who is the person there? It is Bolaji Anani, from the central, from the same local government with Imoke, so that he makes sure that he controls the party and endorses the ticket of the person the governor will nominate at the last point. The ambassador is from the South, the chairman of the party is from the south, the minister is from the south. The north has neither the umbilical cord or financial support nor power to hold onto party brains nor financial muscles. Now the only person who would have had the financial muscle, in the person of Jedy Agba, has been sufficiently shown that he is not wanted; to the point where to suffocate his local government, the Niger Delta Development Commission position which ought to go to oil producing part of Cross River State was sent to Obudu, in order to block Obudu from contesting the election, so that the contest will be a free–wheeling affair. Now, where the political foundation for laying an egg that would produce a governor from the north. So, all this has been pretence all along; and the same game is being rehearsed. And our lush and very conscious and deliberate amnesia, in which we always learn to forget very fast, history even as recent as 2007, has put us in a position where it is now in the mouth of a sitting governor to pronounce who would be the next governor. When men start playing God like that, God intervenes and answers his name, and that is where APC will come in. The governor has said it over and again that his successor will come from the north, and the PDP caucus in the state met and took a decision that the next governor will come from the north. So, why do you still doubt the decision of the governor and the PDP? To that I will say let us see the ticket in the north. Until we see that ticket, it is not yet uhuru. The north should not hope that the mere oracular pronouncement of the governor gives them governorship. Do you suspect that there are politicians from the south who will run for governor? I sit here as a party leader; I sit here as a senior citizen of this state; I sit here as a trained journalist; I sit here as an actor in the political scene of this state. So, it will be unbefitting for me to make claims I am not sure of. I know at least three or four persons from the south who have, by their body language and private discussions, shown that in the event that the north does not run, they will run the election with anybody from PDP that will come. They say so against the background that they are aware that the PDP is engaging in subterranean moves to ensure that the ticket is in the south. In the unlikely event that PDP gives the ticket to the north, we will shout hallelujah. Don’t forget like I said, you history, since I became the leader of opposition here, all the ticket of opposition has come from the north from 2006 till date. At no time did we bring our candidate from central or south. Even when PDP planted candidates on us, like the Usanis of this world, we were aware of that and we stood our ground and fought those pretenders. Are you saying that APC is contemplating picking a candidate from the north? We are not contemplating. It is undeniable. For us it is not negotiable. What, if some politicians from the south run for the governorship on the platform of APC and eventually one of them emerges victorious at the primaries? When you talk of the primaries and all that, first if you zone one, you must zone all. In APC, as a progressive party, we believe in equity. The progressive party is on the basis of equity and justice to all, no matter how weak you are. That your brother is weak should not mean that you should go and take his wife. We have a weak arm. The north, by some political manipulation, has five local government areas. And of those five, only one has more than 10 wards. So, numerically, and if politics is seen to be a game of numbers, then you should understand that they have already been beaten to it. So, they are relying on the sense of equity and justice to get it. And we in APC are ready to do so. Until it becomes evident which is very unlikely, because we already know that there are three or four persons who have indicated interest to run from the north in APC, but it is not in our enlightened self-interest to start talking for them. They should come out and say so at the proper time. First, don’t forget that we are just doing our registration; they wouldn’t have been talking of running governorship when they have no party members. Strictly speaking, until the registration is done, there was no body from APC. All we had were intending members. Today, you can talk of members because we have registered members now. This is the first in the history of Nigeria that you have a merger of political parties; therefore, it is a tricky situation for us. It is now people can come out from APC and say I want to run an election. There are those who argue that there has never been anything like zoning the position of governor of the state since 1999. Those who put forward this anti-zoning argument are saying that when Donald Duke emerged governor