January 16, (THEWILL) – A stalwart of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), who is also aspiring to govern Cross River State in 2023, Efiok Cobham, speaks with BASSEY ANIEKAN about his dreams for the state and other issues. Excerpts:
Is it true that you have joined the Cross River State 2023 governorship race?
Yes, I am running for the governorship of Cross River State, under the Peoples Democratic Party. If you ask me why, I think I have met all the constitutional requirements to run for that office. Secondly, I feel I have the capacity. I think I have more capacity than all of the other aspirants gunning for the position because I know Cross River. I have been involved in the emergence of governors from 1999 till date. In 2019, I ended up as the director-general of the campaign organisation of my party, which brought in the incumbent governor, who later defected to the All Progressives Congress. Between 1999 and 2007, I was in charge of the party’s secretariat. We midwifed Donald Duke’s election, the first one in 1999 and the second one in 2003. Also, between 2007 and 2015, I was the Deputy Governor of Cross River State.
Some observers feel the state governor, Professor Ben Ayade was not given the leverage to lead the party by some stakeholders and that led to his defection to the APC. How much credence should we draw from this assumption?
That is very wrong. The governor has always been in charge. The governor had made up his mind to go to the APC. Not many people can manage being in opposition. That has been the governor’s problem. Under our constitution the governor is the leader of the party, but the question is how was he able to manage his relationship with other leaders of the party? Being the leader of an organisation does not make you a sole administrator. You must consult and confer with others before you arrive at a decision. That is what leadership is all about. The buck has always stopped at the governor’s table. Maybe he thought there were more attractions in the APC. Otherwise, for me, there is no reason to defect to that party. I am still wondering what could have caught his fancy in the APC. The fact that you are the leader of the party does not mean that you own the party, you lead the party.
One impression I want to clear is that power comes from God. I have been involved in the emergence of governors between 1998 and today. The issue of someone being anointed is not true in most cases. It is a question of perception. For a state governor to say he is anointing or putting this man so that he will protect him is all hogwash. Has it worked in many areas? So those peddling that story are doing so maybe to give credence to the ingratitude that the current governor has displayed towards the PDP, having enjoyed the goodwill of the party at the highest level in the state. For me, it is untenable.
Zoning is still a very topical issue in the state today and a large number of candidates have emerged from Cross River South. Don’t you think this will overheat the polity?
You journalists are the ones overheating the system, not politicians. What is wrong in having many aspirants? Is it not democratic? The ultimate power of selection through voting belongs to the people. So you want a situation where only one man comes out so that the system will be cool? I even feel that it is the more the merrier, so that the people can look at the contestants and then determine who they think will be the best to lead them. I don’t see any overheating there. Are people getting killed, houses burnt and cars destroyed? It has been very quiet and decent. When you look at the resume of all the contestants, you will find that they are very decent people. The mere fact that a position is keenly contested for should not be interpreted as heating the polity. That is where you must put the distinguishing factor, that many aspirants have come out of our party . I am very excited because it means that people still have confidence in the ability of the party to deliver them.
As 2023 draws near, what are your thoughts on zoning? Do you subscribe to it?
We had it and I believe in it, but that is not why I am running for governorship. In the Cross River for instance, let us act with a sense of proportion because if you do, justice and equity will come out to play. The south had it from 1999 to 2007, the central had from 2007 to 2015, the north has had from 2015 and will be anchoring in 2023. Don’t forget that we are a very plural state, diverse and in managing the polity, we must evolve certain mechanisms that will rather put us together and will not emphasise our diversity. Which zone ultimately should it go back to? I think it is the south. I am not saying within the three zones at any given time there are no competent people, but somehow it has worked for us. Why do we want to truncate it now, particularly with the high level of insecurity everywhere? For me, we should institutionalise what we have done. Even our party constitution recognises zoning anywhere, but I have decided not to make zoning the focal point of my campaign because I know that within the south, there is sufficient capacity. The south can produce the next governor of Cross River State without any pronouncement on zoning.
It is rumoured that Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State is backing Prof Sandy? Don’t you think the wrangling over zoning may destabilise the PDP in Cross River, considering the fact that some external factors are also interested?
