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Tag: Ekpotu

  • Ekpotu: Akwa Ibom must reject divisive politics

    A former Deputy Governor of Akwa Ibom State, Patrick Ekpotu, has called on indigenes to reject  divisive politics, and ensure “sustainable development, peace and progress”.

    Ekpotu spoke yesterday in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State capital, after the Governor Udom Emmanuel inaugurated a peace committee, the “After Congress Unification Committee”.

    The committee is aimed at  bringing together aggrieved parties in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), with the aim of addressing complaints, and present a united front in the governorship election.

    While addressing the people on the need for “unity of purpose, sacrifice and hard work in the interest and progress of Akwa Ibom”, Ekpotu (one of the 22 who contested with Emmanuel in 2014), as ommittee chairman, said: “But for this significant milestone to prevail, Akwa Ibom must continue to reject the path of divisiveness, engineered by the masquerades belatedly dancing to drum beats of our discarded past.

    “We must, through the coming elections, take steps that uphold our overall interest, that of the state and nation, by not giving into their physical or psychological chants. We must stand united and say no to evil plots, intimidation and deceit. A moment comes in the life of every generation where such spirit must come through.

    “This is the time and the coming elections, that moment… when you can stand and say, I make my destiny. And I deserve better! My children, my family deserve better! My country deserves better! For the strength and power and goodness of Nigeria will always be based on the strength and power and goodness of our communities, our families, our faiths. And all without exception come under the powers of the Governor who can have you sleep peacefully or enact strenuous circumstances that determine your life and death. A small tribe was told thousands of years ago: ‘put before you life and death, blessings and curses – and you choose life’. This, Akwa Ibom, should be our choice too,” he said.

    Describing Emmanuel as “God fearing,  big- hearted and down-to-earth leader”,  Ekpotu appealed that Akwa Ibom, “following the gains thus far recorded, authorize him further with our votes– to harness the extraordinary creativity and talents and industry of the Akwa Ibom people with a system that is dedicated to creating tomorrow’s prosperity rather than waste them on candidates who are deep in nothing and master nothing than redistribution of today’s prosperity.”

    Ekpotu said: “Thankfully, Akwa Ibom people, irrespective of socio-economic standing, are now more politically aware, strong and decent; strongly holding beliefs beyond ourselves and that’s a good citizenship spirit. When it is missing, no government programme can replace it. When this spirit is present, no wrong can ever be advocated to stand against it. And in that spirit, I see Akwa Ibom people ready to take their destiny in their own hands by voting to sustain our freedom, peace and sustainable development. These are what a vote for Governor Emmanuel and the PDP represent.”

    Explaining why he and others, who contested with Emmanuel, are working for his re-election, the former deputy governor said: “In his first campaign in 2014, he could not enjoy the support of some of us, because like him, over 22 others were also seeking the same opportunity: To lead the state we so love in a different direction and restore the enduring principles on which our society was built and change the same old politics of Uyo Hill Top Mansion.

    ‘’But by the decision of our party and by the choice of the same Akwa Ibom people we aspired to serve, he was chosen as governor. Election was over and we left everything on the field and thank our supporters for taking up the slack.

    “I trusted that his intellect and his hard work and his commitment to principles would continue to contribute to the good of the state.

    ‘’Concerned more about Akwa Ibom, there was no need to risk partisan bickering and political posturing and to join the dark side of the push and pull. But to reach across the aisle to help do the people’s work and inspire our children with a passion for sportsmanship.

    ‘’And real democrats always come together after elections. That is why it is not surprising that Governor Emmanuel’s second term campaign is featuring an enlarged support base, united in one vision,inspired by common values and sustained by shared heritage.”

  • Akpabio’s influence in Akwa Ibom overrated, says Ekpotu

    A former Deputy Governor of Akwa Ibom State, Patrick Ekpotu, has said the influence of Senator Godswill Akpabio, who has just defected to the All Progessives Congress (APC) is overrated.

    He said the defection was “long awaited”, and showed that Akpabio is incapable of operating within an opposition platform because of “his usual reliance of force of power apparatus”.

    Ekpotu, who served with Akpabio as commissioner under former Governor Victor Attah, and later as deputy to Akpabio in his first term as governor, said: “ His recourse is often to rely heavily on apparatus of state security to cow people into submission and dominion. His decision to embrace the APC now, among others, is because APC is today the custodian of that state apparatus. And I think he is highly mistaken for misapprehending that President Buhari is cut out in the weaknesses of a former President that was recklessly used to his political peril and became the first to dump him.”

    According to Ekpotu, “even if Buhari avails him the security apparatus, remember that Akpabio is not used to elections, which is the norm today, but ‘return of entire number of votes’ in INEC register to himself.

    ‘’But With INEC’s card reader system today, hardly would we have such number of votes in consideration, let alone to be ‘returned’. So all odds are against him and the APC.”

