By Bassey Ubong
Barrister Assam Assam, senior advocate of Nigeria (SAN), wrote a piece which I recommend every Akwa Ibom indigene with discernment should read, and like Francis Bacon said, chew and digest.
At a personal level, the mass movement (we should avoid derogatory words such as defection, carpet-crossing, and decamping) of the bigwigs from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC) should, at best, earn a shrug.
Nigeria is probably a century away from mature democracy in which politicians are in parties based on principles such as personal orientation and commitment to service.
The current experience after 26 years into the Fourth Republic keeps the Nigerian democratic venture in the realms of ‘nascent’ and experimental.
Which Nigerian political party has a standard platform, and which one has members who believe in such platforms? Will Nigeria by the year 3000, or earlier in 2050, have, say, a Green Party, to cover people who believe in a clean environment? Persons with such convictions would under no circumstance switch loyalty.
In the United States, a Republican can serve in a Democratic administration in a suitable portfolio, but retains his or her political party. And states may switch loyalties during elections only, but retain their known affiliations.
For instance, California, the world’s 5th largest economy, is Democratic. But at a time ran under Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, while his wife, a Kennedy, retained her family’s preference, the Democratic Party.
The respected lawyer, Assam Assam commenced his address to his Akwa Ibom people in a beautiful manner with critical issues such as PDP being “more than a party; “an article of faith”, “a symbol of continuity”, “a guarantor of stability.”
On another line, he said that PDP is not only about politics, but “about identity, belonging, and a collective history.” If the above lines were true, what led to the mass exodus to APC, once upon a time Nigeria’s principal opposition party?
The introductory part of Assam Assam’s position can be summarized with above quotes, while the rest of the piece went into a justification for the “dynamism” of politics, which requires “realignments as a natural progression” in democracy.
But the efforts of the SAN runs into problems from this conviction, and leads him into the defence of the ‘mass’ movement into APC led by the state Governor, Umo Eno.
This leads to issues which should be highlighted as food for thought and for proactive decisions ahead of 2027. Permit me to use Oboyo, an active community in the state, for my analysis.
First, did those who planned the switch from PDP to APC think about the political orientation, ethic, and historical preferences of ordinary Akwa Ibom citizens?
For all I know, the independence of the people have seen them belong to the opposition once their psyche and mindset are not satisfied.
At the time the National Council of Nigerian Citizens (NCNC) ruled in the Eastern Region, several Akwa Ibom people were in the Action Group (AG). Should anyone forget the real stalwarts, such as Mr. Okon Eyo (Eyo Uyo) who pitched his tent in Action Group and Mr. Inyang Brown of United Progressives Grand Alliance (UPGA)?
I had an unforgettable experience in 1993 during the general elections which witnessed two mega political parties created by the Ibrahim Babangida administration – the National Republican Convention (NRC), which bent towards the righis political ideology, and the Social Democratic Party (SDP), to the left.
In my village of Oboyo with one polling unit at the time, voters told me ‘MKO Abiola, the presidential candidate of the SDP in the 1993 election must win at the unit, although the NRC ruled Akwa Ibom State.
After the voting, youths forced themselves into the pickup van that conveyed the ballot box to the collation centre to ensure nobody tampered with the result. The ordinary citizens of Nigeria (OCN) at Oboyo voted for MKO Abiola, of which the result came out 32 years later. Alhaji Ibrahim Tofa lost in the village as inost other polling units across the country.
Fast forward to 2023 during which the same village returned Alhaji Bola Tinubu as winner, despite PDP control at Uyo. The people cast protest votes, because Governor Udom Emmanuel promised a road from Ikot Akpan Abia to Oboyo in 2019, but, till date, the road remains impassable.
In essence, voters in the village opened my eyes to the political maturity of people some of us regard as semi-iliterate and politically unaware.
In developed countries, this should have been a case study. But who cares about research in Nigeria? This experience highlights two issues.
First, did Barrister Assam’s group make the slightest effort to find out what ordinary Akwa Ibom people would prefer if ever it was necessary to contemplate switching from PDP to APC? Or do the handful in the movement believe they know what everyone wants and have the right to force through their beliefs and orientations and choices? Suppose ordinary citizens prefer the “article of faith,” the “stability,” the “belonging,” the “history” and the shared “legacy”?
Second, Barrister Assam laboured to justify the jump by highlighting the deprivations and humiliation visited on Akwa Ibom people by PDP at the national level from 1999. The activities of President Olusegun Obasanjo were lavishly highlighted, although Barrister Assam forgot the latest and most painful one – President Obasanjo blockinh Ibom Power plant at the construction stage, yet commissioning the plant after which he forced the currents into the national grid as announced by the past Governor, Obong Attah.
The question on the usefulness of belonging to PDP should be well taken, because Akwa Ibom people should be told in specific terms what to expect in the marriage with APC.
If the claimed ‘mass’ movement is aimee at “reconnecting” with the centre, it must be stated without doubt and with specifics. In which case it begs the question – in what way will the people of Oboyo assess the union between Akwa Ibom PDP and National APC by 2027? Will this marriage give the state a completed deep seaport at Ibaka, for instance?
To jump ship, because of higher monthly allocations from the Federation Accounts Allocation Committee, or release of arrears of allocations of past years saddens and makes people wonder a deep thought was given to the issue before the final decision.
It saddens, because the Governor is being forced to go to the table to beg for his property, his blessings from God Almighty, and what should be his by right. Governor Victor Attah did not go with a beggar’s bowl to Abuja during his eventful tenure. He demanded the rights of the people under the concept of “resource control”, and Akwa Ibom State, along with the other Niger Delta states, enjoy higher Federal allocations today based on his bold stance and sacrifice, rather than being a beggar.
