MmekAbasi Akpabio, a member of Umana Umana 2015 Media Team, speaks with Kazeem Ibrahym. He says there has never been zoning of governorship in Akwa Ibom State.
Zoning, Umana Umana and other aspirants from Uyo Senatorial District
There has never been zoning in Akwa Ibom State in the real sense of the word. By this I mean in a way that can guarantee justice for all the constituent groups and even partisan groups in the state to the point of seriously addressing the issue of alleged, perceived or potential marginalisation. When we say zoning, on what basis are we calling for zoning? Is it on the basis of ethnic groups or sentorial district? How will zoning serve the cause of our unity? If it is going to be about ethnic groups, are all the groups equal in size and population? If on the basis of senatorial district, are all or each of our senatorial districts homogeneous so that when one district, like Eket, has it (governorship), that sufices for all the interest groups that live there and ultimately eliminate all agitations and cries of marginalisation? I honestly do not think so. And two, the seeming hype about zoning is nothing but a desperate strategy orchestrated by a few aspirants and their supporters who really don’t have any serious thing to present to the electorate for consideration and possible endorsement. All that these people have on their CVs, is “it is our turn”. By not having something on their CV, I don’t mean educational qualification alone. What I am referring to is a total package of what an aspirant to a very high executive leadership should possess. Such endowments like unimpeachable integrity, unassailable intellect, humanness, connection with the people, patriotism, verbal prudence, personal comportment and discipline, and above all, the fear of God. Check well and you will notice that either all or most of these attributes are lacking amongst those howling zoning day and night. And as to whether zoning can threaten Umana’s bid, I can say that will never be because right from the very first building block of his political structure, he went for a pan-Akwa Ibom, issue-based foundation rather than a clannish strategy. And only Akwa Ibom people can hire anybody to serve them through the mechanism of that office. That is why in spite of all the empty noise about zoning, Umana’s camp is swelling by the dawn of every day. Zoning could only have threatened Umana’s or any other person’s ambition if it was founded on truth. Instead this one is built on falsehood without any historical, national constitutional, pragmatical or even expediential anchor.
Compelling determinants
On account of the intensity of sponsored vociferous noise, ( some clear, some distorted) in the media, the respected former governor (Obong Victor Attah) was only hinting that the noise will not be ignored but rather will be seriously examined to see if zoning as these proponents are demanding can really guarantee both immediate and strategic justice to our people. And you and I know that zoning can not guarantee balanced justice for all in Akwa Ibom State. As you have rightly recollected his speech, you also got him emphasizing on “other compelling determinants” which are what the vast majority of our people are actually yearning for.
Factors that will influence PDP
delegates
Those evergreen factors in any political contest will remain an attraction to our distinguished delegates. For instance, the personality of the aspirants which encompasses issues ranging from their physical, intellectual cum mental fitness through their programmes for the people, to their specific track records in public service and to their relationship with the political class, a factor that will actually fetch the votes during the general elections for the desired legitimacy. Our delegates will look for that man or woman who will hit the ground running, someone who already knows the system well and the system knows him. As you and I know, there is so much to be done. So many big and tough decisions to be taken just to better the conditions of our people and our state. So, our delegates will need someone who is more or less a master mariner for the envisaged voyage. The coming journey is not for just any rookie and our delegates are itching to defy every inducement to make that clear statement. And above all, as history has shown, our people being blue blood republicans have never failed to punish any politician who at any point in time uses our resources in an insensitive manner to suffocate us with more than excessive campaigns just to show that you are in charge of our treasury. At least the 1993 Tofa debacle is still fresh in our minds. Not that the government at that time was bad but the campaigns mounted for the then NRC’s presidential candidate, Alhaji Bashir Tofa by the state government at the time was perceived as bogus, suffocating, provocative, insensitive and wasteful. And our deeply discerning people responded with a resounding “No vote” just to punish our then governor, in spite of his fatherly disposition and immense popularity at the time. Governor Akpabio and his agents by seeking to label every leaf and tree in Akwa Ibom with Udom Emmanuel is treading a familiar ignoble path and will surely not escape the wrath of our delegates during the primaries.
