The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Eta

  • Power will shift in Akwa Ibom, says Eta

    •Etiebet: Ekere will be governor

    The Deputy National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Chief Hilliard Eta, has urged party members in Akwa Ibom Stateto gird their loins, saying that power shift is possible in the Southsouth state.

    He said APC will build on its feat in Ekiti State to prove that it is a party to beat in next year’s poll.

    Eta spoke in Uyo, the state capital, during ‘President Muhammadu Buhari’s endorsement rally, where a chieftain, Nsima Ekere, was endorsed for the governor by party faithful.

    Observers described the rally as a defining moment for the main opposition party in the state. It took place a week after the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) hosted chieftains for a rally. APC leaders said the rally was held to reinforce the fact that there is vacancy in the Akwa Ibom Government House in 2019.

    Also, the APC rally was significant because some big wigs who have defected from the PDP to the party were firing salvos and pushing for power shift. To them, the opposition party is better positioned to form the next government, adding that the PDP structure is ebbing away.

    The rally was attended by former Secretary to Government Umana Umana, former Deputy Governor Nsima Ekere, former Minister of State for the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Senator James John Akpanudoedehe, Presidential Assistant on National Assembly Matters Senator Ita Enang, and former PDP Board of Trustees (BoT) member Chief Don Etiebet.

    The occasion was also witnessed by Senator Aloysius Etok, former House of Representatives member Eseme Eyibo, the Chairman of Cross-River Basins Development Authority, and former House of Assembly Deputy Speaker Uwem Udoma.

    Akwa Ibom has produced three governors in the last 19 years. The governors-Obong Victor Attah, Senator Godswill Akpabio and Udom Emmanuel-belong to the PDP.  The question is: can the Adams Oshiomhole-led APC change the equation? Can Akwa Ibom APC leaders pull the rug off the feet of Akpabio and Udom?

    To Etiebet, change is possible, if the party can field the right candidate. Hailing the endorsement of President Buhari and Ekere, he said: “Today is not a day of speech making. The crowd has said it all. The crowd has spoken. It shows that the people of Ikot Ekpene are ready for Nsima and Buhari.”

    Urging Ekere to prepare for leadership, the former Minister of Petroleum Resources added: “Nsima, go and consider our own call. We have called you to run for Akwa Ibom governor in 2019. With your benevolence and programmes for this senatorial district, consider the plea and resign in due time and run for the governor on the APC platform.”

    Etiebet’s remarks raised some issues. Although the rally was meant for the endorsement of the president for a second term, it also endorsed Ekere, who defected to the party, for governor. A fresh wound was opened over the battle for the ticket between Ekere and Akpanudoedehe, an aspirant.

    Akpanudoedehe once coordinated the battle against former Governor Akpabio in 2011 as governorship flag bearer, but without success. Since he defected to the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria (CAN), he has been consistent and loyal to the progressive camp.

    In 2015, following Ekere’s and Umana’s defection from the PDP to the APC, Akpanudoedehe complained that he was being edged out. Some chieftains alleged that the senator shunned party activities, owing to the fact that his former foes in the PDP came into the party to outwit him. The bitterness was compounded by the fact that the sharing of positions in the APC did not favour him. Many of the positions allocated to the state went to those who met him in the party. Thus,  when Etiebet endorsed Ekere, there was apprehension and controversy over whether Akpanudoedehe had given up on his aspiration.

    Akpanudoedehe, according to sources, is indifferent to Ekere’s endorsement. He explained that he attended the rally to identify with the president and Oshiomhole.

    The endorsements of Esere, however, in the view of some stakeholders, was a reward for the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) boss’ support for the party.

    Oshiomhole’s message to the rally was germane. Against the background of the intrigues that played out, prior to the APC national convention, the national chairman tried to correct the insinuation that he was opposed to some leaders of the chapter. Eta, who represented him, predicted victory for the APC. He said the party will repeat its feat in Ekiti in the Southsouth state, urging members to work in unity.

    The Chairman of the Central Planning Committee, Etok, said President Buhari deserved re-election because he has tried to reposition the economy.

    He added: “The President has repositioned the economy. Although the enemies of progress have decided to kill people here and there, just to distract him, we in Ikot Ikpene Senatorial District are behind him. We must support him  in 2019. That is why you see everybody here. Ikot Ekpene Senatorial District is APC and nobody can challenge that.”

