Wednesday 19 November 2014

OBA- End of a political career? BY NSIBIET JOHN

OBA- End of a political career? BY NSIBIET JOHN

Former commissioner for Finance and chairman Inter-ministerial Direct Labour Coordinating committee Obong Bassey Albert has shown that he is still a kindergarten politician following his recent action of what many have since described as his ability to betray his followers in haste when it mattered most. Before this time, commentators have argued that Obong Bassey Albert was not a contender in the governorship race. The reason that was averred by this school of thought was simple. He was on a roadshow, a fanfare. They argued that the composition of his campaign committee was porous with men of low weight in politics except few who were sure bets to be delegates. For this writer, ever since OBA threw his hat into the ring, I have tried to imagine how he was going to be a Governor; I tried to understand how he will look like being a Governor. I sighed, but I had commended his courage.

Yours truly had believed that the ex finance commissioner had some things up his sleeves. He wanted to steal the opportunity, the chance of Eket Senatorial District to emerge the Governor. But the truth is that even if OBA did not surrender, he would have lost the election though with pride.

I am thinking of OBA, the man his supporters now call traitor, the man his supporters now refer to as a political nightmare, a man who feels that by betraying his supporters for some plates of porridge he has scored a political credit. It is not so. He lost all things and lost scandalously. It is not possible for OBA as it is now to convince his supporters that he took whatever decision he took for the overall interest of the people who made him thick, it is also not possible for the Ibiono Ibom born man to claim that he will bounce back in politics, it appears a tall dream. This is because Akwa Ibom people are a set of people that cannot be deceived or wish away with all amount of consciousness. We are not trouble makers but we stand our grounds when the time comes.


His supporters are by now throwing all kinds of stones, bottles, spikes and all of that. They have the right to. Bassey Albert has only allow his supporters to suffer in their morning of simplicity because they thought they were dealing with a serious person, they thought he was genuine; they felt he was a man of character and competence. They did not know he was a man of joke, they did not know he was not aware of the rudiments of the office of the Governor; they did not know he was a spoiler, a negotiator, a bad one at that. His supporters failed to realize that he was a mischief maker. Oba has hanged his fate on the wire.
He wanted to be Governor then. Today he is a spoiler. They say he has picked form for the senate position of Uyo Senatorial District. Who told him he will win. Who told him the people of Uyo Senatorial District are at his beck and call. Who told him the Nigerian senate needs people like him. Few of his supporters who are hanging on feel he will get to the senate hang there for eight years and then return to contest for the Governorship when the position must have been zoned to Uyo. Bassey Albert, I fear may not be a successful senator, our voice may not be heard because he will be doing fine boy in order to get cheap popularity amongst the Northerners so that in his thinking, they will support him for Governorship. That is not possible. Eight years after 2015, the youngmen and women of Uyo Senatorial District will come of age and he may only be remembered as one of those guys that made waves between 2011 to 2014.

I have tried to see Obong OBA in the eyes of the present reality of what he has done but it cannot still connect. One is not against Albert surrendering his ambition to Udom Emmanuel or whomever he would have so wishes to; it is just that the speed in which he acted on the script has left a lot of cracks in his integrity level. Information reaching us has it that OBA had met with the President Goodluck Jonathan courtesy of Governor Akpabio and then has decided to shut down his ambition on the orders of Mr. President. We are not sure he ever had a meeting with the president. One of his supporters is quoted to have said that Albert said, it is not easy to meet with the President and then still go ahead with a contrary opinion against that of the President. What a waterless excuse. The position of yours truly is that OBA should have consulted the pulse of his people if at all he had them in mind, he should have weigh the pros and cons of the decision he wanted to take before doing so, he should have remembered that he cost some of his supporters their jobs in government, he should not have been bereaved of the fact that he rose from bowing down to being bowed to and from ordinary to king. This should have made him understand that if he falters, he will lose his glory in the sight of men. And so he fell.

For instance, he deceived the people that he was fighting a war for the Ibibios, he deceived Akwa Ibomites that he was coming to salvage the state and the PDP; he deceived our Elders and today, where is he? Licking his political wounds I guess. He wants to claim he is a good person; he wants to claim he is a good party man. One cannot be a good party man when he is not a good follower. OBA is not a good follower and so he cannot be a good party man. I will explain. A good follower goes were the master directs. OBA failed to show Akpabio loyalty when it mattered most, OBA failed to reciprocate the good gestures Akpabio extended to him by making him the longest serving Finance commissioner the state has ever produced.
Rather than keep to the rules of a master to son relationship, he was busy staying in Exco and fighting the Exco until the Governor got tired of him and decided to throw him out. He was sacked. But Albert’s pussy footing and his new acquired Love now will not change what the system had already laid on for him. He has frightened Akpabio and he must wait to get his share of the Akpabiobarrassment.

