Akpabio Factor, Sectionalism, And The Drive For Opposition Politics In Annangland
By UbongAbasi Ise
“At the end of the day, we must go forward with hope and not backward
by fear and division” – Jesse Jackson
History has a way of
reconstructing past human actions with the fragments of available evidences and
then place judgment on the heads of those that play one role or the other in
human existence. Today the whole of Nigeria is bedeviled with ethno-sectional chauvinism,
and one of the terrible manifestations is political marginalization and
domination of certain ethnic groups. This has led to stiff leadership struggles
as political actors consistently look for a political platform that would
guarantee both individual and collective prosperity. There is an oft-held claim
that ethnicity is one factor that configured the nature of Nigerian politics
but it is also believed in some quarters that it is politics that created and
deepened ethnicity in the country.
Many
historians have corroborated the claim that there was nothing like ethnic
division along Annang-Ibibio fault-line until politics came to change all that.
In my very brief discussion with Dr. Ini Etuk, an erudite scholar in the
Department of History and International Studies, University of Uyo, I was
briefed that every attempt to establish a distinct Annang history from Ibibio proper
always seems to amount to scholarly failure because Annang is an Ibibio
sub-group coming from the same source. Another History lecturer in the same
institution, Dr. Uwem J. Akpan, who is fast becoming an authority in Akwa Ibom
traditional history, maintained that history, for now, lack that clear-cut
description on the ethnic demarcation between Annang and Ibibio. According to him,
the word, Annang, was circumstantially employed by the Central Ibibio to
describe their Western Ibibio brothers. Akpan took time to illustrate the fact
that Afaha people, all over Akwa Ibom and across various dialectal groupings in
the state came from the same stock. That is why Mboho Akwa Afaha, a
socio-cultural arrangement, draws its membership from all sections of the state
without minding whether an individual is from Ibibio, Annang, Oron or Eket.
They all share the same motto, ‘Afaha Nte Enin.’ In a specific instance, Dr. Uwem Akpan noted that when the ‘Enin’ of
Afaha, the late Okuku Johnson Udom, an Annang man from Ikot Nneke village in
Ukanafun local government area was buried, all sections of Afaha group in the
state came together and performed a traditional
set of Afaha burial rites before the body was interned. The same order of
burial customs were repeated by Afaha group when the remains of the paramount
ruler, Robert James Obot, an Ibibio man from Ikot Ekpene Udo in Nsit Ubium
local government area was committed to the mother earth. An Eket man Chief Oduenyin
also emerged the Enin of Afaha. Therefore, Dr. Akpan’s submitted that there is
no dichotomy amongst Afaha people in Ibibio, Annang, Oron, and Eket. The same
thing with Oku, one of the largest groups in the state. Oku people spread all
over the state, therefore, whether Oku man is from Nnung Oku in Ibesikpo/Asutan
or Oku Abak in Abak local government area makes no difference because Oku is
one group. About 26 villages in Obong Clan in Etim Ekpo local government area,
according to Dr. Akpan, migrated from Ibibio community of Obong Itam in Itu
local government area. Obio Akpa community in Oruk Anam could also trace their
own origin to Uruan in Ibibioland. This underlies the fact that Annang are part
of Ibibio irrespective of dialectal variance until a new finding proves
otherwise.
If Ibibio and
Annang are one stock as historical facts pointed out, then what really caused
this profound splitting betwixt? What was the determining factor that enthroned
this divisive consciousness on the thinking of the groups? Who were those
involved in reinventing ethnic identities for Ibibio and Annang groups?
At the centre of this conundrum, history points out
at Ibanga Udo Akpabio from Ukana Ikot Ntuen in the present day Essien Udim
local government area, an uncle to the former Governor of Akwa Ibom State and
the present Senate Minority leader, Senator Godswill Akpabio. As the story
goes, Ibanga Udo Akpabio was fortunate enough to be amongst the pioneer six
beneficiaries of the Ibibio State Union's oversea scholarship award whose
membership were drawn from six Ibibio administrative divisions of Abak, Eket,
Ikot Ekpene, Ikot Abasi, Itu, and Uyo of the Old Calabar Province during the
time of British colonial administration. But, according to historians, Ibanga
Akpabio would become the very one that Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe would use as a
divisive knife to cut the very thing that bound all Ibibio sections
together. As McPherson constitution provided
that the three Regional Assemblies through Electoral College needed to elect candidates
to the Federal House of Representatives, Azikiwe, who represented Lagos seat, felt
that Chief Obafemi Awolowo used the numeral strength of Yoruba-based Action
Group, AG, to betray him and Igbo elements who were dominant members of
Nigerian Convention of Nigerian Citizen, NCNC, from having a shot at the
national assembly. This happened in 1951 election. When Dr. Azikiwe was denied
the opportunity to represent Lagos in the Federal House of Representatives, he
came down to the Eastern Region wearing full garb of ethnicity and orchestrated
the process that saw the 1952 impeachment of Prof. Eyo Ita, an Ibibio man, who was
the then Premier and the Leader of the Government Business of the Eastern
Region.