     

     

     

     

  • APC’ll win Cross River in 2019, says Eta

    NATIONAL Vice Chairman, South-South, of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Ntufam Hilliard Eta, has expressed confidence that the party would take over government in Cross River State in next year’s election.

    Eta said this when a stalwart of the Peoples Democratic Party in Calabar Municipality Local Government Area, Ntufam Maurice Omin Iso, defected to the APC with thousands of his supporters.

    Eta, an indigene of Calabar Municpality, at the state reception held for Iso at the Ikot Ansa (Nkonib) Royal Square in Calabar, said his joining the APC would greatly enhance the party’s chances next year. His words: “All politics is local and this is my local government area.

    This new entrant into our party is known as a kingmaker. He has been involved in the production of political kings in my local government.

    My joy knows no bounds as we speak today because he has joined me in the army of progressives to see that we seize power not just in Calabar Municipality but in Cross River State and bring progress and development to our people.

    Responding, Iso said he was committed to ensuring that the APC emerged victorious in next year’s elections.

  • APC has not lost hold of Edo -Eta

    APC has not lost hold of Edo -Eta

    Prince Hillard Eta is the South-South National Vice Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC). In this interview with reporters in Calabar, Eta expresses strong reservations for the local government system in Nigeria, among other issues. Nicholas Kalu was there. Excerpts

    You have expressed strong reservations about the local government system in Nigeria. Why is this so?

    It has been a very painful journey with regards to local governance in Nigeria since 1999. I am aware because I have been active since 1998, since the advent of this dispensation and I am aware that from 1999 to 2002, we had a similitude of local governance in Nigeria. Across party lines, this emerging local government system was completely caused between 2002 and 2003 and since then we have had graduated deterioration of the local government administration in Nigeria. In fact, what we have today in certain states, like Cross River, is a joke in the name of local government administration. Take for instance in the month of March, my local government area, Calabar Municipal Council, was out of the almost N200 million allocation, given only N2million for the purposes of superintending over the council. With a voting population of about 144, 000 and a total population of more than 400,000 people, it is a joke. A million naira was given to the executive; a million naira was given to the legislature of the local government. One is therefore forced to ask if it is necessary at all that we have the local government structure. Would it not have been better if the federation was to terminate at the state level, so that we know that the funds that come to Cross River State goes straight to the state and however the state wants to manage its resources, it would be held accountable by the people. Not a situation where about 20 per cent of the entire resources of Nigeria is ploughed into a system that is so vague that you cannot hold anybody accountable.

    For instance what happens to the rest of the allocation of Calabar Municipality for the month of March? So, this is unprecedented fraud and scam. I think the nation ought to look at the local government system, whether it is necessary at all. In certain other places, it becomes an outpost for the collection of levies and taxes for government, not for any meaningful development processes to take place at that level of government. I am not sure there are local government areas in Nigeria of today that would asphalt roads, do extension services in their agricultural sector and aid in the public health systems like it used to be. And the local government was created to bring government to the rural dwellers, to the least privileged amongst us. It has not served that purpose. So, the pertinent question to ask is if it is therefore necessary at all. In almost all the states in Nigeria, you find out that it is one party that would appropriate ownership of the structures of the entire local government areas. So, what they do in states like in Cross River, they call it family affair, where they sit down and nobody from outside of the system gets to know what happens within the system. And that is why most Nigerians question the efficacy of the state electoral commissions; whether it is necessary at all. This is because results emanating from local government elections can be forecasted. That is a state is controlled by a particular party, that all the local governments would be controlled by the same party.

    To drive home my point, 20 per cent of the federation account that goes to the local government areas in Nigeria is far and above the national budget of so many African countries today. Take a place like Botswana, Seychelles or Rwanda, where it is said that real development is taking place in those places. The resources available to them are not even as much as monies allocated to the local government areas in Nigeria and yet real development is taking place in those places. So, this is our concern with regards to the local government system in Nigeria.

    Let Nigerians sit again to decide if local government system is not necessary or if it should be abolished. If it is necessary, then we should format a template to begin to have the local government work for the people of Nigeria. Right now, it is not working for the people. I am not proffering an absolute solution to this problem. I am just saying that it is something we must put on the table whether we like it or not; because we are just frittering away 20 percent of the resources of Nigeria, and it is huge.

    Are you hopeful the APC will retain Edo State in the coming governorship elections, as there appears to be some crisis within the party there?

