Women Leader: Tinubu Must Address The Marginalisation In APC – Dr Odey-Ekpo

Recently, some APC members from Cross River State stormed the party’s national secretariat alongside other stakeholders from Kogi and Abia States in protests of NWC slots. What are the grievances in your state?

The protest has to do with the position of national women leader. The position was meant to be filled by a Cross River. A Cross Riverian contested election for that position and won but because of how fate or destiny would have it, Dr Betta Edu was elevated to the position of minister and that party position became vacant. It is only natural for another Cross Riverian to fill that position, but to our greatest surprise so much injustice was meted on us. The position was given to Edo State, which already had the position of national treasurer. Delta State has national publicity secretary. These are two positions already shared by Edo and Delta, with Edo snatching a third position of national women leader from Cross River and Akwa Ibom States.

(Cuts in) …What is this thing about Edo and Delta sharing NWC positions, as well as Cross River and Akwa Ibom sharing NWC positions?

The zoning arrangement in the South South region of our party is alternated between two states. We have Edo alternating positions with Delta State, while Cross River alternates its NWC positions with Akwa Ibom State. We also have Rivers State alternating positions with Bayelsa State. We did not have these issues coming from Akwa Ibom State. We have this understanding that if we finish serving our own term in the NWC it will naturally go to Akwa Ibom State that alternates the position with Cross River, but Edo State broke all due process and usurped the position of Cross River State. To me it is a grievous injustice to Cross River State. We decided to express our dissatisfaction through that protest.

But I know that we belong to a very great and indivisible political party – a party with understanding and integrity. I want to use this medium to call on the national leadership of the party to return to status quo and address this injustice because back home our people are not happy.  I know the efforts we made to take APC to Cross River, which was traditionally a PDP state. We went as foot soldiers to deliver the state to APC, which is why Cross River is the only state in the South South region that has an APC governor. I do know and I appreciate the fact that we have a president, the leader of our party, in the person of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu who has a listening ear. He is a man of integrity and I must say that at the NEC meeting he gave this directive. He agreed that this position should return to Cross River State, but to our chagrin, certain people acted otherwise. I know that he is not aware of this development because as a man of integrity, he would have done the appropriate thing. I’m calling on him to address the anomaly. He is a man who hates injustice.

I recall that when the issue of NDDC recently came up he stepped in immediately to address it and said, ‘no, a monkey that works must eat’. He returned the position that was given to another political party to an APC member to represent Cross River State in the NDDC. So, I know very well that because this is coming to his knowledge now, he is definitely going to act on it too for everybody to have a sense of belonging in the party. No state will feel left out.

But some people are saying the decision to exclude Cross River from the NWC was taken because the state has two ministerial slots. Will the insistence on NWC slots not amount to undue sense of entitlement on the part of the state?

I know a particular school of thought has said, ‘oh, perhaps, it is because Cross River State has two ministerial slots. But let me remind them that Edo State, during the Buhari administration, had two ministerial slots and two national working committee members. So, what is good for the goose is good for the gander.  Each state is supposed to be represented at the NWC. Party politics is different from governance; ministerial appointment falls under the administrative wing of governance. That is why in a government of national unity you even have people from the opposition party being accommodated. So, it is purely a different thing. We are talking about party politics, and Cross River in the South South region has an APC governor. It goes a long way to show that we are an APC state. We should be given priority over other states because we are the state with an APC governor. How can we, from Cross River and Akwa Ibom, be left without representation at the national level? This is the reason why I’m saying the table should not change, and that what is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander. 

Talking about APC state, the general perception is that this is nominal. The thinking is that even though Cross River has a governor who is a card carrying member of the governing party, it is still a traditional PDP state where an opposition lawmaker defeated an incumbent governor in the last National Assembly polls. What do you think?

It is not true. Cross River State has three senatorial districts and we have two APC Senators. It is just one Senator that belongs to another political party. We have dominance, even in the state House of Assembly. Of the 25 legislative seats, about 18 are occupied by APC. These are all the indices that you use to judge states that are actually APC states and those that belong to other political parties. If you have a sitting governor as an APC member all the structures in the state automatically become APC. We have our state chairman and chairmen of the wards across board. It was not easy to convert Cross River which was a traditional PDP state into an APC state. We had to do that because of the injustice we suffered at the time. We moved out of PDP because we felt that we were not welcome. That is the same fear that some other people are having today in APC. They are saying, ‘oh, not again. We must not go through the same injustice in this party that we moved into.’ But I know that it won’t amount to that because our party today has a master strategist and a great politician in the person of President Tinubu. He is a man with a listening ear. So, I’m very sure that he is going to address it and it won’t go to the level of Cross River State even threatening to leave the party.

You spoke about the injustice in PDP that led to the change of Cross River’s status from PDP to APC state. How do you see Cross River as an APC State now?

Cross River will forever remain an APC state because we all believe in the leadership of our party. We believe that today, the party, under the dynamic leadership of Bola Ahmed Tinubu, is stable and has a level playing ground. So, we are not going to say we will quit because of one or two things that may have happened without his knowledge. We are very convinced that he is not aware of the injustice that has been meted on us. This is why we believe that he is going to intervene in the matter. But I can assure you that if you wake us up in Cross River anytime any day we are going to tell you that we will continue as APC. There is no fear at all. We are an APC state and we will remain APC.

There has been the clamour for more women in politics, with frail attempts by past administration to implement the 35 per cent affirmative action for women. Under the Tinubu administration, what would you say is the fate of women considering the appointments he has made so far?

I must commend Mr President for the number of women he has appointed. He is a gender friendly and gender sensitive president. This is why you see women occupying sensitive positions in his administration, unlike in the past. Today, we have very great ministries being manned by young women. We have ministries like Police Affairs and FCT being managed by women as ministers of state. That shows you that President Tinubu believes in any one that can deliver on his vision. So, I want to commend him for carrying women along. Seven is not a bad number but like Oliver Twist we will continue to clamour for more because looking at statistics of the Nigerian population today, women are even the ones that vote the more and we will continue to say, ‘Mr President, we are thanking you for the present appointments, and we know you can do more for the Nigerian women’.