Umana re-affirms interest in guber race

Mr. Umana Okon Umana, immediate past Secretary to Akwa Ibom State Government, has re-assured his teeming supporters throughout the state and beyond that he is still in the governorship race. Noting that the contest for the office of governor of the state is open to all eligible aspirants irrespective of his senatorial district, Umana called on politicians in the state who are willing and ready to feel free and enter the race.

A communiqué issued by the state chapter of the PDP after its executive committee meeting on Tuesday had sought to create confusion in the minds of the people of the state by stating that the party has “zoned the governorship position to Eket Senatorial District,” while at the same time concluding that its position on zoning “is without prejudice to the right of any other person from other senatorial districts to contest for the governorship seat in 2015.” Umana, a leading governorship contender in the 2015 race, noted that the contradiction and double speak in the position of the SEC of the party reaffirm that there is no zoning in the choice of candidates for election in the party, a position, he noted, that is also confirmed by the policy statement of the National Chairman of the party. He said the vote for open contest is consistent with the history of electoral contest in the state, urging his supporters to remain calm and trust in God’s perfect will over the election.

Umana noted Governor Godswill Akpabio’s argument that the governorship position has been zoned to Eket Senatorial District in the interest of justice because the district has never produced a governor, and observed that many commentators have already said that the governor cannot be correct, because in the larger territory of the old Cross River State, Eket Senatorial District had produced Governor U.J.Esuene, who ruled for nine years and Dr. Clement Isong, who ruled for four years, making it a total of 13 years for the district. Umana also noted that the most favoured of the aspirants being paraded for the 2015 election comes from the same Eket federal constituency as the two former governors. Other observers have noted, too, that the current managing director/chief executive of the Niger Delta Development Commission is also from Eket federal constituency, wondering what justice is all about, given the argument of the promoters of zoning that they are fighting for justice.

The former SSG observed that if the entire manoeuvring over the 2015 election was about zoning, rather than an imposition of a particular candidate, then a level playing field even would have been for other aspirants from the same federal constituency as the preferred candidate for the election. He noted that other aspirants from Eket and other parts of the state have the same right as the preferred candidate, who should not be made to enjoy any advantage over others in the name of zoning.

Umana explained that the motive of the promoters of zoning is to give undue advantage to a particular aspirant from one federal constituency at the expense of all other aspirants from the remaining nine constituencies. According to the former SSG, based on the electoral history of Akwa Ibom State, there is no alternative to open contest that is also free and transparent. He re-emphasised that he is still in the race, adding that power belongs to God who gives it to whoever He pleases.