Akwa-Ibom: Crises rock PDP, APC over alleged imposition plots, zoning

While the succession plan of the state governor, Emmanuel Udom, has thrown the PDP in the state into disarray, the APC is battling an internal crisis occasioned by alleged moves by some party leaders to impose John Udoedehe, Secretary of the party’s CEPCC, as its gubernatorial candidate.

Another school of thought feels the zoning arrangement shouldn’t be about senatorial districts but the ethnic classifications in the state. This has led to agitations by some ethnic groups in the state like the Orons to be asking for the chance to produce the next governor of the state irrespective of the unwritten arrangement.

There is also a raging debate even among those who subscribe to the zoning arrangement. This sub-set of the debate is over which of the three senatorial districts should take the first shot now that all the three zones have produced governors from 1999 till date.

Victor Attah, from Akwa Ibom North-East senatorial distirct, took the first shot and governed the state between 1999 and 2007. He was succeeded by Godswill Akpabio, current Minister of Niger Delta, who hails from Ukana in Akwa Ibom Nort-West senatorial district of the state. He was in office for eight years between 2007 and 2015. The incumbent governor, Udom Emmanuel, from Eket senatorial district, became governor in 2015 and will be completing his second term in 2023.

To most pundits, the scenario above places Akwa Ibom North-East (Uyo) senatorial district in pole position to produce the next governor as the zone has not held the governorship since 2007 when Attah left office. While no major party has yet closed their primaries to gubernatorial hopefuls from outside the area, nearly all potential aspirants are from the North-East and it appears as if major parties are holding to the zoning agreement.

Supporting the agitation of the people of Uyo zone, the Special Assistant to Governor Emmanuel on Research and Documentation, Essien Ndueso, said it was the adherence to the zoning arrangement that favoured Governor Emmanuel in 2015. “Election of Governor Emmanuel was made possible after Akwa Ibom people unanimously agreed that going by the existing zoning arrangement, the governorship should go to Eket senatorial district,” he said, while justifying the opinion that Uyo senatorial district should produce the next governor of the state.

PDP

With more and more party leaders and other stake-holders taking sides in the ongoing face-off that followed Governor Udom Emmanuel’s public endorsement of a successor last week, the crisis rocking the party is deepening ahead of the 2023 general elections. Sources within the ruling party told our correspondent that the PDP in the south-south state is gradually being shredded into factions ahead of the 2023 general elections in the state.

“What started as grumbling after Governor Emmanuel made a public show of declaring one of his commissioners as his preferred successor has gradually degenerated into a serious crisis that is threatening to divide the party. We now have those who are supporting the governor’s decision and those who are strongly opposed to his choice of successor. And I can tell you that it is getting more worrisome by the day,” our source said.

Governor Emmanuel ended months of speculations and permutations over his succession plan with the announcement of one of his cabinet members, Pastor Umo Eno, as his preferred successor as governor in 2023. He made the announcement at a PDP stakeholders’ meeting at Government House Lodge, Uyo.  Emmanuel announced Eno, current Commissioner for Lands and Water Resources, as his preferred PDP candidate for the 2023 gubernatorial election in the state.

The governor’s anointed candidate was thereafter presented to the PDP stakeholders by former Governor Victor Attah, according to reports of the parley. Confirming the reports, the Chief Press Secretary/Senior Special Assistant to the Governor on media, Mr. Ekerete Udoh, said: “Absolutely true, yes. At the PDP stakeholders’ meeting, His Excellency announced Mr. Umo Eno as the preferred candidate to succeed him. And he was thereafter presented to the PDP stakeholders by former Gov. Victor Attah. So, that is true.”

But it seems not all stakeholders of the PDP in the state are on the same page with the governor in his decision to anoint Eno. Specifically, some other chieftains of the party who are interested in the governorship ticket of the ruling party are said to be poised for a showdown with the governor over his choice of Eno. “The party is divided and things are likely to get worse in the days and weeks to come. The unity and peace of our party is threatened,” a party official lamented.

Already, former Speaker of the Akwa-Ibom House of Assembly and Chairman of the House of Representatives’ Committee on Judiciary, Hon. Onofiok Luke, has announced his readiness to confront the governor all the way over what he described as the undemocratic endorsement of an aspirant over and above other chieftains of the party by the governor who should ordinarily play the role of a father to all and encourage a level playing ground in the contest.

