In Akwa Ibom, the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the main opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) are, like most states, set to rekindle their rivalry ahead of the 2023 polls.
At the return of democracy in 1999, opposition politics was largely mild with Obong Victor Attah, holding sway until 2007.
After the governorship primaries at the twilight of Attah’s administration, no fewer than 57 aspirants contested the primaries held at the House of Assembly premises in Uyo.
The primary poll was cancelled twice over alleged irregularities.
According to some of the aspirants including former Deputy Governor, Senator Chris Ekpenyong; former Deputy Governor, Obong Nsima Ekere; the late Dr. Ime Umanah and others, the process was skewed to favour a particular aspirant.
Therefore, the final primary was moved to a different venue – Ibom Hall, where Senator Godswill Akpabio, emerged winner, against Attah’s son-in-law, Dr. Udoma Bob Ekarika.
While Attah struggled to scuttle Akpabio’s candidature, then President Olusegun Obasanjo, prevailed for the ticket to remain with Akpabio, who eventually got the party’s flag at the zonal rally in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.
What followed was the migration of aspirants to the opposition. Senator Ekpenyong, moved to PPA; former military governor of Ogun and Rivers States, Group Capt. Sam Ewang, joined ANPP.
Despite legal tussles, Akpabio won the governorship election. By 2011, the tussle for the state was intense as Senator John Akpanudoedehe, the immediate past APC national secretary, joined the then Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), following irreconcilable differences with Akpabio.
In 2015 the situation was more intense especially with the merger of ACN, CPC, ANPP which formed APC.
Current minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Obong Umana Okon Umana, moved to the APC, from PDP, after disagreeing with Akpabio.
He vied for the election which pitted him against then secretary to the state government (SSG), Udom Emmanuel, anointed by Akpabio as the PDP candidate.
After the fiercely fought contest, Emmanuel triumphed and was declared by INEC.
In 2019, disagreement between the godfather, Akpabio and his godson, Emmanuel resurfaced, forcing Akpabio to leave PDP on August 8, 2018, a few months to the 2019 elections’ year.
“I don’t know how to play opposition politics, I am a nationalist”, he told a mammoth crowd that thronged the Ikot Ekpene stadium.
PDP however won the governorship polls and swept the federal and state legislative seats in the state.
In the build-up to the 2023 polls, alignment and realignment of forces have started.
For the two major political parties – PDP and APC – all is far from pleasant.
According to Chief Bassey Ekanem, a community leader in Uyo, “the infighting within both parties has created factional platforms that could rub off negatively and limit the parties chances in the elections proper”.
For the ruling PDP, the aggrieved aspirants protest the emergence of Pastor Umo Eno as the governorship candidate, arguing that the primaries did not follow the due process as enshrined in the Electoral Law, as regards the use of ad-hoc delegates, which they alleged, were not approved.
Although some went to court, others have left the PDP.
While Senator Bassey Akpan, who boycotted the governorship primary, has joined the Young Progressives Party (YPP) and Hon. Onofiok Luke, the House of Representatives member for Etinan, another Guber aspirant, who is set to move to the Labour Party.
The two key members of the Akwa Ibom National Assembly Caucus chaired by Senator Akpan, according to Bishop Andrew Uwanta, chairman of the Akwa Ubok Abasi Campaign Organisation for Akpan, pointed to zoning of the governorship slot in 2023 as the major crux of their grievances.
He pointed out that “in line with the zoning principle, the power baton should rightly revolve to Itu/Ibiono Ibom Federal Constituency as it is the turn of Uyo Senatorial District in 2023”.
In terms of political configuration, Akwa Ibom is split into three Senatorial Districts of Uyo (Akwa Ibom Nort-East), Ikot Ekpene (Akwa Ibom North-West) and Eket (Akwa Ibom South), and Uyo is structured politically into three Federal Constituencies of Uyo, Etinan and Itu, for political convenience.
It could be recalled that Uyo, comprising four Local Government Areas including Uyo, Nsit Atai, Etinan and Ibesikpo Asutan, had taken the first turn with Obong Victor Attah, between 1999 and 2007.
One civilian governor, the late Obong Akpan Isemin, and two military governors; the late Air Commodore Idongesit Nkanga (rtd) and the former military administrator of Ogun and Rivers State, Group Capt. Sam Ewang (rtd), had emerged at different times from the Etinan zone.
Uwanta therefore, faulted the choice of Eno, from the same Etinan Federal Constituency, who had since been cleared as having scored the highest number of votes in the last Governorship primary – to fly the PDP flag in the contest.
But Mr. Emmanuel Enoidem, the immediate past national legal adviser and national chairman of the Maintain Peace Movement (MPM), the campaign organisation saddled with the sole responsibility of ensuring Eno’s governorship quest sails through, was quick to dismiss such disposition as being borne out of “sentiments and entitlement mentality”.
“Since 1999 in Akwa Ibom State, zoning has always been on basis of Senatorial Districts and not by Federal Constituency consideration”, recalling that “Uyo Senatorial District took the first slot under Obong Attah, who handed it to Ikot Ekpene, with Senator Akpabio, and now, Eket is running out their turn with Governor Emmanuel, in 2023”, he explained.
Determined to stave off opposition and assuage the apparent ill-feelings across party lines in other to retool the PDP to winning ways to retain State in 2023, the leadership of the PDP in the State chaired by Elder Aniekan Akpan, had since set a machinery in motion towards genuine reconciliation of the aggrieved members.
The committee headed by Senator Effiong Bob, extended hands of fellowship to the feuding members.
Though Senator Akpan, Luke and others shunned the reconciliation meeting, the succession agenda of Governor Emmanuel, relying again on his slogan, “that same God”, a little deviation from his 2019 “Only God” slogan, has handed his case to God.
Recently, he received over 20,000 decampees after the reconciliation meetings in the 329 wards spread across the 31 local government areas.
He, therefore, charged others still aggrieved, to “return and be part of the rebuilding process as your turn will come someday in the future”.
For the APC, the cracks occasioned by the lingering leadership tussle between Akpabio and the erstwhile national secretary, Senator John Akpanudoedehe, was irredeemable.
The infighting for the control of the party in the State, has forced Akpanudoedehe, described as the “true face of opposition politics in Akwa Ibom State”, and hordes of his supporters, to seek solace in another opposition party, the New Nigerian Peoples Party (NNPP), where he is to fly the party’s governorship flag in 2023.
And as the crises fester, especially with the State resident electoral commissioner, (REC), Mr. Mike Igini, not wanting the Obong Stephen Ntukekpo’s leadership and the Akpabio-led faction to be recognised by the INEC, it is hardly likely that the PDP, according to political bookmakers, would have any stiff challenge that may alter its 2019 performance.
Disagreeing with such postulation, former spokesman of the House of Representatives, Mr. Eseme Eyiboh, the arrow head of the Tinubu-for-President campaign in the state, who is angling to return to the Green Chamber, on the APC platform, has re-emphasised that “Akpabio will be on the ballot and APC will win the State”, despite the current travails.
According to Eyiboh, the true picture of the APC’s line up would soon emerge, with Akpabio, as the Senatorial candidate for Ikot Ekpene and the oil tycoon, Obong Akan Udofia, as governorship candidate, in spite of “Igini’s attempt to truncate the re-conducted Senatorial primary that produced Akpabio”, explaining that”the re-conducted primary was ordered by the National Working Committee (NWC) through a letter signed by the APC national secretary, Senator Iyiola Omisore.
Will the PDP again carry the day as it was in 2019, or will the opposition spring surprise? Only time will tell when the chips are finally down in 2023.
