Akwa Ibom has been one of the battleground states since the return of democracy in 1999. Major political parties scramble for the soul of the oil-rich Niger Delta state, with the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), holding sway in every election despite the odds.
In the last 23 years, PDP has remained a dominant political platform, producing three civilian governors drawn from the three Senatorial Districts of Uyo, with Obong Victor Attah (1999-2007); Ikot Ekpene, with Chief Godswill Akpabio (2007-2015) and Eket, currently serving out its turn with incumbent Governor Udom Emmanuel, in 2023.
Therefore, a big hang-up appears imminent in the political firmament of the state, pushing for the apparent tough-task of displacing the incumbent, described as the big landlord at the Hilltop Mansion (Akwa Ibom Government House). The state has had its share of political violence.
And with the bell soon to toll for the campaigns, the front line parties, out of the 18, cleared for the polls by INEC, have started warming their ways into the hearts of registered voters.
Addressing the 18 political parties at the Ibom Hall, along the IBB Way, Uyo, the state capital, before he bade goodbye to Akwa Ibom, his last political outpost, as the electoral umpire in the past 10 years, Mr. Mike Igini, who retired last month, advised contending parties to “play by the rules as enshrined in the Electoral Act.”
He explained that his stint in Akwa Ibom had witnessed major reforms in the electoral system, adding that the overhauling of the electoral process could prove very decisive as it would give vent to transparency, credibility and accountability to the polls’ outcome in 2023.
He noted that the repositioning of the system has alienated, as well as reduced the influence of desperate politicians, who, according to him, are in the habits of manipulating and skewing the outcomes in their favour.
“When I assumed duties, the first thing I did was to relocate about 23 polling units discovered in the private compounds of politicians to open places where people can access them”, he disclosed.
He said the sanity instilled by his regime in the electoral process and the seamless registration of new voters, would ensure low number of disenfranchised voters and greater number of voters in 2023, higher than the 2019 edition.
Therefore, as the campaigns set to kick off, checks revealed high expectations among adherents to different political parties.
Although the former minister of Housing and Urban Development, Chief Nduese Essien, has predicted that the collapse of the two major political parties – the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and the main opposition PDP, before the election proper, these two parties still seem to enjoy large followership in the build up to the campaign.
Governor Emmanuel is leading the charge for his choice of successor, Pastor Umo Eno, the former commissioner for Lands and Water Resources.
Paired with the serving senator representing the Eket Senatorial District, Mrs. Akon Iyakenyi, Emmanuel, his deputy, Obong Moses Ekpo; the leadership of the PDP in the state led by chairman Elder Aniekan Akpan, the leadership of the ‘Arise Campaign Organisation’ chaired by the former Nigerian Ambassador to Russia/ Belarus, Chief Assam Assam, SAN and former PDP national legal adviser, Emmanuel Enoidem, along with other chieftains, elders and stakeholders of the party, at the weekend, took Eno, to the popular Itam International Market, in Itu local government area.
The crux of the movement to the International Market, according to Enoidem, was to sell Eno to the traders and to secure their endorsement, as the campaign season opens.
To enlist the traders’ assurance, Governor Emmanuel, while addressing the market forum, stressed the importance of being in the vanguard of the PDP retaining Akwa Ibom in 2023, despite the odds.
To enhance easy access to funds to grow their businesses, Emmanuel announced the launch of interest-free loan scheme for the traders and enjoined them to join the PDP train with assurance of more goodies and lareges.
The governor, who was the special guest at the occasion, restated the commitment of his administration towards the welfare of traders and thanked them for their cooperation, as it were in 2019, when the PDP swept the polls.
In his address, Eno, who is also an entrepreneur, registered his membership with the Akwa Ibom Traders Cooperative Association.
He promised to consolidate on the governor’s efforts at improving the welfare and commercial activities of the traders. He also appreciated the traders for organising the event to endorse him as their gubernatorial candidate.
In the same vein, the Young Progressives Party (YPP), apparently bolstered by the defection of Senator Bassey Akpan into its fold, has in the last two months, intensified the entrenchment of the new party in the consciousness of voters across the 31 local government areas, as the party’s governorship candidate.
Ahead of the beginning of the electioneering campaigns, Akpan assured that “every local government area will have its YPP office inaugurated”.
With his running mate, Mr. Asuquo Amba, a retired assistant inspector general (AIG) of Police, from the Oron axis of Eket Senatorial District, and the campaigns committee- Akwa Ubok Abasi Campaign Organisation, led by Bishop Andrew Uwanta, a former PDP chieftain, the stage, according to him, appears set for the campaign train to take off.
Similarly, the immediate past national secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Senator John Akpanudoedehe, who has now pitched his tent with the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), said plans had since been concluded to take his campaign train across the 31 local councils after series of consultations, horse-trading and dangling of several political carrots to eligible voters.
From his in-laws at Ikot Ekpene LGA, the former Uyo council chairman, FCT minister of state, picked Mr. Godwin Afangideh, a close ally of Senator Godswill Akpabio, who served under him as Agriculture commissioner, as his running mate.
He has also set up offices across the state in readiness for the campaigns, just as he assured his long wait to rule the state since 2011 would be realised in 2023.
Although his political structure, according to him, remains unwavered, perhaps the only party amongst the front-runners, that appears not fully ready for the campaigns, our Correspondent garthered, is the main opposition APC in the State.
Checks revealed however, that though the party’s governorship flag-bearer, Obong Akanimo Udofia, has already settled for the former commissioner for Culture and Tourism in former Governor Godswill Akpabio’s cabinet, Chief Victor Antai, as his running mate, his campaign train could be delayed, as the Federal High Court in Uyo, is yet to determine his eligibility in the contest.
Former senior special assistant (SSA) to President Muhammadu Buhari on Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Ita Enang, is challenging his eligibility in the contest, arguing that his migration into the APC, barely 24-hours after resignation from the PDP to pick the governorship ticket, was illegal.
African Democratic Congress (ADC), according to its governorship candidate, Ezekiel’s Nya-etok, has said his party was also ready to fly the flags of the party across the 31 councils in the state, but solicited for a level playing field for all contenders as the campaigns commence.
He said the ADC has come to offer alternative choice of a socialist platform to change the narrative of elitist administration to a welfarist regime that anchors on people-oriented policies and programmes.
However, as the polity appears tense-up in the build-up to the campaigns, political bookmakers envisaged what they described as “aggressive electioneering that may overheat the system to degenerate to violence.”
“We have 18 political parties for the polls and there are some likelihoods of clashes as it happened between the rulling PDP and the main opposition Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) with Senator Akpanudoedehe, as the governorship candidate, who was challenging the re-election of Chief Godswill Akpabio, in 2011.
“People lost their lives, several cars bought by the administration to be used as township taxi cabs parked at the State secretariat, were burnt and the campaigns office of former President Goodluck Jonathan, along Abak Road, torched by the hoodlums”, Dr. Magnus Akanobong, a public affairs analyst recalled, and warned politicians to “play by the rules this time”.
To douse the tension and guide the gladiators along the lines of decent campaigns, security agencies, it was learnt, would soon summon all the leaders, stakeholders and flag-bearers of different political parties to sign a peace accord ahead of the polls.
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