AKWA IBOM: Gov. Eno’s Defection to APC Triggers Confusion Amongst Stakeholders

June 08, (THEWILL) – The resignation of a commissioner in Akwa Ibom State, Dr. Ini Ememobong, in protest against Governor Umo Eno’s formal defection from the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, to the All Progressives Congress, APC, on Friday was not unexpected.

The PDP had dominated the state since the country’s return to civil rule in 1999 and all the while, it never encountered major political opposition such as witnessed in Delta, Rivers and Cross River States, where the gradual build-up in strength by the APC over time helped to make defections in those states a piece of cake.

Eno’s defection was therefore a defining moment for many, a significant political shift in the state’s political realignment that has ignited heated reactions.

Anticipating heated debates and reactions to his defection, Eno undertook “three months” of strategic consultations with stakeholders and the grassroots, deploying arm twisting tactics sometimes and at other times, openly issuing threats against resisters. Ending the PDP’s 26-year dominance in the state is no mean job, especially for a governor who has just done two years of his first tenure in office.

Following the open resignation by the commissioner, who had apparently played along at a recent cabinet meeting where members agreed to defect alongside the governor, the question now, according to observers, is what next?

Ahead of the governor’s defection on Friday and the commissioner’s resignation, dark clouds had begun to gather over Akwa Ibom.  Between Tuesday and Wednesday, some lawmakers had separately defected to the APC. Others decided to bide their time and on June 6, made up their mind to stay away from the grand event.

For example, the Speaker of the House of Assembly Rt.Hon. Udeme Otong, officially defected from the PDP to the APC last Tuesday alongside the Commissioner for Information, Aniekan Umanah. The Chairman of Abak Local Government Area and many other key PDP stakeholders also followed. They all hail from that constituency.
Not all state lawmakers have switched.

THEWILL checks showed that 15 out of the 26 members of the State House of Assembly have declined to join the APC as at the time of writing this report.

Further checks shows that all those who rejected the directive to defect to the APC are loyalists of the immediate past Governor of the state and godfather of the current of the current governor. Councillors who say they were not carried along by the governor during his consultations are also aggrieved. They claimed that the governor consulted with local government chairmen, members of the National Assembly and other stakeholders, wondering why they were neglected. The lawmakers fear that the defection will expose them to a more structured platform where aspirations have coalesced and thereby halt their re-election bid in 2027.

Reacting to these developments, Mr. Emmanuel Enoidem, a former National Legal Adviser of the PDP, in a note made available to THEWILL on Friday, stated that there was no justifiable reason for the governor’s defection. He said he refused to follow the governor because he chose to draw a line between value and convenience.

Disclosing that he had advised the governor to remain in the PDP and continue the development strides of his administration, Enoidem, who was also a former Commissioner for Special Duties during the governorship of Godswill Akpabio in 2007, claimed that the APC is “harassing many people and using intimidation to pressure people into joining the party ahead of the 2027 general elections.”

“Political parties should serve as ideological homes not mere platforms for personal gain. Political constituency and discipline are essential in strengthening Nigeria’s democracy,” Enoidem said, adding that, “He is one of the best governors we have had in the country, but I don’t think everybody should yield to that intimidation.”

Commissioner for Information, Umanah, however, told THEWILL that there is no opposition to the governor over his defection.

“What has happened in Akwa Ibom State is a movement. The governor has overwhelming support to make the decision on enlightened state interest across board,” he told this newspaper on Saturday morning in a phone chat, adding that, “Governor Umo Eno was elected governor of the state and not for a party. So, the interest of a majority of the people becomes paramount. He is running an inclusive administration.”

GRASSROOTS REACTION

No reaction best illustrates the opposition to the governor’s defection other than the last town hall meeting he conducted last Wednesday.

The meeting took place in Ikot Abasi where a receptive crowd had gathered.  Eno who spoke at the Town Square Meeting with the constituents of the Ikot Abasi Federal Constituency that Wednesday, said he had conducted extensive consultations and was convinced that “it is time to move” in order to align the state with the ruling party at the federal level.