The federal legislator, who has declared his interest in the PDP governorship ticket, according to reports, stormed out of the stakeholders’ meeting after the endorsement of Eno. Reports also have it that not less than two members of the state cabinet absented themselves from the stakeholders’ meeting on account of their objection to Governor Emmanuel’s plan to unveil Eno as his preferred successor at the event.

Another guber aspirant of the party told our correspondent that it is wrong of the governor to have said God revealed to him to choose Eno as his successor. “The governor wants Eno and he want to enthrone him as a stooge so as to continue governing by proxy. His action is causing crisis in the party. Eno is so unpopular. He has been working on the Eno project for months now and they already have a political structure called ‘Maintain Peace Movement’ to mobilise support for him.

But the Akwa Ibom State chapter of the PDP says it is fully in support of Governor Udom Emmanuel’s choice of a successor. The Chairman of the party in the state, Aniekan Akpan, gave the governor the backing when Emmanuel visited the party secretariat during the week, pledging the party’s unalloyed support and loyalty of the party structures across the state to enable the governor actualise his succession plan and completion agenda.

“We pledge our unflinching support towards the actualisation of your completion agenda. The party, through your support, has stabilised. We commend your achievements. You have done a lot. You are a pride to PDP,” Akpan said while a former state chairman of the party, Paul Ekpo, added that, “We will ensure that your completion agenda gets to a successful end.”

APC

To many observers of the happenings within the opposition APC in Akwa Ibom state, the relative peace enjoyed by the party since 2019 was shattered the very moment some stakeholders in the party asked the Secretary of the party’s Caretaker/Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee, Senator John James Akpanudoedehe, to contest for the state governorship in 2023.

The call had barely been made before some prominent leaders and chieftains of the party, including other governorship aspirants, raised alarm, accusing Akpanudoedehe of trying to use his position in the National Working Committee (NWC) to corner the gubernatorial ticket of the APC in Akwa Ibom state for himself. Expectedly, the allegation was strongly refuted by supporters of the APC Scribe. According to them, it will be unfair for anybody to rule out Akpanudoedehe from the governorship race just because he accepted to serve the party when the need arose.

The beckon on Akpanudoedehe was contained in a communique issued after a stakeholders’ meeting in Uyo, the Akwa Ibom State capital.The communique, signed by over 40 prominent APC leaders and elder statesmen from the state, noted that Akpanudoedehe is the right person for the state governorship election in 2023. According to the communique, Atuekong Don Etiebet moved the motion for stakeholders to summon Senator Akpanudoedehe to join the governorship race and was seconded by Arch Bishop Samuel Akpan, a governorship candidate in 2015.

The communique reads part: “After exhaustive deliberation, the motion was overwhelmingly passed with a notation for the resolution taken by a credible collection of Akwa Ibom APC stakeholders to be conveyed to the distinguished senator.”

But some stakeholders of the APC in the state wasted no time before urging aspirants vying for various offices in the 2023 elections not to be dismayed by the recent endorsement of AkpanUdoedehe, as the sole gubernatorial candidate of the party in next year’s polls. While describing such endorsement as ridiculous and undemocratic, the stakeholders urged all aspirants to come forward to indicate their interests, assuring that a level playing ground would be given to them.

The stakeholders noted that the convener of the meeting where Udoedeghe was adopted does not have the locus standi to convene or preside over such meeting as he is neither a former Governor nor the highest political office holder as envisaged by the APC constitution. “That all aspirants are encouraged to indicate interest to contest all offices in the next general elections as a level playing field is guaranteed,” the communiqué read in part.

The stakeholders described the zoning of the chairmanship position of the party and the governorship slot in the forthcoming election to Uyo Senatorial District by a faction of the party as a mark of desperation, which is alien to the progressive ethos and principle which the APC stands for. They also called on President Buhari to call Senator Udoedehe to order, to save the party from implosion recalling that his actions now played out in 2019 which made the APC lose the governorship seat that year.

Worried by recent developments within the party, Hon Uduak Sunday Etim, the convener of Akwa Ibom Progressive League (APL), called on the national leadership of the party to wade in and end the rift plaguing the APC in the state. In the petition he submitted to the APC headquarter in Abuja, Etim asked the top echelon of the party to resolve all issues in the Akwa Ibom State chapter in order to dislodge the PDP in the state come 2023.

