Victims Of Democracy: Any Hope For Akwa Ibom In 2023?
By UbongAbasi Ise
Since democracy in Nigeria is
truly Nigerian, the way it is communicating itself and its dividends to
Hausa-Fulani, Yoruba, Igbo and other ethnic nationalities in the country is not
exactly the way it interprets itself to the composite of Akwa Ibom ethnics. Fundamental
to this is that a Nigerianized democracy is boldly assuring the major ethnic
groups that they are the lords over the system. In this way the minorities
becomes acutely aware that all they have to do is to struggle at the periphery of
the power constructs just to have some crumbs of the national cake. Looking at
Akwa Ibom State in its age-long struggles with the forces of democratization at
the national front, the number of men and women the state produces to serve the
country in the higher posts of national responsibility and the number of
projects and programmes it is able to attract home from the federation are
miserably negative on the aggregate, although, with a slight increase during
President Muhammadu Buhari just concluded first tenure. If democracy is
constantly supporting the tyranny of the majorities, methinks the safety-valves
for the minorities are to make some calculated determination to vote for
collective interests, nip the individual ambition in the bud, and seek strength
in right zonal alignment where the objectives and opportunities are best
guaranteed. But the people of what is now called Akwa Ibom, according to traces
of history, are no good examples of a minority seeking to forge a united front
in a bid to pursue their aspiration in the competing Nigerian project. Even
though there was no Akwa Ibom when the second republic was inaugurated in 1979,
the people existed as citizens of the Old Cross River State and participated
fully at the beginning of the American-styled Presidential democracy as
practiced today. In this way, we can never say that the people of Akwa Ibom are
neophytes in the prevailing democratic setup or lack experience about its
variegated shortcomings. But their unsystematic approach to the matters of
electioneering and policy of alignment, as candidly observed in recent time,
seems to be placing the state in a situation of perpetual political inertia.
How Akwa Ibom
State will survive the next four years is a matter of many shades of concern. After
Before tackling the question it is pertinent
to first review the past democratic behavior of the state because the way Akwa
Ibom has been conducting itself in 2019 electioneering and politicking throws
the state into serious risk in the trappings of national politics. It makes one
wonder if Akwa Ibom is moving calculatedly or plunging blindly into the future.
The people of the state have been known to play a purposeful politics in the
past. The people have historical tradition of playing mainstream politics even
before Akwa Ibom was excised from Cross River State in 1987. While in Cross
River at the time Nigeria switched to the current US-modeled presidential style
of democracy in the second republic which commenced in 1979 and terminated in
1983, the people were not committing common errors as they do in 2019 under
Akwa Ibom banner. Then, politics was purposeful. Old Cross River first
considered political ethno-regional alignments that would best suit their
common yearnings and expectations at the time civilian rule was returning after
long military interregnum. According to a Professor of History and
International Studies in the University of Uyo, Dominic Akpan, while
interacting with yours truly recently, there was a mutual tension between the
Igbo and the people of the Old Cross River. The tension stemmed from the Igbo’s
dominance of the National Council of Nigerian Citizens (NCNC) in the first
republic’s Eastern Region, coupled with the fact that power was concentrated in
the hands of the few at the expense of the majority. As Akpan put it, the
tension intensified by the time Cross Riverians withdrew their support for
NCNC, which made the Igbo to become very contemptuous towards the people of Cross
River. He cited a particular instance in which Michael Okpara, the then Premier
of Eastern Region between 1959 to 1966, came to Iyere community in the present
day Ibiono local government area to dismantle a Palm Mill that was of great
economic importance to the people of the mainland Cross River State. In his
words, “We didn’t have a voice, if we had a voice, the voice was not heard, and
only very few people were able to say anything.” Against this backdrop, majority
of the people did not vote for an Igbo, Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe of the Nigerian
People's Party (NNP) in 1979 presidential election. Also, the strained
relationship between the Old Cross River State and the Yoruba was linked to
role Chief Obafemi Owolowo and General Olusegun Obasanjo played in depriving
the Cross Riverians and other indigenes of Niger-Delta fair share of oil proceeds
produced at their backyard.
