As Akwa Ibom PDP Chair readies party for electoral triumphs

BY OKON NSE OKON

Obong Paul Ekpo is an experi­enced administrator, a leader of men who has given himself a big task in Akwa Ibom State, name­ly, to win all the elections for the PDP. As chairman of the ruling party in the state, Ekpo is determined to prove James George Janos, better known by his stage name, Jesse Ventura, wrong. Unlike Ventura, he firmly believes that political parties, in particular, the PDP in Akwa Ibom State, are veritable platforms for development, for delivery of democracy dividends to the people and are, therefore, the solution not the problem of the system.

Ventura, an Independent and former profes­sional wrestler who served as the 38th Gover­nor of Minnesota from 1999 to 2003, does not like political parties because he thinks they are the problem rather than the solution. He once said of the two main political parties in the United States: “I will not be a Democrat or a Republican. They are the problem, not the so­lution. We need to abolish political parties in this country.

To be fair to Ventura, this is a feeling many people sometimes get about political parties. Or, who hasn’t once or twice felt that the two parties in Nigeria, the PDP and the APC, rath­er than mitigate the nation’s political prob­lems tend, really, to aggravate them through the aggressive and oft-violent ways they seek power and privileges? However, Ekpo finds a worthy ally in David Alan Mamet, an Ameri­can playwright and essayist, who posits that “the Founders (of the American system) rec­ognized that government is quite literally a necessary evil, that there must be opposition, between its various branches, and between political parties, for these are the only ways to temper the individual’s greed for power and the electorates’ desires for peace by submis­sion to coercion or blandishment.”

In other words, political parties as organised groups of people with similar political aims and opinions, seeking to influence public policy by getting their candidates elected to public office, are necessary to moderate the competition for power that inevitably arises between groups or even within groups, for the control of society. In that case, the question, then, becomes, not whether political parties should be but how they ought to be.

Like America, Nigeria has two main politi­cal parties, the PDP and APC. The PDP has been the ruling party at the centre and in most of the states in the past 16 years. The fortunes of its state chapters have changed over the same period too, with the degree of such changes dif­fering from state to state. For instance, in Ondo, Osun, Oyo, Ogun, Edo and Ekiti States, it lost power to the opposition APC formerly AC but has regained power in Ekiti. It also lost power to APGA in Imo State. But, in places like Akwa Ibom, Enugu, Ebonyi, Niger, Jigawa, Bayelsa, Delta, Benue States, among others, PDP has remained the party to beat since the inception of this democratic dispensation.

Among the state chapters, Akwa Ibom is easily the strongest. This is evident in the out­standing performance of the state governor and leader of the party in the state Obong Godswill Akpabio, whose development programme as governor is essentially anchored on PDP mani­festo. The party has even become stronger in the state since the emergence of Obong Ekpo as the state party chairman in October last year.

On October 8 last year, the Integration Com­mittee of the party, which met with Akwa Ibom stakeholders in Abuja, confirmed Ekpo as the authentic chairman of the PDP. In a meeting attended by representatives of various interest groups in the state at the Legacy House, Abuja, at the instance of the Integration Committee, Ekpo got the official nod to chair the party in Akwa Ibom thereby bringing to an end the in­trigues and bad blood that had dogged his elec­tion in a transparent process earlier carried out in Uyo.

In attendance at the reconciliation meeting were former Governor Obong Victor Attah, Deputy Governor Lady Valerie Ebe, Obong Bassey Albert (OBA), Obong Umana O. Umana, Obong Nsima Ekere, BOT members Atuekong Don Etiebet, Senator Ibokessien, Senator Effiong Bob, Senator Ita Enang, Sena­tor Helen Esuene, Prince Uwem Ita Etuk and a member of the National Caucus, Distinguished Senator Anietie Okon. Also in attendance were Hon. Nse Ekpenyong, Barr. Ibanga Akpabio and a number of other state PDP stakeholders.

At the meeting, Ekpo presented a video CD of the State Congress to prove that he was le­gally and legitimately elected as Chairman of the authentic Akwa Ibom PDP executive com­mittee. Ekpo’s methodical effort to establish the validity of his election won him the sym­pathy and approval of many of the stakehold­ers who stridently condemned Chief Etiebet’s petition against the process that led to Ekpo’s emergence, describing it as an attempt to black­mail the party and bring disaffection within its ranks in the build-up to this year’s general elec­tions. In his speech, a triumphant Ekpo prom­ised to lead the state PDP aright, to put it on a sound footing so it could continue to drive the uncommon transformation, which has been going on in Akwa Ibom State in the past eight years under Chief Godswill Akpabio, a party loyalist to the core. He also pledged to ensure that the next dispensation in the state continues from where Akpabio will stop.

I will Lead the Akwa Ibom PDP and ensure total success for the party based on the uncom­mon transformation strides of Chief Godswill Obot Akpabio, which has put Akwa Ibom PDP in final triumph over the opposition…,” Ekpo declared.

Thereafter, Obong Ekpo was officially rec­ognized as the authentic chairman of the Akwa Ibom PDP by the Chairman of the Integration Committee, Senator Iya Abubakar. An elated Abubakar commended the people of the state for their maturity in handling the brief crisis and asked all to join hands with Chief Akpabio to make PDP win all the elections both in the state and at the centre this February.

Since his emergence as the state party chair­man, Ekpo has worked tirelessly to achieve party cohesion so that the stakeholders can work as a team to ensure victory for the party in all the elections in the state come February 14 this year and subsequently. Speaking at the inauguration of the campaign councils at the party headquarters in Uyo early this January, Ekpo said:

“Our great party is one united, strong fami­ly. We are our brother’s keeper. That is why as soon as the nominations were over, the party caucus constituted three different reconcilia­tion committees for each of the three Senato­rial districts and one for the centre to reconcile all aggrieved PDP aspirants. We thank all of you who took advantage of that platform to sort your differences and join hands with those who won to work for the electoral victory of party in the February 2015 General elections. We encourage all other party members who were aggrieved in whatever form to embrace the spirit of reconciliation and hand of full re­integration the party handsomely offers.”

He praised Governor Akpabio for his out­standing performance as governor and assured him that he had established a template that would guide all future governors of the state.

“Your visionary and purposeful leadership of the party in the state,” he said to the gov­ernor, “has sufficiently demonstrated that your soul is aflame with determination to ensure a smooth transition from your administration to yet another rewarding government for our people.

A former commissioner for local govern­ments and chieftaincy matters and a passion­ate party man who resigned to contest the party chairmanship, Ekpo believes that the sky is the starting point yet for the PDP in Akwa Ibom State, if only the party faithful would work together to deliver victories to the party at the polls come this February 14 and 28. He said: “Today, we stand on the edge of a new frontier. The new frontier of which I speak is not a set of expectations we have of government. It is a set of challenges that demands all of us, I mean all of us, to live up to the task ahead of us next month. We must deliver all our units, all our wards, and all our LGAs and give PDP land­slide electoral victory in all the positions.” …In politics, mobilization of masses to vote is the demand of victory at the polls,” he surmised.

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