    Akpabio’s defection, according to his former deputy,  will only “shift the theatre of totalitarianism, confusion and eventual destruction to his new abode.”

    He added that a shock awaits the former Senate Minority leader, adding: “A journey into that past rather evokes disdain and repugnance following its glaring shortcomings to which the people had long answered objections and cannot allow a replay no matter where Akpabio derived his inspiration. I see, not just the PDP in the State, but also majority of its citizens playing this out strongly, stoutly, and committedly in days ahead,” he stated.

    Dismissing the comparison between Akpabio and Senate President Bukola Saraki’s defections, as misplaced, the former deputy governor argued that “in Saraki’s Kwara, his ancestors may have left behind many distinctions to give him a dominating hold on that state and their people cherish it. Unfortunately, it is not so in Akwa Ibom where no such commensurate wand is inspired, be it in depth, attainments, legacies and fairness.”

    Akpabio, on the other hand, is “surrounded by those who constantly drum to him the beauty of his weird world, he gets encouraged to live in delusion.” He is fully conscious of these shortcomings but rather than work to improve on them, pretends that all is well.  And APC will soon know his true value.”

  • Akwa Ibom 22’ll announce our next move shortly, says Ekpotu

    Akwa Ibom 22’ll announce our next move shortly, says Ekpotu

    Former Akwa Ibom State Deputy Governor Patrick Ekpotu is one of the 22 governorship aspirants who are against the emergence of Udom Emmanuel as the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship candidate. In this interview with OLUKOREDE YISHAU, Ekpotu says the group’s next move will be announced shortly

    The Akwa Ibom crisis remains unresolved few weeks to election. Why is it so?

    It may be that to our party, which is supposed to call it off, has yet not gone full cycle; unaware perhaps that when it does, it may be too late to be resolved. Full cycle is in the realisation by all stakeholders that the story at the end of which only the party’s electoral failure in the state is assured, should be made somehow shorter. It is in the realisation that Akpabio has nothing to lose in the end but the party’s victory in the Akwa Ibom State. It is in the realisation that one cannot logically by greater than 22. And it is in the realisation that there is special danger inherent in any capacity, on either side of the party and G22, for ignoring reason. Psychology and perceptions play essential role in convincing the adversary that any impunity or indifference by him will only lead to his inevitable defeat, and so urges the maintaining of the stability that leads to success. The G22 has, for 33 days tried to compel the necessity for this success while our party, the PDP chooses to sleep and urges us by its acts of indifference to travel further. I want to say that in a rare sense of unanimity,we all in the group have found the time to answer to the Party’s call. And we are prepared for that journey. We will do it together. My prayer is that God will keep us worthy.

    Many people are of the view that the G22 has lost the struggle after the party’s flag was handed to Emmanuel Udom, what is your take on this?

    We may be deemed to have lost the struggle but we have not yet lost our mission – the mission to free the State from hegemonic rule that has seen it worst ever. The struggle may be tied to our Party as it is, but its realisation transcends any particular platform as a vehicle. Just as the creed may seem time honoured, the means to achieve it is itself timeless. Presentation of Party flag to Udom is not an activity prescribed by the Electoral Act or INEC Rules. It therefore does not stop him from being substituted. The alternative it is to continue with impunity that I thought was associated only with the rulership in Akwa Ibom State and perhaps lose the chance of having a candidate in the elections. We will stop at nothing in ensuring that our rights are respected.

    We cannot be asked to buy Nomination Forms to participate in a process under expressly defined rules only to have the rules changed somewhere in the middle of the game. And no one thinks we have a right to complain. Not in 21st century Nigeria.

    What has been the motivating factor behind the G22 ?

    The motivating factor is the common robbery that brought us together, The tragic fate that befalls the State. The increasing voices of cynics out there who tell our people that they can’t win it for themselves and again ask them to go for one that will keep them on that same course and let the chips fall where they may. These have motivated us to rest on the one sentence that sums the spirit of man – No! We can’t. And so even though we are all from different political background, our mission has been one. Though we speak from different perspectives to issues, our vision has been unified. This is the moment and this is the time: to reclaim our dignity as a people and reaffirm the truth that we are one people, indivisible, corporate, bonded together and collaborative. All these are presently lost and anyone who suggests that we keep it up simply wants these challenges of yesteryears to continue to challenge and hunt our future generations and is therefore cannot have our support.

    What is the mood like in your group at the moment?

    We are in the highest of spirit because we know what we are doing and we know where we are headed. Remember I said that even if the struggle is lost, the mission remains un-lost. So we are in high spirit and consciously pray that our dateline cruises in so that we move to the next level. We feel bedeviled by time.

    Now that the ultimatum given by your group has expired, what is your next line of action?

