One Thing About Ekere

By UbongAbasi Ise


“A half-filled bottle makes noise, while a full bottle makes none” – Chinese Epigram

As far as I know, Obong Nsima Ekere is just like a ripe fruit grown on a roadside tree which attracts stones, sticks and all manner of projectiles to it. Every ripe fruit is always a subject of target. Nobody bothers about the unripe fruits and the rotten ones because they lack desirability. Looking at Obong Nsima Ekere, he has been assailed from all angles by chagrined political chancers who suffer palpitation each time they hear anything about him. It looks as if the orgy of mudslinging against him would never end. Those with competing interests naturally see him as a potential threat, and therefore would sponsor their minions to look out for his glitches that would help them score cheap political point. Both his intra- and inter-party opponents seem to form unholy alliance with single-mindedness to frustrate him from participating in a race towards the Hilltop mansion. As William Shakespeare writes in Julius Caesar, “there is but one mind in all these men, and it is bent against Caesar.”

But it is not that his political adversaries are aplenty as sands of the seashore. The verity is that they are not much as expected, but they are very vociferous in their trade. Before Ekere finally acquiesced in Eket to join the gubernatorial race, all sections of the state were organizing one event or the other to honour him for the developmental stride he recorded with the Niger-Delta Development Commission, NDDC.  They would not stop urging him to go for governorship elections because of his impeccable stewardship at the commission. The logical submission remains that if he could adequately spread developmental projects across the nine states of the Niger Delta, then he would transform Akwa Ibom to a destination state as well as the emerging tiger in the country’s economy. As his works continue to win him plaudits, Akwa Ibom masses was headhunting him to take over the state government, thus making his antagonists to increasingly become dolorous and bemused. Perhaps they are feeling that in an event of election, Obong Nsima Ekere “shall never be vanquished till Birnam Wood move to Dunsinane hill” as Shakespeare puts in his play, Macbeth.

Well, I had stopped admiring politicians because I believed they are the same materials cut from the same fabric. But one remarkable thing about Ekere is his acumen to remain focus: he has stood out in this regards, and has been able to impress with his typical panache in executing live-touching projects in the Niger Delta region despite a lot of political pressure coming from his supporters and antagonists alike.

The crowd that follows Obong Nsima Ekere wherever any event is hosted to his name shows that Akwa Ibom people are naturally having predilection for him to serve them in the governorship capacity. Perhaps they know that he is the real agent of change that will restore the lost glory of the state. In an oil-rich state where the rate of unemployment is alarming, where young people with productive age are reduced to beggars, and where glitzy industrialization of charlatans is suffocating the state’s economy, there is the need for a pragmatic character with proven track-record of development to take over the governance of the state.    

Obong Nsima Ekere’s camp has swelled in recent times with high and mighty in the politics of Akwa Ibom State taking positions. With the likes of Senator Godswill Akpabio, Senator Ita Enang, Obong Umana Okon Umana, Atuekong Don Etiebiet, Engr. Ita Awak, Chief Sunny Ibanga, Otuekong Sunny Jackson and other loyal chieftains of All Progressives Party, APC, Nsima Ekere looks quite intimidating. And for the opponents, the fear of him is the beginning of wisdom.

Nsima is riding on the back of sheer performance and goodwill while those in the other side of the political divide believe in demagoguery. There are also those in the APC playing spoilt sports to frustrate him. Despite all these stabs, Nsima Ekere appears as debonair as a man that is going to beat in 2019.

Yes! I am UbongAbasi Ise. For comment, send SMS to 08189914609

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