Following the prolonged crisis that led to factionalisation in Cross River State’s All Progressives Congress, there has been concern on the fortunes of the party in the South-south state. Associate Editor, Sam Egburonu, reports on the current moves being made to reconcile the factions and how the development will likely affect the party in 2019 elections
NOTWITHSTANDING that the All Progressives Congress’ governorship primary election in Cross River State, which produced the Niger Delta Affairs Minister, Pastor Usani Uguru Usani, as the candidate, was described as free and fair, it has become clear that the leadership of the party in the state will need to reconcile many of its aggrieved members in order to present a united front at the forthcoming elections.
The Nation learnt that some of the top leaders of the party in the state are still deeply aggrieved over several issues that have caused disagreement in the state chapter of the party; a fact confirmed late October when one of the party’s former leaders in the state, Senator Florence Ita Giwa, suddenly announced her return to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), a party she left barely a year ago for APC. While announcing her defection back to PDP, Giwa lamented what she described as “confusion” in APC. As he puts it: “I cannot understand why, out of sheer negligence, party will not be able to present candidates for elections in several key states nationwide. I cannot understand how any party will have in its ranks popular and trusted leaders who can muster tremendous goodwill for the party and yet treat them with disdain.”
She also alleged that the party is factionalised, beginning from the ward to the national level. On the primary election, she said “the experience of the supposed recent direct primaries was also a taste of sour experience where factional interests simply allocated figures and manipulated same as votes after shutting out other aspirants in the race,” adding that this affected her ward and local government area. It was for these reasons, she said that she defected from the party and returned to PDP.
Dr. Raymond Udo, an APC supporter in Ogoja, told The Nation during the week that “the crisis, which resulted from the unfortunate factionalisation in the party even before the primaries, is yet to be fully resolved. I believe the state leaders, especially the governorship candidate, have a lot of work to do so that we would not loss more important members of our party before the election.”
Acknowledging the challenges that trailed the state chapter of APC, the State Chairman, Ntufam Godwin Etim John, said shortly after the primaries, “It has been very rigorous, very turbulent; in fact, the whole world did not believe that the APC will be able to conduct free, fair, very honest and credible primary elections.
“But because we always believe in our God, because we are a very peaceful and law abiding party, God in His own mercies, love and grace has given us opportunity to conduct a very free, fair and credible primary elections for governorship.
“Today, all of us in Cross River State are witnesses. I am happy INEC in Cross River State is here monitoring all what is happening, the NWC send in their representatives here too to monitor the primaries.
“The staff of INEC were with us throughout the primaries in 196 wards in the state, the Police, DSS and other security agencies, including Civil Defence, were all here.
“We in APC believe in hard work, commitments and loyalty to the party. In elections, there are bound to be agreement and disagreement but by grace of God, there is Appeal Panel for any aggrieved person to contact,” he said.
The Chairman of APC Governorship Election Committee in the state, Ntufam Emmanuel Anom, while announcing the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Pastor Usani Uguru Usani, as the winner of the contest, described the primaries as free and fair but admitted that “few cases were, however observed which were aimed at disrupting the process. The cases were noted in Abi, Obubra, Ikom, Yakurr but did not substantially effect the outcome of the primary elections.”
Usani polled 47, 313 votes while his closest rival, Senator John Owan Enoh, had 1, 486 votes.
In his words, Anom had said: “Pastor Usani Uguru Usani polled 47, 313 votes, Senator John Owan Enoh polled 1, 486 votes, Prof Eyo Etim Nyong 1, 162 votes, John Ugban Odey 1, 099 votes and High Chief Edem Duke scored 1, 322 votes.
“Pastor Usani Uguru Usani, having scored 47, 313 votes, being the highest number of lawful votes cast, is the winner and therefore declared the winner of the governorship candidate of APC in Cross River.”
Explaining the efforts made by the state chapter of the party to ensure acceptable primaries, he said that the party had on Sunday, 30th September 2018, conducted the direct governorship primaries as approved for the state by the national headquarters of the party with prescribed standard and rules.
