The Akwa Ibom Governorship Election in Perspective
Obong Ekong
One of the most irritating opinions I have heard about the 2015 governorship election in Akwa Ibom State is that the election was free and fair, with no record of nasty incidents; and that the governor- elect, Udom Emmanuel, won by a landslide. What a wicked cock-and-bull story. Usually, to further their skewed position, they argue that Akwa Ibom is a ‘traditional’ PDP state (whatever that means). I suppose in their mind, they question the Creator of the Heaven and the Earth who gave man the fundamental freedom of choice. It means that no Akwa Ibomite has a right to belong to, canvass and/or vote for any other political party.
These submissions are just as ridiculous as Governor Godswill Akpabio’s purported support for President Goodluck Jonathan when he knew that he lacked the moral capital to champion such a crusade. Why would the electoral choices of Akwa Ibomites become a subject of national and international concern in a state where a contrived democrat’s ego is being massaged with a bogus ideology called ‘Akpabioism’? The same Akapbio who openly calls an indigene of the state a virus for holding a different political view! As the chief security officer of the state, it is not only when the trumpet of praise sounds that he should grin from ear-to-ear. The exalted office of governor also requires a large heart to accommodate blame and criticism.
Akpabio’s understanding of opposition as a disease explains his ruthless approach towards them. In the years to come, the full negative import of the Akpabio phenomenon would be manifest. Akwa Ibom, the most peaceful of the Niger Delta states, has become something akin to the den of gun-toting gangs. At no time in Akwa Ibom have we recorded so many unresolved tragedies. Akwa Ibom is at its worst divisive period, with the re-awakening of primordial communal cleavages for the sole purpose of settling political scores.
Of course, a numb conscience is not receptive to suffering and pain and, therefore, would deny the most obvious truth. The good thing about nature is that what goes around comes around. One day soon, the monster of sickening impunity would be thirsty for the blood of its creator.
It is the most demeaning lie to claim that the recent governorship election was a free and fair contest devoid of shameful occurrences and that the umpire’s adjudged winner had complete success. Akpabio opened the stream of misrepresentation on the Election Day. His claim of a massive win for the PDP based on popularity fell flat in the face of overwhelming evidence. It was an incoherent, albeit despicable concoction that ridiculed the author in the mind of right thinking members of the public. Graphic details of brazen rape on the electoral process are available to all.
As the Akpabio government could not control the sources of these overwhelming evidence that quickly went viral, the job of upturning the facts became (and is still) an uphill task. Ordinarily, Akwa Ibom is a tiny corner of Nigeria that is frequently ignored until Akpabio’s lifestyle of singing his yourown praises brought notoriety to the state. Never in the history of Akwa Ibom have we had such a leader who is given to vainglory. Run of the mill administrative accolades were elevated to gargantuan achievements. Narcissism became personified in Akapbio. Governance was tied to self. Akpabio’s photographs filled every little public space in the state. If a classroom block was renovated, it must be stamped with an Akpabio image.
Akpabio built a stadium that now sticks out like a sore thumb because it was constructed to deliver to him the sentiment about being one of its kind; playing on the sentiment of a football loving people, and because you wanted to snatch the national teams from camping in Cross River State. There was no thought on how it can be mainstreamed as a veritable source of income and livelihood. You start a singing contest simply because your people and members of your cabinet leave for the month-long fete in Calabar, but have you found a correlation between 9999 and wealth creation? At year end, it is a shame to see the mass of the people who cannot travel out flock around the water fountain. That is the best recreational space Akwa Ibomites have. Water fountain?! You build three international hotels with no consideration for the number of arrivals (and their profile).
What Akpabio has forgotten is that the best place to live is in the mind of the people. No matter how they perceive you – good or bad – you will be remembered. If Akpabio is convinced that he has left an excellent legacy, it is not the glossy coffee table books produced abroad at exorbitant costs or the weekly and live shows on electronic media that keeps showing the same projects again and again that would imprint lasting memories. The people see beyond the charade of paid and smooth advertorials that leaves a hollow ring of substance.
The argument that Akwa Ibom is a core PDP state that is impregnable is pathetic. So the teeming members of the APC, Labour Party, Accord Party and the like are not Akwa Ibomites? It means that they do not love their state. Only Akwa Ibomites who align with the PDP can wish the state well. What a pitiable stand for anyone to take. Yet you find professors and supposed men of intellect flying such myopic opinions. An inalienable capability of man is to think and act independently. Men are not supposed to be herded like cattle on a grazing field. That is why we still see dissence in totalitarian societies where threat to life is imminent. I would like to be educated on where Akpabioism stands on this!
Deciding who to vote is not as simple commanding a herd of cattle with a lashing stick to head in one direction (even at that you still find the odd stray ones). People have interests and would pander to where those concerns are better addressed. Trying to rationalise the crime of rigging for any reason is a wretched row that often leaves the parties exhausted. Those who say the 2015 governorship election in Akwa Ibom was not marred can only be right when they view it from their own prism.
Nothing can be as provocative as barefaced stealing. One of the greatest difficulties confronting the proponents of landslide victory for Udom Emmanuel is how to get INEC to fix figures for the 26-member House of Assembly that can match what it declared in the governorship result without contradicting itself.
Already, two candidates in the governorship race, Obong Umana Okon Umana of the APC and Senator Helen Esuene of the Labour Party, have filed their petitions at the election tribunal. It is common knowledge that no voting took place in most polling units and so there were no collations at both the 329 wards and 31 local government areas.
More than anywhere else, Akwa Ibom and Rivers states have been on the front burner as having the worst cases of malpractices in the 2015 election. Following Jonathan’s loss in the presidential election, PDP governors had emerged from a meeting in which Akpabio, in his usual manner, bragged that his colleagues and himself would return to their states as ‘field commanders’ to ensure the party retained the number of states it held then. Akpabio enlisted the police, army and other security agencies, bribed INEC officials to look the other way while he commanded a rampaging army that unleashed terror on the people, stealing ballot boxes, shooting, maiming and killing anyone who stood in their way. That was how he ensured a landslide for Udom. Serving commissioners, ministers, legislators ran riot in a shameful effort to give massive victory to Udom.
In most polling units across the state, original result sheets were not provided. Because result sheets were not provided, no results were announced and pasted in any of the polling units in the state and also because no results were available, collation of results was not done at either the ward collation centres or at the local government collation centres. In addition, APC and agents of other parties in the wards and local government collation agents did not witness or participate in collations of results at any of these centres.
Surprisingly, results were manufactured, apparently, in the residences of PDP chieftains with the full participation of electoral officers and the security agents. On hearing this, thousands of Akwa Ibom people went on a protest march along the streets of Uyo, protesting against the role of INEC officials, especially the REC, in the electoral debacle. Led by the APC governorship candidate, Obong Umana Okon Umana, and accompanied by the Accord Party governorship candidate, Mr Samuel Akpan, a few of the marchers went into the INEC office where they met with the REC, Mr. Austin Okojie. The REC acknowledged that, indeed, there were widespread irregularities and promised not to release the results. The results were, however, released a few hours later. The fact that there were no result sheets at the polling units in Akwa Ibom State is further buttressed by affidavits sworn to by APC agents at various polling units across the state.
–Ekong, a public affairs analyst, writes from Uyo.