    We have many options on the table and the time for fainthearted excuses are over. I urge you to await the actions as will be announced by the group shortly. We know how we make electoral victory for PDP even before fate had Akpabio as the governor and after it. And since he has chosen to act as an emperor and God and deliberately severed that link somewhere nearer to the apex of that network, everyone will see that each person controls the link of that network from the point of severance right to the different units. It is only possible to use it to the advantage of the platform he chooses. There will the notion of a mortal being playing God.  That journey as compelled by our party would have begun.

  • It’s time to turn the page

    It’s time to turn the page

    It happens often each time I sit quietly reminiscing and recollecting my thoughts. Quite recently I found myself reflecting on how I came to be involved in public service.

    I finished my University education in 1986. That was to mark the end of my sojourn as a student activist. What to do after the mandatory Youth Service Corps programme was the next big task I had had to shoulder. With my younger ones yet to attain any height, the challenge of getting them to where they could fend for themselves was daunting. The reality of my parent disengagement from teaching service in years ahead was to compound the situation further. No earnings from a paid job held any sustained promise of meeting these challenge. A choice of engineering practice in any capacity came handy as an option and I did just that.

    Friends and relatives came calling, wondering why I am not participating in politics given my outings in the University. But I knew that politics in the University environment was different from that in the larger society. The former is acclaimed as ideology based that works on behalf of the body of students to whom the power belongs; in which one assumes power as a leader and leaves as a leader only through a transparently structured growth process. And the later reputed for being dirty and nasty, a business instead of a mission, working on behalf of self and not the society; in which one professes to be a leader only when looking for votes and becomes a ruler (Igwe!) shortly after getting it. It is reckoned for distracting us from issues that affect our lives while pouncing on every gaffe and association, faking controversy and expect that everyone plays along; and above all plays on our fears and exploit our differences to turn us against each other and slices and dices the society for political gain.

    For caring, less about society against the picture of the most flourishing one that the minds of our forebears had erected, the dreams of happiness and prosperity becomes the harbinger of pains, hardship and insecurity. Like many who think alike, the cynicism about what politics can achieve for the people turned me away in frustration. But the more patriots of my ilk keep away, the more the void created is occupied by notables who simply pass for thinkers – wrecking more and more havoc on society and taking its spirit for granted.

    As a part of the larger society, my State of Akwa Ibom was to have a fair share of the imponderables. In 1994, I decided to break out and found solace in Peace advocacy through Voicecon International Peace Foundation. It was to become a resource group to the Office of the President of our Federal Republic and in 2001 launched the Civil Works Organisation of Nigeria – The Crown – A Rights Advocacy group that ran a SPOTLIGHT programme on Akwa Ibom State Radio for 73 weeks leading to the 2003 general elections. It was speculated that it played a leading role in the re-election of the PDP government in Akwa Ibom State at the time.

    I was appointed the Commissioner for Informationn in Akwa Ibom State. I was thereafter appointed as the Commissioner representing South-South in the National Assembly Service Commission. Shortly after, I was elected as Deputy Governor of Akwa Ibom State. In each of these, I worked to the best of my ability notwithstanding the subordinate roles and I injected novel ideas and creative thought into governance to the extent that the roles could admit and the internal intrigues surrounding those roles, which make politics seem nasty.

    And what they permitted were small enough to establish the common ground needed by the degree of consistencies our decay has assumed, leaving the challenges of the past to threaten to hunt us for generations to come. And rather than seek the common ground, we fundamentally engage in blame game, talk the problems to death and crush initiatives under the weight of the same old politics. Today we look at government only as cash and carry business enterprise for the plunderers, blackmailers and lobbyists who do nothing but take us apart and more and more make politics the game only them can play. I am not in this race with the thought that I could avoid this kind of politics. I am contesting for Governorship because this is the time to end it.

    I throw my hat into the ring to turn the page, and to lead and not rule. I’m running for governorship because the time for faint hearted excuses is over. It’s time to turn the page and lead an awakening that will launch us into stable character, decent living, esteemed ethical conducts, prosperity, stake in one another and faith in humanity. An empowered mind is an empowered state.

    I pledge that I will render service not as a favour but as social responsibility. It is a solemn declaration to an agreement with you, Akwa Ibom people. I volunteer to surrender myself to be held accountable for any failures or deviations. Doing so is itself the most important part of the change that you need.

    I will turn the page on employment and bring about an atmosphere where school leavers and graduates become job providers and not seekers. We can neither wait for the private sector that is non-existent nor for the banks that make themselves cash warehouses and hardly loan. This will be pursued in three concurrent flanks simultaneously and under a state of emergency that our industrial incapacitation calls for.

     

    •Ekpotu is a former deputy governor of Akwa Ibom and governorship aspirant.