Reacting recently to the happenings within the party, Press Secretary to Udoedehe, Ata Etuk, said democracy allows individuals or groups to endorse whoever they choose to endorse, adding that it is not wrong to do so. “Is there anything wrong for people to endorse somebody for an election? It happens everywhere in the world and if critical stakeholders of the party say this man has the capacity to lead us, there is nothing wrong with that, it’s allowed in a democracy,” he said. Surprisingly, Akpanudoedehe is yet to declare his interest in the gubernatorial ticket of the party up till this moment.

Aspirants

Onofiok    

Onofiok Akpan Luke is the Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Judiciary. A former Speaker of the Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly where he served for two terms, he is believed to enjoy huge followership especially among the youth and women. He is also seen as one of the aspirants with the financial muscle to prosecute the governorship contest. His major albatross is the opposition of the governor and the leadership of the PDP in the state to his ambition.

But he has vowed to go ahead with his aspiration in spite of the oppositions to his ambition. But many observers of the politics of the state are of the opinion that without the state government’s backing, it is left to be seen how he will win the primary election of the PDP.

Akpanudoedeghe

John James Akpanudoedehe,  a former Minister of State for the Federal Capital Territory and former Senator for Akwa Ibom North-East, is expected to formally declare his governorship aspiration now that the tenure of the APC Caretaker Committee is ended with the conclusion of the national convention. He is one man many see as a candidate APC can push forward if it desires to make much impact in the 2023 guber contest.

His supporters are quick to recall his governorship contest against then governor Akpabio in 2011 while pushing for his candidacy. He commands a large following across the state being no newcomer to the guber race.

Senator Bassey Akpan

Senator Bassey Albert Akpan, a.k.a OBA, who was ex-Governor Akpabio’s finance commissioner for about seven years, is another leading aspirant on the platform of the PDP. He is currently in the senate for a second term   . Many believe he has the resources to struggle for the party’s ticket with anybody or group as he has been holding government positions in the last sixteen years nonstop.

Besides, OBA is reputed to have a strong political structure across the state on account of his past electioneering processes. His supporters are even optimistic that he has enough clout within the party structure to land him the ticket should the direct or indirect mode of primary election be adopted. And being from Itu/Ibiono zone which has not produced a governor since the creation of the state, he is favoured by the ongoing clamour for rotation.

Effiong Bob

Also in the race is former Senate committee chairman on services, Effiong Bob. He is a grassroots mobiliser credited with a lot of political experiences. His supporters say he is currently watching the unfolding political drama within the ruling PDP and considering his options. He is one aspirant pundits believe will be well guided in deciding what to do in the face of the governor’s endorsement of an aspirant.

Enang

One of those who have already thrown their hats into the ring is Senator Ita Enang, Senior Special Assistant to President Muhammadu Buhari and a former Senator who represented Akwa Ibom North-East between 2011 and 2015. He was also in the House of Representatives from1999 to 2011. He is running on the platform of the APC and pundits say he is one of the favourites for the ticket.

Umo Eno

Pastor Umo Eno is the preferred candidate of Governor Emmanuel Udom and the leadership of the PDP in the state. Expectedly, he is the leading aspirant in the race as we speak. He got the endorsement of the National Assembly caucus of the state during the week and has been enjoying the backings of many of the party’s elders.

Observers of the politics of the state claim he started attracting attention immediately he entered the governorship race.

It is left to be seen whether the sudden following is a fluke to please the governor or whether he can stand his ground when the heat starts coming. Many people within and outside the state are also waiting to see how he will appeal to the people of the state to see him as his own man and not a puppet of Governor Udom’s. How he handles these crucial expectations will determine how far he can go in the race.

Others

Other names being mentioned in the race include Akan Udofia, an international businessman, who is seen a political neophyte. It is however not clear in which party he would pitch his tent but there are speculations that he may be contesting on the APC platform. Also seen as one other person that can clinch the ticket of the PDP is the current Commissioner for Information and Strategy in the state, Ini Emembong. The former Publicity Secretary of the PDP in the state has attracted massive publicity to his aspiration even before formally declaring his intention.

Akan Okon, former Commissioner for Economic Development and the Ibom Deep Seaport is also a contender for the PDP ticket. Ide Owodiong-Idemeko, who was 2019 PDP Akwa Ibom North-East senatorial aspirant, is also said to be preparing to join the race. Also being mentioned is Ani Wellington, Chief Executive Officer of Falcon Oil and Gas.