But come to think of this, what could have actually triggered OBA into such mischief? That is the question on the lips of a lot of people. The answer is simple. For me, I feel it was the haste to impress, he wants to be seen as a martyr, he wants to be regarded as a patriot, unfortunately he is neither of these. One would be tempted to ask the former finance commissioner why he feels the people who helped to make him thick will still be in solidarity with him on his new found journey to the Senate of the federal Republic of Nigeria. One will also ask OBA why he believes that the people will still support him in his future political moves. We are not even sure of OBA, whether he will not run away to a foreign land in the next few months to come when it 

will be glaringly clear that the presidency and the senate leadership has already okayed Ita Enang for a second term to the red chambers of the National Assembly.

If OBA thinks Obong Godswill Akpabio is in a position to make him the Senator for Uyo Senatorial District by 2015, then he better wake up. Akpabio has demonstrated over the years that he is inconsistent in character and should not be trusted especially in this game called Politics. A serving commissioner once hinted me that Akpabio sees nothing moral in politics and so can afford to say anything to get his way; he added that the man, Godswill Akpabio does not mind anything. I believed him wholesale. Examples of Akpabio’s inconsistencies abound.

For example, he fought and contributed immensely to thwarting Effiong Bob’s third term mission to the senate after he had before a mammoth crowd boasted that Bob is the man to beat. Remember the analogy of Atama soup. Another person that has been a victim of Akpabio’s inconsistency in Character is Michael Bush. He was promised the House of Assembly position of Uruan state constituency but at the nick of time, he dumped Mr. Bush with the weak excuse that Bush is capable of leading the House to impeach him.

That is not all. Obong Umana Okon Umana was Akpabio’s five and six. The former SSG was Akpabio’s right hand man. But today, the story is different. When we remember Akpabio’s unfamous position that he was not a product of zoning and all statements made in favour of Umana’s Governorship, we can only remind OBA that sooner or later, he will meet his waterloo politically, except something very uncommon happens. Truth be told, Akpabio is ambushing OBA and at the right time, the Governor’s real intent will be seen. At the nick of time, we will all know. The dirty game has already begun. For instance, till date, as we speak, OBA has not been allowed access to the adhoc delegates of Itu Local Government Area, although the adhoc delegates have been floored and dismissed by a court methinks, if Akpabio had so loved Albert and wanted him at the senate, he should have backed it up with practical examples of allowing him access to all the delegates list of Uyo senatorial District.

OBA may not make it to the senate and if this fear is confirmed, then OBA will have to retreat his political steps. Let us not forget the story of returning at least one senator from each state. If Akpabio is offered a senate seat for Ikot Ekpene Senatorial District and an Oron man picks that of Eket Senatorial District, then OBA’s Senate moves is finished. Ita Enang will definitely humble him.

Today in Akwa Ibom state, people are so politically nourished that they do not allow money to be their deciding principle. We need people that are sound, objective, firm, non evasive and fighters to the core. We need people that will always consider the plight of their people first before they embark on any decision. OBA would have earned my respect if he had after chickening out of the race for AKS governorship dumped his decision to contest for Senate. This would have placed him in a good stead to get more famous and popular amongst his people. The argument that Akpabio asked him to contest for Governorship and that the same Akpabio and the president Dr. Goodluck Jonathan and a few others asked him to shun his guber interest for the senate because of zoning, does not add up. It has only presented him as a desperate politician because even the senate he is being asked to contest for there is zoning.

We are aware that it is the turn of Uruan and or Ibesikpo Asutan to produce the next senator for Uyo Senatorial District. It is not the turn of Ibiono Ibom. And if zoning will have to be put down in this Senatorial District, trust that it will go to Ita Enang not OBA because even if he didn’t shut down his governorship ambition, he would have still not gotten the Hiltop mansion. Now, how does OBA intends to face Usenobong Akpabio which he had hitherto supported to emerge as senator. The desperateness of getting a political position by Bassey Albert is not healthy. It has not made him a leader and has not shown him to be in possession of distinctiveness in service.

Today, he is busy plotting the graph of falling Ita Enang’s ambition, his supporters have already swung into action by telling us that Ita Enang has not empowered anybody throughout his tenure in the National Assembly and all sorts of stories against Enang, for God’s sake, we are not interested, why did they take this length of time to come say all these. Why did they not voice it open when the time was ripe, are they just saying it now because OBA wants Ita Enang’s seat and Ita Enang does not want to relinquish it?

I am sure Ita Enang is not bothered about the threat from Albert’s ambition. He can cause another dummy to be sold to Albert and the Ibiono Ibom former banker will succumb to it. Already, I am beginning to see and hear the remnants of OBA’s supporters saying that OBA’s support base is bubbling contrary to insinuations on the other hand. I can only pray it so bubbles because, so far it appears the former finance commissioner is losing touch with the people, he is losing the political battle at home and he can only make haste to rescue his once influential and all commanding political life and posturing. The battle he is fighting now is totally needless. If he does not at this time realize how he should handle this political bluff, he may as well be only remembered as one of those who stood tall to contest the governorship of 2015 only for him to chicken out when it mattered most. I wish him well.

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