“We’re progressively moving forward, linking Akwa Ibom to the centre. And I know you’re going with us. Are you going with us, so we can connect to the centre?” he asked the people and got a resounding “No! No!! Noo!!” from voices which drowned out the few yeses among them. Unperturbed, the governor proceeded to reassure the people, as he had done during the state-wide consultations, that they should be hopeful because the future is bright and both President Tinubu and Senate President Godswill Akpabio need support across party lines to be re-elected in 2027.

MUM IN PDP

Efforts to contact the Chairman of the PDP, Aniekan Akpan for his reaction failed as he neither answered his phone nor replied to text messages. However, Governor Umo’s revelation that he had consulted widely for three months before Friday’s defection, provided some insight into the party’s reaction.
A month ago when the governor first alluded to his defection plan by likening PDP to a faulty aircraft unfit to fly at Ukanafun/Oruk Anam town hall meeting, Akpan responded to enquiries by saying that talk about the governor’s defection was baseless.
“I am not aware of any concluded plans to join APC…The governor made an analogy. Like you are interpreting it, somebody else may interpret it to mean something else,” he said. He was conspicuously absent at the Friday event.
Akpan’s counterpart in the APC, Obong Stephen Ntukekpo was in high spirits on Friday, describing the defection as a prized trophy that would not only take the state and “every Akwa Ibomite across party lines to the centre, open the state to inclusion but also guarantee the re-election of Governor Umo Eno in 2027…”

Even so, the Chairman of the Progressives Governors Forum, APC, and Governor of Imo State, Hope Uzodinma, alluded to the testy moments sparked by the defection when while delivering his address, he said, “Leaders will take decisions for followers, sometimes the decision may not be seen immediately…”

REALITY CHECK

Although Akwa Ibom presents a different political trajectory as Delta, Cross River and Rivers States where the APC had established a formidable foothold to smoothen the path to defections, analysts say Eno’s defection had been long expected.

According to them, the subtle movement started in 2018, shortly after Akpabio in a move that showed the parting of ways with PDP, resigned as PDP Minority Leader in the Senate, defected to the APC and engineered the take-over of the state’s political structure through his sponsorship of a former Managing Director of the Niger Delta Development Commission, NNDC, Nsima Ekere, for the governorship election in 2019 on the platform of the APC. He failed. Worse, Akpabio lost his senatorial re-election bid to former Deputy Governor of the state, Emmanuel Ekpenyong. Since then, political sources say, the battle line was drawn between Akpabio and PDP stakeholders in the state.

Unrelenting, Akpabio kept on the heat. He is said to have played a big role, through mobilisation and house to house campaign, to help President Tinubu secure 27 per cent of the votes cast in the state, next to PDP’s 47 per cent for its candidate, Atiku Abubakar, in the 2023 presidential election.

Akpabio’s controversial re-election as Senator in 2023 and his subsequent elevation to the status of number three citizen after becoming President of the Senate, strengthened his hands to turn the tables against his rivals as he could claim the privilege of being the President’s man in Akwa Ibom and in South-South politics, coordinating the distribution of federal patronage in the region.

In view of the governing APC’s moves to mop up opposition ahead of the 2027 election, which led to the recent defection of Delta State Governor Sheriff Oborevwori, members of his cabinet, local government chairmen in the state and ex-Governor Ifeanyi Okowa, as well as the possible defection of embattled and suspended Governor Siminalayi Fubara of Rivers State, sources say Umo had to make a tough choice. The leadership crisis in PDP, further softened the grounds for him to make the decision to defect from the party, as he said on many occasions during his consultations.

Shortly before his defection, Umo received an endorsement for a second term from Senator Akpabio. After his defection on Friday, the governor immediately paid a visit to Akpabio.