    The APC is grounded in Edo. It is poised to win and retain the governorship of Edo. Not because we are a garrison party, not because we intend to capture Edo, but simply because we are campaigning on the accomplishments of our outgoing governor. So there is absolutely no problem. Yet people impugn all manner of conspiracy theories. The APC has not lost hold of Edo. Its hand is firmly on the handle. The result of the election would speak to this. Only the voters of Edo would decide.

    How about internal democracy in arriving at a candidate for the party?

    We have shown that in Kogi. We had 28 aspirants and because it was fair, not a single person petitioned the party. And that is exactly what we would do in Edo. You know we read sometimes about so much crisis in the APC and I laugh. I think with all due respect to the press, for us not to have crisis in the party, we must all behave like zombies. But I don’t believe that I ought to behave like a zombie. You know when the president came here and broke the ground for the construction of the superhighway, I disagreed with my president. And I said, I do not believe in this project. This project is a scam. I said so from the beginning and today Nigerians are beginning to see that it was a scam. It was just a process of logging our woods and destroying the last rainforest in Africa for private profit, because I cannot imagine where Cross River State would find N700 billion to build a road like that. I have always asked a pertinent question. Please what is wrong with the other road? Why can we not rehabilitate it or build a new road on it? Why must we build another road, which connects about only five local governments? The existing one connects about 13, which means that it is the most important road in Cross River State. So, if you truly want to build a superhighway, this is the superhighway. Not when you have to pass through our forests and log our wood. Some of those trees have been there for more than 400 years. The man is going there to destroy our ecosystem, log our wood and tell us he is building a superhighway. So in the APC, we have a right to hold different opinions. That is why we are progressives. In the conservative fold, the only thing that puts them together is how to share the spoils of office. For us, we must debate and have a conversation. And as many people as you have on the table, you will have many opinions. We must have this conversation for us to have a consensus.

  • Eta: Judiciary on trial over Akwa Ibom polls

    Eta: Judiciary on trial over Akwa Ibom polls

    The National Vice-Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Southsouth, Prince Hilliard Eta, has said the report by Sahara Reporters on judicial decisions on the Akwa Ibom elections has vindicated his stand that judges that handled the cases were compromised.

    Eta stressed that he was referring to decided cases from the Akwa Ibom polls, and not the pending appeal on the governorship election.

    He explained that the judicial decisions on the election cases in were curious in the light of the fact that the European Union, the American government, the African Union and local election monitors agreed that there were no elections in both Akwa Ibom and Rivers states, only for the courts to cancel all the disputed elections but one in Rivers while upholding all the election cases in Akwa Ibom. “I am of the strong opinion that what accounts for the differential judicial outcome on the Siamese election fraud cases in Rivers and Akwa Ibom is corruption,” the APC South-South national vice-chairman said.

    Lamenting that the judiciary has reduced Nigeria to a laughing stock before the international community, Eta drew attention to specific cases”. He added: “In Akwa Ibom North West Senatorial District (Ikot Ekpene Senatorial District), where both the election tribunal and the Court of Appeal upheld the election of the Senate Minority Leader, Chief Godswill Akpabio, the number of votes cast in the election, which stood at 450,000, according to INEC records, far exceeded the number of registered voters in the district, which stood at 205,000 voters. Yet the courts overlooked this clear case of over voting, contrary to section 53 of the Electoral Act 2010, as amended. In the case of the governorship election petition, the tribunal also refused to take into account the case of over voting where 1,222,836 votes were recorded by Akwa Ibom State INEC as against INEC headquarters Card Reader data that show that only 437,128 voters were accredited to cast ballot in the governorship election.

    “The courts equally overlooked the critical fact that Senator Akpabio was not presented by his party for election in Akwa Ibom North West Senatorial District, where he was declared elected, only to  rationalise that the nomination of Akpabio for election in a different senatorial district other than where he was declared winner was a minor error outweighed by the curious view of the courts that the voters knew whom they voted for even if he was not validly nominated for the election.”

    Eta compared the case of Akpabio v. Okori of the APC to the decision of the governorship tribunal in Taraba State, where it was decided that the PDP candidate for the election, who is now the state governor, could not be returned elected because he was not validly nominated by his party due to a similar irregularity in his nomination process. Votes for the PDP candidate in the election were regarded as wasted votes because he was not validly noted. Why was the law applied differently in the case of Akwa Ibom North Senatorial District? Eta asked.

    He called on the judiciary to uphold the rule of law and save the nation’s democracy from fatal judicial abuse. He also called on the federal government to institute a full scale probe into the corruption of election petition judges in Akwa Ibom State, given detailed information on specific cases from open sources.