Better For A’Ibom APC To Forget Hilltop Mansion In 2023 (Part 2)
By UbongAbasi Ise
You cannot be evading your supporters and be expecting miracles to happen in your favour at your polling unit on the D-day. Of course the point made then by the chairman of APC Ward Chairmen Forum, Engr. Saviour Williams, was a good one. It is the fact that could not be twisted: elections are conducted at units and wards. Failure to water the grassroots at early opportunity spells doom for the ambition of a political party. The aggrieved supporters of a party at the grassroots, on the D-day of an election, could be likened to suicide bombers that could deliver explosives and detonates everyone within range of the explosion.
John Gay, an English poet and dramatist had said that “an open foe may prove a curse, but a pretended friend is worse.” The enemy within could be too destructive. The aggrieved supporters whose pride could not let them cross to another political party may choose to lay in wait to repay their masters with the same coin, making them have a feel of being betrayed. They may see 2023 as an opportunity to latch on, and wreck the party’s chances from within. When there is mutual suspicion between the party leaders and the led, there can never be advancement. Supporters observe how they are treated and then make swift decision with ballot papers at hand, selling their votes to opponents because it is discernible that the way they are handled during pre-election period might be a reflection of how their principals would treat them once they take over power. Therefore the APC leaders should know that their main internal party rivals are not those competing for supremacy, the real foe are their supporters who are waiting for them at the polls in 2023, preparing to pay them back with the same coin of abandonment which they endured since 2019. Hence, it would really be safe to say that the starting point of resolving the APC’s internal crisis is to reconcile with the rank and file that were ignored immediately after the 2019 general elections.
It would have served the state APC right to see Hilltop mansion as their prime target come 2023. But it is not possible at the moment with all these internal wrangling and with leaders veering into different direction. In fact, if Akwa Ibom APC was to be a soccer team, definitely, passes would have only been circulated amongst factional, loyal teammates while fellow players of other factions are ignored pending when they would retrieve possession from their main opponents. Based on the way political governance is structured in Nigeria, governorship position appears to be the engine of political control for any state. While a governor controls both state and local governments, he also tele-guides the state’s interests at the national front. Therefore taking over the Akwa Ibom Hilltop mansion should have been at core of APC’s 2023 agenda. Governor Udom’s choice of successor should have been a rallying point of concern for all competing interests in APC. For example, the latest rumour in town claiming that Governor Emmanuel has found his anointed successor in Pastor Umo Eno, the founder of All Nation for Christ Church and the present Commissioner for Lands and Water Resources, would have given the APC an agenda to consider and strategize as a party, but it seems Udom’s choice of successor does not worry this major opposition party in the state other than their internal schisms. Pastor Umo Eno may appear as a political underdog with no beauty and colour in the eyes of the APC political Goliaths, but with the current crisis weakening the fabrics of the party’s unity, Eno, if allowed to fly the PDP gubernatorial flag, would become a nightmare for APC in 2023.
In all considerations, the APC in the state is a challenger in the governorship race. Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) is still holding the handle of the knife and has already gone a step further in mass mobilization through Maintain Peace Movement (MPM) which has been embraced by all party members and supporters despite variegated interests within. Again, the PDP still stand a chance to be a beneficiary of shattered marriages in the APC.
For how long would Akwa Ibom remain a one-party state with opposition being viewed as mmong-mmong ikong (waterleaf)? It is always healthy for democracy to have good competition amongst political parties. When one party keeps on dominating, there is a possibility to have a lopsided democracy that only favours one lineup belonging to one political party. It births a system in which government divides the citizenry and sustains one set of individuals who have enriched themselves more than the state itself; and continue to do so, placing their disciples in leadership and other sensitive offices that sustain their game of self-aggrandizement to the detriment of the greater majority.
>Better For A’Ibom APC To Forget Hilltop Mansion In 2023 (Part 1)
> Deep Seaport: Udom’s Comment On Oron Shocks Former PDP Chairman
> Unmasking Chukwuekezie, A Banker Who Knows Where A’Ibom Shoe Pinches
> Nya-Etok System And Festering Sore
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