Eket Senate Race- The recrudescence of Bassey Etienam

BY OTOBONG SAMPSON

It is no longer a revelation how the recently concluded primary elections of the Peoples Democratic Party in Akwa Ibom State was conducted; that it was twisted and brazenly skewed to suit an imperial whim is also no more news as isn’t the fiercely contested outcome of the party’s guber primary. What continues to be interesting is the ubiquitous apparitional shadow of the G22 group that is haunting the imperial plan. 

What is perhaps new and certainly pleasing is that Barr. Etienam, after such primitive exhibition of muscle, remains firmly and ahead in the senate race for Eket Senatorial District. He will be actualizing his service-inclined ambition on the ticket of the All Progressives Congress (APC). This is proof that Akwa Ibom State people have embraced politics of alternatives, a resurgent phenomenon that is permeating all strata of the Nigerian society, especially the mass class.

The argument is logical and simple: if an existing order of things keeps being characteristically flawed and corrupt, then it is quite sensible to befriend an alternative that offers genuine hope. 

Clearly, votes in the upcoming elections will not swing in party sentiment. The elections will be decided on the credibility and acceptability of candidates. And as it is, the ruling party doesn’t appear to have many of such persons running for elective offices. One such example is Eket Senate race where the people are more comfortable with the APC candidate because he emerged from a credible and popular selection process and as such, won’t owe his loyalty to a vested interest but to the electors of the district. Electors must improve on their key role if the entrenched culture of impunity within political parties is to be halted. This is one sure way to deepen democratic process. Sentiments should be subsumed by reason if the change society yearns for will be. The wheel of progress aided by the wind of change turns relentlessly and all societies and their sub-units take their turn at the field-glass of time and chance. For senate, Eket Senatorial District will not retreat! Eket Senatorial District will not compromise! The district will not equivocate! And she will be heard. Bassey Etienam is the catalyst that will usher in that moment of change.

Eket Senatorial District is unique in quite some respects. Besides its oil producing status, the heterogeneity of the district offers compelling yet pleasant challenges for its leader at the capacity of senator. Its leadership isn’t for a weak mind – one – who is plucked in to answer to a godfather’s personal obsessions as seen in other political parties. It should be given in trust to a prepared mind who has shown sufficient willingness to take up challenges. No other candidate betters Etienam on in this regard. Etienam holds the belief that the people of Eket Senatorial District, from Obolo to Ibeno, Eket to Mkpat Enin, Ikot Abasi to Oron, irrespective of its inherent complexness share not merely a common history but a common destiny. This sense of interconnected pasts and futures serves as both a history and a compass in his bid to satisfy the yearnings by the people for an acceptable representation.

The APC candidate’s representation will inspire the fruition of the dreams that have always filled the villages, the ghettos, the towns with hope, that has always animated the spirit of change. His candidacy resonates with the optimism of these dreams. It will expand the limits of this seemingly illusive yet achievable ideal to equal and fair representation. His, is a struggle against a new dimension to oppression and exploitation. The people of the district are their own liberators whose task in the 2015 election is to make a mighty stride towards genuine freedom using their votes. To take part in a revolution, it is not enough to sing the revolution song, one must act the revolution. We are witnesses today to impunity and political bestiality, the desperate efforts of a fading cabal to hang in the realm of power. Jomo Kenyatta once posited, “Our children may learn about the heroes of the past. Our task is to make ourselves the architects of the future”.

To the youths of the district, a category which I am a proud constituent, our chief consideration should be someone who will inspire us to be what we know we could be. Here is a man who shares our aspirations – representing a fundamental generational shift and yet a bridge between the youths of yesterday and the young people of today. Etienam’s candidacy runs on a clear and defined manifesto in which the elderly, women, and youths are all drivers in the journey. He can be held to his words. Those of others don’t because they are ill-prepared. Others conclude the senate office is a personal reward. Etienam regards it as one more opportunity to expand and strengthen his intercourse with humanity. 

Unlike the sweet but unrealistic lies of the others who seek the office, his ambition is not promising the people gold jets and the kingdom of heaven without righteousness; rather, it aims to usher in an era of a just and balanced representation where dreams will be supported and operated upon to come to live, where opportunities will be equal to all – from the coastal village of Eastern Obolo to the plain farmlands of Mkpat Enin.

Leadership on a political framework requires a focus on the long-term good of a society, above and ahead of any personal short term goals. Good political leadership requires a combination of charisma and integrity. But if one of the two must be absent, it must not be integrity. Etienam, unarguably, is defined by this. Eket Senatorial District would need as its senator someone serve as an example of integrity and loyalty to the electors on whose mandate he is on errand; someone with the courage to stand up and say what needs to be said, rather than what the powers want to hear. All through his public life, he has made difficult and possibly unpopular decisions for the greater good. Leadership isn’t really much about being liked all the time. It is more about achieving results most of the time. Need I also add that he has suffered for it? He has been vilified for speaking truth to powers that be, vilified for bluntly refusing to mortgage the interest of his Oro tribe for personal benefits and hated for being his own man.

“Great men make great decisions, great decisions make great achievements, and great achievements make them great men”. Martin Luther King, Jr., rightly opined that “The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy”. Etienam is a man who stood up when standing up was impossible in Akwa Ibom State. Power, he understands is nothing but the ability to achieve purpose. It is the strength required to bring about social, economic and political change. These changes, he has always fought to ensure it happens. These changes are what he seeks to bring as senator in Eket Senatorial District on the platform of APC.

Otobong Sampson is Head Consultant - O’al-kachi Media & PR., otosamm@gmail.com, 08062511412