As A’Ibom Yearns For APC

By UbongAbasi Ise

“Nothing is more difficult, and therefore more precious, than to be able to decide”

― Napoléon Bonaparte

The overwhelming mammoth crowd that received the APC team at Ikot Ekpene township stadium on Saturday 21^st July 2018 has put a lie on the infamous claims that Akwa Ibom is PDP and PDP is Akwa Ibom. Maybe that was in the past. Unfolding events have shown that gone are the days when there was only one tree that made a forest in the political geography of Akwa Ibom. For the first time, there would be an opposition that would measure up in terms of resources, popularity and naked strength with the state’s ruling party. With Ikot Ekpene APC’s rally, the truth that Akwa Ibom is PDP’s has expired, and it shows that people are most likely to spurn every stratagem that would aid in sustaining the status quo.

                What would the majority of Akwa Ibom people gain if they allow PDP to remain in power and still retain the same line-up and cabals that serves as bulwark to collective socioeconomic and political progress? Whatever response that may be presenting itself, the best thing to do is to break the atavistic hierarchies that keep the majority out of the scheme of things in the governance of the state.

                I know electoral campaign strategies can play tricks on people’s rationality. As we are almost set to be overtaken by the gale and torrents of electoral campaigns, confusion would definitely set in the matters of choosing the right candidates. Political devils would be canonizing themselves into saints in a bid to win the hearts of the electorates. And it remains a matter of doubt if the electorates would dispassionately decide without being influenced by deluge of gimmickries. When angels and devils wear same faces and outlooks, and when catchphrases and politicians’ photoshoped photographs on campaign materials, saturate our public space, it befuddles people the more, and leave them to make blunders in the choices of the right candidates. And this is not good for Akwa Ibom people that are in the dire need for a new lease of life.

                Would Akwa Ibom vote massively for PDP for the continuation of the hell the citizenry have been going through since 2015?

                Under the government of Mr. Udom Emmanuel, the youths of Akwa Ibom have remained largely unemployed. All the governor does is to use well-crafted industrialization propaganda to cover the naked situation of joblessness and poverty that are causing massive emigration of youths’ population from the state to other parts of the country. The recent information released by the National Bureaus of Statistics shows that Akwa Ibom has the second highest rate of unemployment in the country, and yet Udom Emmanuel and his handlers feel comfortable enough in going about organizing phony endorsements in order to continue to impoverish the youths and stunt their growth.

                Under the present PDP administration, local government pensioners are groaning and snatching their teeth under the excruciating hunger pain and ill-health.  They are probably found by Udom’s government to be irrelevant and therefore their entitlements seemed to be a colossal waste of resources for the state government. Even their counterparts at the state level are equally complaining of their own unpaid entitlement too. Udom Emmanuel claims to be the most workers’ friendly governor ever in the history of Akwa Ibom but today civil servants are seethed with frustration over unpaid promotion arrears since this government came into power. Most of them are not even given letters of promotion to validate their new position. Ministries are frowning at the way imprest is being released by Udom’s government which mostly comes once in every four months. Why should Udom and his handlers believe workers would be biddable enough to give him their all at the polling booths in 2019?

                The promises to complete the Ibom Deep Seaport, which could have been the cornerstone of industrialization and employment, have become the subject of wicked politicking. Governor Udom Emmanuel has been all moves without movement with innumerable flag-offs and project groundbreakings under his belt.

            Udom is surrounding himself with some pompous, weak, lazy, egoistic, and vindictive appointees that go about creating more contempt for the government they are eating from while at the same time telling the Governor boss that all is well and therefore he should just sleep because PDP is Akwa Ibom and Akwa Ibom is PDP. With what we saw at Ikot Ekpene, the reality is that Akwa Ibom people would look for anything alternative to Udom Emmanuel come 2019 unless the governor alter the narrative quickly.

Yes I am UbongAbasi Ise. For Comment, send SMS to 08189914609 | ubongabasiise@gmail.com

Source: The Sensor Newspaper