G22, you must now act!

BY UKPONG UKPONG

There was a sense of  foreboding certainty deep in my mind that the national leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, will turn deaf ear to all the damning evidences contained in petition by the 22 aggrieved governorship aspirants leveled against the recently  stage managed and largely flawed PDP Governorship Primary and go ahead to endorsed its beneficiary, Mr. Udom Emmanuel, as its standard bearer in Akwa Ibom state. 

Going by penchant of the party to condone wrong doing especially, if it considers the perpetrator powerful, it should not have needed a soothsayer to conclude that all efforts by the G22 to press for their right would fail despite tremendous support their cause enjoyed among party faithful and people of the state. 

For a party that promotes obnoxious ideas like ‘principle of convenience’ meaning anything is allowed provided the party stands a good chance of success, nothing less than impunity and outright disdain for popular decision should be expected. And, as a matter of fact, what is happening in PDP today is the flipside of democracy, once it is degraded into a system where few individuals could bend the rules guiding its practice. 

The Akwa Ibom experience is a clear case of oligarchy, a form of power structure in which power effectively rests with a small number of people. Throughout history, oligarchies have often been tyrannical, relying on enforced public obedience and oppression to exist. They may not necessarily be connected either by wealth or bloodlines, but are certainly a privileged few holding the masses to ransom. 

It is vital to note that only mass action can end oligarchy. Historical facts reveal that the Athenians, having experienced bondage of oligarchy for several decades, decided to purge the scourge from their political life through several ‘oligarchical coups’, after which they institutionalized the drawing of lots in order to counteract what they acutely saw as a tendency toward oligarchy in government. 

In 2007, we all vilified the former governor, Obong Victor Attah, for attempting to impose a governorship candidate on us. We rallied round the less known Barrister Godswill Akpabio and ensured that he succeed as governor. Today, barely eight years later, that same person having transformed into Obong, Chief (Dr.) Barrister Godswill Obot Akpabio (CON) is on the same mission, confirming an Ibibio saying, “eto ase mmong, ase mmong”.

Lord John Dalberg-Acton, the first Baron Acton and English historian once warned in his ageless quote that ‘power corrupts, and absolute power corrupt absolutely’, proving that at times even the actors in the arena of politics are themselves victims of controlling influences that tend to corrupt them, turning them into monsters. 

Consequently, it is our sacred duty as demos, who hold the sovereignty, to check mate such tendencies anytime they arise by voting that system out of power. It will therefore be great disservice to Akwa Ibom State and its people including our forbears, we that are present today and our posterity if G22 give in to threat, intimidation or inducement. 

Those of you thinking that loyalty to PDP will be rewarded should ask Benjamin Okoko, who stepped aside for Victor Attah in 1999 and Nsima Ekere, who has remained loyal to Godswill Akpabio since 2007, how they have been rewarded. Incidentally, most of you have, in one way or the other, contributed immensely towards the success of PDP government in Akwa Ibom State 16 years now, yet when your time of reward came, the party outsourced its governorship ticket to an interloper. 

Had the process of choosing its candidate been transparent, free and fair, it would have been a different story after all in democracy majority rule is inevitable. But, a situation where some people are schemed out while others are intimidated into submission smacks of nothing other than totalitarianism in democracy, a complete antithesis. 

It is also expedient for G22 to recognize the fact that as far as we claim to be practicing democracy, the political party system exists merely as a vehicle for candidates to contest election simply because the Nigerian Constitution has no provision for independent candidates yet.

Nevertheless, Akwa Ibom electorates like the Athenians are upset with displayed tendency of the Akpabio PDP towards oligarchy as such will vote to stop them and salvage our nascent democracy . Indeed, our people matter more than political parties.

This is a clarion call on G22 to join the ranks of teeming concerned Akwa Ibom electorates and make us stronger in pushing for an end to insensitivity and impunity. You have opportunity to decamp from the PDP, which has proven again and again to be insensitivity to deep concerns expressed by you and Akwa Ibom people against glaring irregularities and deliberate abuse of due process during its last governorship primary that sought to impose Udom Emmanuel on the people.

The G22 have done a great job thus far by proving that united we can hold the system to account yet this leviathan we are dealing with understands only one language and that is mass action. When  G22 and their supporters leave the PDP it will then learn the hard truth that a political party exists for the people and not vice versa. You must therefore leverage on the gains recorded so far by exiting the PDP and galvanizing electorates to put a definite stop to impunity.