DEFEATING THE OPPOSITION

With the combination of federal might represented by Senator Akpabio and the governor’s grip on the state treasury, those opposed to his defection have a formidable power to contend with in the days, weeks and months ahead.

In what appeared to be a bullish move, the governor on Thursday returned to Ikot- Abasi where he was literally booed the previous day and splashed over N250m on the people. The money was given as grants to 540 beneficiaries in trade, Agriculture, equipment support scheme, as well as Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, MSMEs.

According to the governor, the grant, which was released during a Town-Square Meeting with the people of Ikot- Abasi Federal Constituency, was “intentionally arranged for the people in appreciation of their support before and during the governorship election, as well as for the past two years of his administration.”

He said he had to come back to thank them for the massive support they gave him during the elections.

He urged the people to see the need for the state to move progressively and feel the full impact of the Federal Government.

“Believe in us. Believe in President Bola Ahmed Tinubu because the future is bright. We shall continue to run on our ARISE Agenda, on a united Akwa Ibom to work together because united, we stand, divided, we fall. Now, we are coming together across party lines. President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Chief Godswill Akpabio and Pastor Umo Eno must return for their second terms in office in 2027,” he stated.

In tow, leaders and stakeholders of the Federal Constituency thanked the governor for his visionary leadership and pledged their support for his political decisions to reposition the state.

Leading the Chairmen of the three local government areas that make up the federal constituency for a welcome remark, the Chairman of Ikot Abasi LGA, Hon. Ime Williamson Essien, described Eno as a visionary leader, a promise keeper and a lover of good things who will be remembered for demystifying and simplifying leadership during his time. Others who spoke in a similar vein were the Senior Special Assistant to the Governor on Youth Mobilisation, Hon. Iniobong Akpan, a political leader of Ikot Abasi Local Government, and Managing Director of Hensek Integrated Services, Engr. Uwem Okoko, the Senator representing Eket Senatorial District, Senator Ekong Sampson and Barr. Kufre Udosen, the Special Adviser, Bureau of Political and Social Reorientation. Events are still unfolding, but it is questionable how far the opposition can last in the face of the combined might of the federal and state governments.

Umanah, however, rejected the idea that the governor’s gesture was a reaction to an earlier verdict against his defection. He said the N250m grant “is part of the N2bn grants to support farmers and SMEs throughout the 10 federal constituencies in the state.”

DEFECTION AS SALAH GIFT TO TINUBU

Governor Umo said he decided to join the APC in deference to President Tinubu and due to the need for Akwa Ibom State to align with the Federal Government in order to reap continuous benefits.

He assured the people of the state that he would continue to work tirelessly for their benefit, regardless of party affiliation.

He said, “after completing the rounds of my consultation as your servant whom you have elected to serve, I have therefore decided to progressively move to the APC.

” We are joining the APC today in the interest of the state and because of our critical admiration and respect for President Tinubu and to provide the needed support for Senate President Godswill Akpabio. I am not known for double-speak. This is a clear and conscious declaration. I have consulted widely and made my reasons known. Today’s defection is our Salah gift to Mr. President,” he affirmed.

The event was attended by several prominent APC figures, including Governors Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos State, Dapo Abiodun of Ogun State and their counterparts from Cross River, Delta, Edo, Ebonyi state and Imo States. Uzodinma is also the Chairman of the Progressive Governors Forum.

“We hope the political alignment will generate a tangible infrastructural renaissance. We expect to see the fruition of the Ibom Deep Seaport, the upgrade of the Nigerian Maritime Academy to a full- fledged University and the completion of the Ikot Ekpene-Aba, Calabar -Itu roads, which have suffered neglect for decades,” Akwa Ibom State Chairman of The Nigerian Institution Of Estate Surveyors and Valuers, ESV Kufre Ufot told journalists in Uyo, the state capital, adding that the development signals an impending era of increased federal appointments and presence.

He advised Akwa Ibom people to fix their gaze on the larger picture of governance vis-a-vis political party names.

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