Prior to
1970, the derivation from resources was 50%. Chief Obafemi Owolowo proposed the
reduction to 45% and forwarded it to General Yakubu Gowon, the then Head of
State, who by a decree, promulgated it in 1970 with concomitant seizure of oil
produced offshore. In 1977, General Olusegun Obasanjo slashed the derivation to
25% while still holding firm on entire off-shore production, hence, the battle line
of onshore-offshore oil dichotomy was drawn.
For the above reasons, Old Cross River voted to
punish Chief Obafemi Owolowo of Unity Party of Nigeria (UPP) in 1979
presidential election, and there were left with the least of all evils – Alhaji
Shehu Shagari of the National Party of Nigeria, whom they gave 64.40 of their
votes leaving Azikiwe and Owolowo with 7.66 and 11.76 respectively in the
elections.
Also speaking on why people of then Cross River State
collectively rooted for a Northerner instead of candidates of Igbo and Yoruba
extractions in the 1979 presidential elections was Dr. Uwem Akpan, a lecturer well-versed
in the traditional history in the Department of History and International
Studies, University of Uyo. As he put, Shagari, as a minister in the first
republic a federal commissioner for finance during the military era, was a
cool-headed man. As at the time the Sokoto Caliphate held sway in Nigeria’s
politics, and being a Sokoto man from the lineage of Uthman dan Fodio, it was
believed in some quarters that the “election was rigged in favour of Shagari
and this influenced his emergence as a “democratically-elected president” of
Nigeria. Notwithstanding, the people of Cross River opted to vote for him
massively.
Back to the main issue, the people of the Old Cross River
State showed clear political direction in line with their collective pulse.
During Shagari-led NPN administration, the state was in the mainstream of
Nigeria’s politics and benefited immensely given the number of industries. The
state also elected Dr. Clement Isong, a vibrant, developmentally-oriented NPN
candidate. In my interaction with
another erudite scholar and lecturer in the Department of History and
International Studies, Dr. Ini Etuk, he said Old Cross River State benefited
immensely by being in the mainstream, and accordingly, “it was practically
impossible for any state to embark on any particular project without the tacit
support of the Federal Government”. He added that Clement Isong’s government
was strongly supported by Shagari government, hence the giant stride recorded
in the area of industrialization. As would be noted, Cross River at the time,
especially the mainland section which is now Akwa Ibom State, had several
industries such as Quality Ceramic Industry, Itu; Qua Steel Industry, Eket; Biscuit
Industry, Ukana; Abestonic Industry, Oron; Sunshine Batteries, Essien Udim;
Plastocrown, Uyo, and some recorded and
so on. As Dr. Etuk noted, “the NPN era was winners take it all,” and our people
were not having it bad.
In the Third Republic that was forcefully botched by
General Ibrahim Babangida’s regime, then Akwa Ibom State had existed, the
people of the state had expressed their stance in the mainstream Nigeria’s
politics. Although the two political parties that were allowed to produce
candidates for June 12 presidential elections were the creation of Babangida’s
government, and were barren with political ideologies. As would be recalled, in
a nationwide broadcast on October 7, 1989, the military president banned all
the political parties that were cleared by the National Electoral Commision
(NEC), saying they were unfit for registration. General Ibrahim Babangida went
on to create the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and the National Republican
Convention (NRC). Here, parties’ ideological leanings did not matter; all that
was stressed were personalities of candidates involved in the contestation.
First, since the Northerners in the military khaki were the ones controlling
the government since 1983, the general pulse of other regions in the country
was to look out for a civilian President outside the Northern sphere. And despite
the fact that Obong Akpan Isemin that was elected in 1992 on the platform of
NRC was at the helm of affairs in the state, the people of Akwa Ibom and other
geopolitical setups in the country came together to give Moshood Kashimawo
Abiola of SDP 214,787 votes (51.86%) of the total votes in the 1993 general
elections while Alhaji Bashir Tofa of NRC was handed 199,342 votes (48.14)
despite Isemin’s influence. Abiola, with his business sagacity and altruism,
was generally believed he would pull Nigeria out of doldrums of maladministration,
and restore the years the barracks cankerworms were ravaged. But then, they
struck, and the Third Republic was all over.