in 1999, he did not emerge because the governorship was zoned to the South; same with Imoke in 2007 from the central. So, they are asking, why should there be zoning ahead of the 2015 governorship election when the other two governors, since 1999 did not emerge as a result of zoning the position? Let me tell you something that has happened in the Nigerian political landscape. We have the osmotic theory of politics in which the weaker solution all the time is being absorbed by the stronger solution. In 1998/99 it was clear that the central through Clement Ebri had produced a governor. And so the central presented no candidate. It was open for north and south. Nobody from the central contested that election. I challenge you to name the person; even primaries in the party. None. Those who attempted to, were told clearly that any of these two can contest, you cannot. Even when we took only two years and six months, the central discovered that it was the evil manipulation of PDP because they are the dominant factor in the state that the central had to produce, on the argument that they didn’t exhaust their tenure since the south has taken eight years. That they should be made to redo their tenure; that even the one tenure they took, they didn’t complete it. And the north’s contention, which was arguable was that we have not even tested at all. And, again it fell into south and the central. If the central was barred from contesting on account of never having contested at all before and ruled, why did they suddenly discover that it was tenure uncompleted? So, it was the political manipulation by the power at the top at that time. So, if you say that it has not been zoned, it is not true. The argument then, you could remember, was that, if we say one term, the truncated tenure of the central was not the influence of any of the zones. It was a phenomenon beyond the zones; therefore, they should allow them to contest. So, when we came to 2003, the north again challenged and said it is one, one tenure. Central did one term and we stopped them from running. So, if you have done one term, allow us to run. So, it is a contentious issue. If by some show of force the stronger solution absorbs the weaker solution, it only falls to the point that having taken theirs, it should now be allowed to go the other way. If you say zoning is not allowed, what did you mean by the tussle between Jonathan and the forces from the North, what did they mean when they said they should give it to the Southwest under Obasanjo in 1998, what did you mean when it was a (Umaru Musa) Yar’Adua third tenure, if there was no zoning? So, at the national level and state level, it is a matter of those who are sitting, trying to misinterpret history to suit themselves. So, for me, zoning is a part of our political history. And if you don’t abide by it, you are calling for anarchy. But there are those who say that what subsists is the Calabar– Ogoja Accord and not zoning as per three senatorial districts. What do you say to them? It is the height of mischief; it is the height of provocation, to mention Calabar- Ogoja Accord. History and culture are dynamic and interpreted by the actors. There was an Ogoja Province and a Calabar Province and a Rivers Province. Have you stopped Bayelsa from emerging from Rivers, have you stopped Akwa Ibom from emerging from Calabar. Yet, Ogoja cannot be liberated because they must live in the enslavement of those who think they can play God in the 21st century. So, you now obliterate two senators and conjure them into one senator on account of the fact that they come from the same Ogoja. This is what we are saying. This interpretation of history does not bring harmony. It is a call to anarchy. And I am telling those who are doing this to remember that they are talking of Ogoja of 11 local governments, with their brothers in three local governments in the south, to make them 14 out of 18. So, if you keep insisting on Calabar- Ogoja Accord, there are more Ogoja people here. There is nothing like Calabar-Ogoja Accord. History has wiped that out. Has the document been wiped out too? By time; by facts. Are you still having two senators, a Calabar senator and an Ogoja senator, is your constitution today still of Ogoja, is there an Ogoja Province that gave birth to that, is there the Calabar Province, is Calabar still the Calabar you are talking about, is Akwa Ibom not standing out of Calabar, and Ogoja still standing as one, so, are you fair? That is why I said we believe in equity and justice, without which there can be no peace. Those who are calling for Calabar–Ogoja Accord are calling for anarchy. They are calling for war, they are not calling for the peace that we have all along kept; they are provoking people. It is clearly, please record me well on this matter, uncompromising; it is not negotiable to discuss Calabar- Ogoja Accord. It has been overtaken by time. If you insist on the Calabar Ogoja Accord, the Ogoja people come and realign themselves.
Posted on: Mon, 24 Mar 2014 13:44:16 +0000
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