  • Ekpotu on the march again

    Ekpotu on the march again

    Patrick Akpan Ekpotu, as deputy governor in Akwa Ibom State, was made a Fellow of the Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE) at the International Conference Centre, Abuja. Ekpotu, a chemical/petrol-chemical engineer, was born on June 26, 1960, exemplifies a generation of Nigerian professionals in politics, who are capable of delivering quality.

    Ekpotu attended Regina Coeli College, Ikot Abasi for his secondary education, which he completed at Nsit People’s Grammar School, Afaha Offiong. He later studied Chemical/Petroleum Engineering at the Rivers State University of Science and Technology, (RSUST), Port Harcourt, from where he graduated in 1986.

    He taught at Baptist High School, Port Harcourt during his National Youths Service Corps, NYSC, year, 1987/1988, though his first stint at paid employment was as a clerk with the United Bank of Africa, UBA, Lagos shortly after his secondary education.

    He is a member of the Nigerian Society of Chemical Engineers; Nigerian Society of Petroleum Engineers; and the Nigerian Society of Engineers.

    His engineering management skills have been brought to bear on the engineering firms with which he has been involved. These include: Peagul Engineering Nigeria Limited; Island Agro-Industries Development Company Ltd. (IADC); Baks and Pee Int. Ltd; Baks &Pee Structures; and Island Communications Ltd.

    In 2003, he participated actively in the campaign to re-elect Obong Victor Attah as governor of Akwa Ibom State for a second term through his non-governmental organisation, the Civil Rule Advancement Works Organisation of Nigeria (CROWN). In 2004, Ekpotu was appointed Commissioner for Information, Culture and Ethical Re-Orientation, and in 2006, he became a commissioner representing the South -South in the National Assembly Service Commission, Abuja, until his selection as running-mate to Chief Godswill Akpabio for the Governorship ticket in 2007.

    Long before then, Ekpotu had shown signs of leadership especially by active involvement in student activism. He was the President of the National Association of Cross River State Students, NACRISS, RSUST Chapter, 1982 – 1983; Parliamentary Adviser to RSUST Students’ Union Government, 1983 – 1984; National Chairman, Nigeria Universities Engineering Students’ Association, (NUESA). He was also the National President, NACRISS, from 1983 to 1985; and, in 1984, he made history as the first non-indigenous President-elect of the Students Union at RSUST.

    In 1983, Ekpotu was the Leader, Youth Wing of the Unity Party of Nigeria, UPN, Cross River State Chapter, and served as Special Assistant to its governorship candidate in the 1983 general election, the late Brig. Gen. U. J. Esuene.

    In 2003, he served as member, Information Sub-Committee, Obasanjo/Atiku Presidential Campaign Committee. He also served as member, Rally/Mobilisation Sub-Committee, Obong Victor Attah/Chris Ekpenyong Campaign Committee, 2003, a committee which was headed by the incumbent governor, Godswill Akpabio.

    Ekpotu has published several articles and books and has also contributed to other publications. His works include: Design of an Integrated Cassava Plant; The Recovery of Peace and National Continuity; The Imperatives of True National Escape to Freedom;

    Rhythms in Courage: The Search for National Redemption; and Lifting the Peril: A Root Cause Resolution for the Niger Delta Crisis.

    Ekpotu has a store-house of awards- from both local and international scenes. He is a Paul Harris Fellow of the Rotary International; Fellow of the Institute of Certified Economists of Nigeria. He holds the traditional titles of Obong Ifiok of Ibibio land, Ukai Ibibio, Ibatai Ikpa Nnung Assang; Edep Nsit Ibom; Udu Onyi Urue Offong Oruko, Ufan Mkpat Enin, among others.

    Ekpotu is married to Mbosowo and they have three children. A devout Catholic, he now has his eyes on the governorship of Akwa Ibom State, which Governor Godswill Akpabio will vacate next May.

    Friends and associates of the Petrol-Chemical Engineer, who was Commissioner of Information, Culture and Ethical Orientation in the Obong Victor Attah administration, accompanied him to Wadata House, the national headquarters of the PDP in Abuja.

    The politician’s campaign outfit, the Ekpotu 2015 Movement, has the slogan: Let’s Turn the Page.

    A leader of the campaign movement, Otuekong Idongesit Udokpo, said Ekpotu served well from 2007 till 2011, during the first tenure of the Godwill Akpabio administration.

    He said the aspirant “is coming into the race with an enviable wealth of experience”.

    Udokpo added: “He (Ekpotu) also served as a Federal Commissioner (Southsouth) in the National Assembly Service Commission, Abuja. Don’t forget that Ekpotu and the incumbent governor were colleagues as commissioners under former Governor Obong Attah, before he became Akpabio’s deputy.

    “Having an experienced administrator who understands the dynamics of governance, especially the unique architecture of a fast developing state, such as Akwa Ibom, with its complexities, will be a blessing to us, the indigenes, who yearn for credible and people-oriented governance.”