When the Fourth Republic birthed in 1999, the Akwa
Ibom State joined the majority to vote for Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, the
presidential candidate of the Peoples’ Democratic Party, PDP, and elected their
own son, Obong Victor Attah on the same platform. Despite being in the
mainstream politics, Attah was to lead a concrete struggle against the
government at the center over the deprivation of the state’s fair share of
income which resulted in the current regime of 13% derivation from crude oil.
Since 1999 to date, a period of about 20 years, Akwa
Ibom has remained in the PDP even when the All Progressives Congress (APC)
snatched the center from the PDP in 2015. But surprisingly, Akwa Ibom has
become a major beneficiary of President Muhammadu Buhari-led APC administration
beyond every expectation given the high number of appointments and projects
sited in the state.
In the state, for the first time since 1999, the
performance of the incumbent State Governor, Mr. Udom Emmanuel is rated below
par when compared to the administrations of Obong Victor Attah and Chief
Godswill Akpabio. The industrialization agenda of the state government seems to
be struggling. Could this be that synergy between the state and the federal
government is lacking? Let’s rethink Clement Isong’s government in the Old
Cross River State.
Akwa Ibom State was once again declared for PDP after
2019 elections, showing that the political asymmetry may continue well into 2023.
According to Dr. Ini Etuk, “given the way we are, and against the backdrop of
what has been happening in the last 20 years in Akwa Ibom State so to speak, I
don’t see Akwa Ibom state taking the center stage apart from appointive
positions. For one, you can’t vie for even the Vice Presidential office or the
presidential position of this country. It is not because that we can’t seek but
how well do we understand the political equation in the country? It beats my
imagination when I hear people saying Akwa Ibom is APC for life; Akwa Ibom is
PDP for life. That kind of mindset is quite appalling. Why should somebody
pigeonhole himself without knowing essentially the requirements of political
alignment and realignment in order for you to exact what is meaningful for
yourself and for your people? We seem to play very silly kind of politics.”
The voting pattern as observed in 2019 general
elections is an explicit notion that Akwa Ibom and other states in the
South-South and South-East geopolitical zones, are sharing the same political
orientation by taking pride in the political party identity rather than
alliances that would marry them into the mainstream. They all supported PDP. The
two regions, through this year’s elections, showed clear opposition stance. The
question is: would Akwa Ibom through the South-South/South-East regional
alliance, with common interest weave into the PDP latch onto power reins
through next general elections in 2023?
For instance,
during a presentation of the Voter Register in Abuja on Monday, January 7,
2019, INEC chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, disclosed that 20,158,100 voters were
registered in the northwest, making up 24% of the total 84,004,084. The
southwest region comes second with 16,292,212 registered voters (19.39%) - The
two aforementioned geopolitical zones are the APC domains. But looking at the
PDP-controlled zones, the South-south had 12,841,279 registered voters (15.29%)
while the South-East 10,057,130 voters (11.97%). What is the hope of Akwa Ibom
in South-South/South-East alliance if the trend is maintained till 2023
elections?
Commenting on
Akwa Ibom political understanding with the PDP states in the South-East, Prof.
Dominic Akpan said it is the marriage that would not work. He said politics is
the game of number and the survival depends on what the regions found appealing
in the status quo, but advised that if they think that PDP is no longer useful,
they migrate to another political platform.
Again, Akwa
Ibom people should have bothered that why most of the lofty programmes
initiated by the federal government seem not to have significant influence on
the lives of Akwa Ibom citizenry is hinging fundamentally on the rivalry existing
between the APC and PDP. There are allegations of deliberate attempts by the
PDP to thwart the programmes of the APC-controlled federal government from
creating solid impact on the state’s development so as to make APC unpopular in
Akwa Ibom. Therefore this situation
could be arrested if the state is relinked to the mainstream political party as
we proceed towards 2023. All Akwa Ibom need to do as another dispensation
commences is to re-strategize and find a way of being reintegrated in the
mainstream politics in the next four years.
Yes! I am UbongAbasi Ise. For
Comment, send SMS to 08189914609 | ubongabasiise@gmai.com
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