Free and transparent primaries We need to send very credible leaders and statesmen of our great party to lead the electoral teams from the national headquarters to conduct the primaries in the states. If it means our game-changing National Chairman going to beg a Gen. Babangida, a Senator David Mark or other people in that category to lead the teams, he should please not spare the effort. Very credible people with discernible stakes in the country and who have names and track records to live for should lead and constitute the electoral teams. People who have the character to spurn a N3b bribe because they have seen enough of God’s blessings that they only live each day seeking to please him alone. You don’t send a man or woman who perhaps has never seen the four walls of a government house before in his or her entire life and, therefore ,salivating for the opportunity to enter a government house and collect whatever is tossed his or her way to betray the party. The exercise should not be seen as an opportunity for money making by upstarts. The security services should be under strict and clear instructions to maintain neutrality. And the conduct of the primaries at least at the governorship level should be beamed live on television for all within and outside Nigeria to see. That way, every aspirant and delegate will not have only answered his father’s name but will be seen to have done so. This is the kind of intra-party electoral procedure that will sure guarantee a post- nomination cohesion for any political party any day.
However, that is only an interim procedure. A more enduring strategy will be for the PDP to adopt a policy of non-interference by incumbent governors, particularly those about to round off their second terms. All over the world, political parties field their incumbents who are statutorily eligible for elections. But the egregious situation is when a governor who has less than a year to end his full tenure now turns around to hold the party that had been so magnanimous to him to ransom by seeking to impose a successor. If the governor is eligible and he is actually recontesting, it makes sense for him to seek to position himself by seeking to have some leverage with the party. The PDP has to make a policy that reins in its outgoing governors and dissuade them from this decidedly objectionable path.
This desire for imposition of successors by outgoing incumbents mostly at the state level has remained, perhaps, the single most intractable problem of the party almost since inception. Yet the perennial ironic twist is that the very outgoing governor who is championing imposition today almost always returns either four or eight years later to complain against his successor’s attempt to also perpetrate the same evil of imposition. That way, the abberration mutates into a vicious cycle that always returns to haunt our party.
Other parties beating PDP
Show me one party that has the capacity of the PDP; none. In spread, in membership quality, in patriotic programmes, in ability to unite Nigerians, in structural strength and integrity, amongst other indices, our party is head and shoulders above others. So, for us in Akwa Ibom, especially within the Umana Okon Umana support base, we know no other party than PDP, which is our only home.
Elders versus Akpabio
These illustrous patriarchs who by the grace of God have seen it all are only discharging a sacred mandate that they owe us the younger generation and to posterity by standing up against a budding dictatorship. They are seeking to preserve the soul of Akwa Ibom by standing against an attempt by one man to enthone a pseudo dynasty in the state because these elders know that once you allow it to happen once, forget it. Whoever finds himself as a governor from then on will always seek to impose a successor. So, it is something that must not be allowed to happen. Assuming he, Akpabio from Essien Udim, is allowed to impose an Udom Emmanuel today from Onna, a different place from his today, what guarantee do we have that some others who will come after Akpabio will not attempt to impose their children, brothers, sisters, etc? This is how seeds of degeneration and strife are sown in societies.
The mood in the state
Like a typical election approach, the mood is that of frenetic urgency with a mixed grill of tension, anxiety and excitement, especially within the political class. They are those of us who like we in Umana’s camp are so confident on account of the positive uniqueness of our candidate. Our man, Umana, represents the dream candidate, second to none. One compelling choice in an excellent field of politics and administration. A rare embodiment of the excelling marriage of experience, capacity and character. So for us, who are displaying this unique product for Akwa Ibom people to buy, we are doing so with relish and excitement being aware that God has given us and the rest of Akwa Ibom people this historic privilege to present the very best in our arsenal for the top job.
Advice for Akpabio
To many of us who come from Akwa Ibom State, there are at least three issues that he (Akpabio) has to come clean with in order to clear some doubts about his politics. Number one on the list is the Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala revelation or allegation that Akpabio has not spent up to one per cent of the consolidated financial accruals to the state on the all-important infrastructural sector. And the Honourable Minister had asked in apparent exasperation in the face of an obvious disappointment: “ Where is the money?” The second issue is that we are yet to know why he spent so much on his so-called Town Hall meetings just some months ago but refused to use those fractured and embarrassing fora to tell us about our trillions in the last eight years and how he has been spending them in the face of massive crushing poverty in the land. And the third is, what is the deal between him and Udom that he insists only Udom can succeed him no matter how resentful the people may be towards that idea? So, if I were Akpabio, I will urgently seek a reversal of roles and apologise to Akwa Ibom people on, at least, these three issues in order to guarantee my smooth passage into the people’s hearts as their beloved and, most importantly, the pantheon of Akwa Ibom posterity. This is the path to statesmanship and ultimate canonisation.