“The results from seven, out of 18 local government areas were collected and entered on the 30th September 2018 while eleven outstanding local government areas were collected on the 1st October 2018 in compliance with basic principles of law.
“These activities were witnessed by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and basic organs of security agencies.
“Having compiled the primary elections results in the 18 local government areas, the outcome was that free, fair and credible governorship primaries were conducted,” he said.
Crisis
Insiders confirmed that the crisis within the state chapter of APC preceded the primaries. Dr. Udo told The Nation that it all began as mere personality clashes amongst the leaders, who were not ready to given in to each other and before the primaries; it has degenerated to open intolerance and physical violence. For example, barely eight days to the primaries, it was reported that somebody was shot dead at the APC Secretariat when some youths believed to be sponsored by political rivals allegedly tried to prevent one of the governorship aspirants, the senator representing Cross River Central, John Owan-Enoh, from consulting with party stakeholders on his ambition.
One of the reports quoted Mr. Macaulay Upan, an eyewitness to the incident, as saying “some youths in Obudu had tried preventing Owan-Enoh, a sitting senator, from carrying out his consultation but they met stiff opposition by the security personnel attached to the senator.”
It was reported that at least one person was confirmed dead after the shoot-out between the senator’s security personnel and the unidentified gunmen at the APC secretariat in Obudu Local Government Area. As would be expected, political analysts, noting that Obudu is the hometown of Governor Ben Ayade, have tried to give varied interpretation to the incident, though Senator Owan-Enoh’s supporters insisted that the attack may be the handiwork of opponents from APC itself.
The spokesman of Senator Owan-Enoh, Mr. Mr. Kelvin Ijo, for example, was quoted as alleging that “Some people did not want him (Owan-Enoh) to enter Obudu for reasons best known to them, but he eventually entered and carried out his consultation. When he left, some people descended on the APC secretariat and burnt it.”
Reconciliation moves
As a way of restoring peace and uniting the members for the political battle ahead, the APC State Chairman, Ntufam Godwin Etim John has charged the aspirants who contested, but lost to Usani, to accept the position of the party and work for the benefit of the party.
“We charge Pastor Usani to be magnanimous in victory and make approaches to various contestants to ensure that they work with him towards ensuring that the party wins the forth coming elections.” He also advised members not to do anything that will hinder the progress and success of the party.
Towards this end, sources confirmed that the leaders have held several meetings to win support for the party’s governorship flagbearer.
According to Mrs. Margaret Uduang, an APC member in Obanliku town, “Peace process in Cross River State’s APC began long before the primaries. As far back as August, our leaders saw the need to resolve their differences in order to win the governorship and other critical elections in the state.
Uduang told The Nation that “it all began when the John Etim-led faction of our party here in Cross River State resolved to work together, as a way of insuring victory in 2019. That effort has been sustained, especially after the governorship primaries. I am aware of a crucial meeting that held between Pastor Usani Usani and two of the aggrieved leaders in Calabar. Although I cannot give you the details of the peace meeting, all I can say is that the right moves are being made to ensure victory for APC in Cross River. I can also hint that the result has been very encouraging,” she said.
It would be recalled that at the height of the crisis in Cross River APC, in August, shortly after the APC’s national secretariat dissolved the executive in the state to ensure total peace was restored in the state, the party’s Deputy State Chairman, Mr. Martin Achadu, while receiving, Mr. Mani Robson, in his office in Calabar then, promised that the peace process “would begin with the by-election of Obudu State Constituency,” explaining that the party can only hope to win the governorship election if the they worked in unity.
Responding, Robson, a philanthropist, had advised the political class to “put aside party bickering and join hands to build and move the state forward.” He also advised party faithful to mend fences with every aggrieved member to work together.
“If you want to see another successful political dispensation of APC, if you want to see Cross River State as one of the most successful states in Nigeria, we must all be united,” he said.