At the time cocoa and groundnuts meant gold in Nigeria, what proportion of the revenue earned from the export of those commodities reached Akwa Ibom?
And if arrears should be considered, should we forget the struggle by Governor Udom Emmanuel to explain the deployment of President Buhari’s arrears paid to the state? The Governor was compelled to “say something”, because Governor Nyesom Wike told the Niger Delta people of the windfall and listed the ways he used the money in Rivers State.
One of the big uses Wike said he made of windfall was the development of a Law School at Port Harcourt. In essence, arrears mean nothing if shared into individual accounts. The state can as well stay in the former party if arrears are not used for the benefit of the people.
If therefore higher allocations and release of arrears will leave us at status quo, can the movement to APC be justified by the people of Oboyo?
It is immaterial that the votes in the village will have zero effect on the outcome of the election results in 2027. I am only concerned with the psychology of the principled voters who feel a deep sense of satisfaction anytime they cast their votes.
Oboyo, from unchallengeable antecedents, posts mature voters who vote based on analyses and conviction. Quote me. And, did the good people of Ikot Ekpene Senatorial District not vote against their son, after he left office as Governor and went on to serve as a Senator?
Akwa Ibom State has voters with discernment, credibility, and determination. In fact, if Professor Humphrey Nwosu’s Option A4 were to continue, no more than 40% of those in political offices today would be close to the offices other than to seek for contracts.
At the end of the day, rhetoric as were voiced by Assam Assam, serves us nothing. Voters in Oboyo, and I believe majority of the state, require a factual list of expectations from the marriage entered into by selected persons on the behalf of voters who were not consulted before the switch.
The people of Oboyo want something to use to assess candidates and parties for 2027.
In 2023 Oboyo people voted for Candidate Bola Tinubu. In 2027 they can do same with or without being members of APC if concrete evidence can be provided by way of the dividend of democracy for the Ordinary Citizens of Nigeria (OCN).
Governor Umo Eno will receive the votes in Oboyo whether he belongs to APC or Labor Party or You Chop I Chop Party, because he has completed a Health Centre in the village. My people vote in a most discerning way despite the fewness of persons with tertiary educational qualifications.
For the politicians, only the blind would fail to see what they have gained. The citizens want reality of a long term nature rather than palliative often supplied by contractors who neither know nor care about Akwa Ibom people.
As for APC, one can conjecture the possibility of implosion. I have asked myself, suppose the PDP (former?) legislators who defeated APC candidates intend to re-contest? This will be relevant in the other offices. Who will be picked, the original APC patient dogs who have been denied goodies for 16 years, or the PDP, now APC incumbents? 2027 primaries will be a serious fascination. And how does the Akwa Ibom State government absorb and reward the patient APC people who have been in the cold?
We can see the reason about enhanced Federal allocation forms the primary interest. Whatever comes will circulate in the hierarchy of the party, while citizens will continue to yawn.
And a coalition has entered the ring, like Bulldog Brower, a one-time heavyweight wrestling champion of the world. African Democratic Congress (ADC), despite internal objections, has welcome the pugilists from APC, PDP, Labour Party, and others. This megaton entity has one objective – to remove APC from Aso Rock.
Suppose the coalition succeeds despite the control APC has over states? Will Akwa Ibom politicians who left PDP move to ADC, or will they become opposition? Will the learned in ADC use a 2005 book, “Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln” written by Doris Goodwin as their reference? We wait and see, after all, Nigerian politics remains ‘nascent’ and bereft of core democratic principles. Stomach infrastructure politics will in all certainty ensure another ‘mass movement’ of the political wasps into the ‘winning party.’ Wither Akwa Ibom, wither Nigeria?
Before March 2027, the longsuffering people of Oboyo would have taken a stand although they hate the image of wasps known to have no fixed direction and purpose, but flow with the wind. They will take a stand if the ‘converts’ will get the grand old party stalwarts in APC to state in clear terms what Akwa Ibom people are to expect in the rushed marriage between PDP and APC. The list should include Ibom Deep Sea Port, government or private refinery (crude oil and palm oil), reactivation of Qua Steel Mill at Eket and Newsprint manufacturing at Oku Iboku (two mega industries with multiplier potentials), surfacing of Oron -Aba Highway, functional development of Federal University of Technology at Ikot Abasi, and jobs for school leavers. Looks like a tall order, but all are possibilities for the goose which lays the golden egg. The Governor must abandon the image of a beggar goose and assert the rights of the people.
Barrister Assam Assam (SAN) can assist him while working to make more Senior Advocates of Nigeria in Akwa Ibom State. In essence he should start from home turf. Akwa Ibom has less than one dozen of the select group while the West has 312 out of the total of 877 as at November 2024.
What can Barrister Assam Assam do? He can work for Akwa Ibom.State Government grant for library development for potential SANs. The first non-indigene, Uyo-based SAN about to be instituted has without doubt received solid support from his home government of Ebonyi State. To think that between 1996 when Barrister Bassey Ekong blazed the trail to 2025 Akwa Ibom has less than one dozen SANs and watches other states celebrate should draw sighs and tears. The state’s second SAN should ARISE and make more SANs and leave core politicians to play the game they know. This, along with a realizable blueprint of economic projects for Akwa Ibom State from the PDP-APC marriage will be “a matter of common sense” in line with Barrister Assam’s contention in the June 2025 article which this post rests on. And I rest my case.
Ubong, a Public affairs analyst and commentator, wrote from Uyo
.