With the threat of Igbo imperial domination over
Ibibio nation in the Eastern Region, the leader of Ibibio State Union, Udo
Udoma and Prof. Eyo Ita formed the United National Independent Party, UNIP,
along with Alvan Ikoku, an Igboman from Arochukwu. They pushed for a coalition
with Action Group with the aim of wresting power from Azikiwe’s Eastern
Regional ruling party, NCNC. What Azikiwe did was to find an ally from Ibibio
nation. Despite Ibibio’s resolve to stand firm together on the platform of
their new found coalition to face the Nnamdi Azikiwe’s NCNC, Ibanga Udo Akpabio
despised his own Ibibio people and worked in cahoots with Azikiwe who
eventually emerged the Premier of the region in the 1953 elections. Azikiwi
blessed Akpabio with ministerial appointment: He was given the portfolio of a
Minister of Education and Internal Affairs, and most times he assisted Zik in
the premiership role. The strategem that was perfected then was that, while all
the other provinces in the region were named after towns and cities, for
example Calabar province, Port Harcourt province, Uyo province, Eket province, etc.,
the one that supposed to be Ikot Ekpene province, where Ibanga Akpabio came
from, was called Annang Province which made it the only province named after an
ethnic group.
Because the rest of Ibibio did not support his
interest as accommodated under Azikiwe’s political ambition, Ibanga Udo Akpabio
used his political advantage as a minister to attract developments to Annang at
the expense of other provinces in Ibibio. With this, the seed of ethnic
division was sown between Annang and the rest of Ibibio land. The Ibibio State
College saga in Ikot Ekpene did not help matter, and the court case that
followed widened the already broad cleavage between Annang and their central Ibibio
brothers.
History can be cyclical in directionality. The same
problem has resurrected today in the grave of history. Like Ibanga Udo Akpabio
caused Ibibio to seek their political destiny in the opposition camp, the Abak
Federal Constituency today has equally been pushed by another personality from Akpabio
lineage to seek justice outside the Peoples’ Democratic Party, PDP, the Akwa
Ibom State ruling party. Today, the constituency comprising of Abak, Etim Ekpo
and Ika local government areas in Ikot Ekpene Senatorial District feels
marginalized, deprived and they found their right to have a feel of a seat at
the Red Chambers systematically denied. The federal constituency has seen
Senator Godswill Akpabio as the reincarnation of Ibanga Udo Akpabio who put a
divisive knife between Annang and Ibibio. They see Godswill Akpabio as the same
old factor returning to entrench injustice and division among Annang nation.
Speaking with The Sensor correspondents
recently, Barr. Joe Ukpong, the former Commissioner for Environment in Akwa
Ibom State and a stalwart of All Progressives Congress, APC, bemoaned how Abak/Etim Ekpo/Ika has been
wickedly been shut out in today’s power equation in the national legislature. According
to Barr. Joe Ukpong, who hails from Abak, “If you look at Ikot Ekpene
Senatorial District, you will see that Abak Federal Constituency has not gone
to the Senate before. The country has 360 federal constituencies, only one has
never gone to the Senate, and that is Abak. Is that not sympathetic? Some
constituencies have gone 3 times; some have gone twice, and no one go once,
except Abak/Etim Ekpo/Ika federal constituency that has not gone at all. Ikot
Ekpene Federal Constituency has gone to the Senate four times through Senator Raymond
Umoh, Senator Nsima Akpabio, Senator Emmanuel Ibokessien and Senator Godswill
Akpabio. Ikono Federal Constituency has gone twice through Senator Aloysius
Etok. Oruk Anam/Ukanafun has gone three times through Senator Donald Etiebiet,
Senator Akaninyene Ukpanah and Senator Itak Bob Ekarika. But there is one that
has not gone at all. Where is justice in Ikot Ekpene Senatorial District?”
Reacting to the pronouncement made by the Chairman of
Abak local government area, Barr. Imoh Williams that Senator Godswill Akpabio
should stay on the seat in the upper chamber of the national assembly till he
becomes weary, Joe Ukpong described such statement as very insulting, sardonic
and sad.
Ukpong believed that with APC, the future of Abak
Federal Constituency is bright. He maintained that despite paucity of votes
ascribed for President Muhammadu Buhari in Ikot Ekpene Senatorial District in
2015 elections, the gains brought by the federal government-controlled APC to
the senatorial district are tremendous. Ukpong pointed out that Gen. George Umoh
(Rtd) from Abak was appointed envoy to the Holy See; Akanimo Edet, Udoma
Ekarika, Tony Esu, Chrysantus George and even Emem Akpabio have all been
appointed into the Federal Boards by President Buhari. Even Ibokette Ibas from
Abak, who is Chief of Naval Staff, was appointed by Buhari’s APC-led
government, and he has been able to use his position to attract Naval College
to Ikot Ntuen in Oruk Anam, which in turn brings development to the area.
Barr. Joe Ukpong believed that through PDP
government, Senator Godswill Akpabio’s godson, Mr. Udom Emmanuel, the governor
of Akwa Ibom State, despite being an Annang in-law, has marginalized and neglected
Ikot Ekpene Senatorial District. Ukpong recalled how Uyo-Ikot Ekpene Road was
abandoned, especially the Ikot Ekpene section of the road. He didn’t forget to
mention the intractable problem of insecurity in Ukanafun and Etim Ekpo, where Udom
Emmanuel blatantly refused to address. The violent situation in that part of
Annangland has forced the locals to flee their homes for safety.
Against this background, Annang people are welcoming APC train led by
its National Chairman, Comrade Adam Oshiomole to Ikot Ekpene Senatorial
District on Saturday 21st July 2018. They are seeking justice and
equipoise that would help reconcile the divided Annang brothers. They would
declare support for the party that is expected to restore fairness; a party with
poise to fix the imbalances found in the distribution of the dividends of
democracy in Ikot Ekpene Senatorial District.
Source: The Sensor Newspaper
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