I will not join that fray. Does it mean that we in the state are not mature enough and we have lost all political sophistication that the governor of another state will float a candidate for us? That is a kind of colonialism. Cross River State is not a colony of any state. So I refuse to believe that story. The fact that Senator Onor Sandy is a friend of Governor Wike should not be interpreted that way. You know they were in ALGON together. Very few people have been able to maintain friendship even in power and I commend their friendship. Let us not be presumptuous. Wike has his own problems in Rivers State. Does he want to carry that of Cross River and add to his own? I don’t think so. He reportedly denounced any interest in the governorship ambition of his friend.
Didn’t he also reportedly pledged to support any candidate who emerges after the primaries?
That is not out of place. Don’t forget that he is a PDP governor. As of today, we don’t have a PDP governor and we are the only dark spot in the South-South geo-political zone. I am quite sure other PDP governors will support any person that emerges as the flagbearer of the PDP in the state because we want to get as many states as possible, even with the incumbent governor being a member of the APC. You saw the number of APC governors from the North flocking into the state just to give him support. So what is wrong? Governor Wike is a party man. I don’t think he is supporting an individual but his party to win. We must make it very clear there.
What is your development agenda for Cross River State?
There are so many things, but for now I am concentrating on how to win the primaries. We need total reforms in Cross River State. As of today, our state is in comatose and nothing is working. If you ask me what I am going to do, first of all we need to create a new mindset in our youths. We need to revive all the institutions that are no longer functioning. We need to do a lot more because there is so much rot in the system. I can imagine what the situation is like because I feel them myself. In Cross River State, the very first thing I will do is try and give the youths a new reorientation and create a new set of values because some of the problems we have today are due to a breakdown in our value system. That is why I am saying there will be major reforms. We need reforms in the health sector, educational sector and even in the way government is run, as well as the way properties belonging to the government are handled. We need those reforms if we are to get back on track.
This is the first time since 1999 that the state will be under an opposition party. Where did the PDP get it wrong?
We git it wrong in the kind of choices that we made. Whether we go forward or backward in 2023, it will still boil down to the choices that we will make. I think we backed a wrong horse and that is why we are where we are. Simple. If you had known Cross River State before 2015, you will certainly ask if this is the Cross River State we used to know. We got it wrong because the man we reposed the goodwill of the party on, who was supposed to lead us, did not lead us well. That is where we got it wrong. It’s not that the party was wrong; it’s just that the man we gave the mandate has not utilised it in the manner his two predecessors did. There are so many projects in the state today that exist only on social media. This is January 2022, a number of these projects are just sites. When will they take off?
When you become governor, what will happen to some projects or sites like the ongoing rice and cocoa processing factories?
You see, we are not like the APC who shouted change and when they had the opportunity to effect the change, they rather effected very negative changes on Nigerians. I always believe and strongly, too, that government has no business being in business. All government needs to do is to create the enabling environment for the private sector to thrive. If I become governor, a project like the Cocoa industry is a laudable project, but it should not be publicly managed. I still believe this because at some point I was the chairman in charge of the monitoring and evaluation of cocoa projects.
Ondo is reputed to be the highest producer of cocoa in the country. Have you seen the size of Ondo State and that of Cross River? Most of the cocoa we produce here are sent to Ondo and graded as belonging to Ondo because we do not have any processing factory. Do you know there was a time they said Cross River was not a rice producing state because all our rice were being milled at Abakaliki? My concerns are that you must draw a line between politics and the economy. The two don’t go together.
If I become the governor, I will look for competent hands and try to divest government attention from them because they are businesses. No government business has ever been successful. In other climes, most of those government businesses that are functioning are heavily subsidized. That is the truth. We will look at them, but they will be run privately by very credible people in a very transparent manner, such that there will be no doubt as to their efficiency.
Should the party leadership or delegates settle for your fellow contestant, how will you react to it? Will you defect to another party?
If I had wanted to defect I would have defected long ago. I am a founding member of the PDP. We had a group here that joined G36 to form what metamorphosed into the PDP. It was called the Cross River State Democratic Platform. I was the one who moved the motion for us to join the PDP and that was at Mercantile Bank Guest House, which is now Channel View, as far back as 1998. I don’t destroy houses that I built and I am running the race, hoping seriously to win, and putting everything I have to ensure that I win. If at the end of the day, my best was not good enough, there will be no need to bring the house down. I am not wired that way. I will accept the position of my party. In every contest there must be a winner. I have presided over several meetings from which winners emerged and others lost. I have tried to enforce the supremacy of the party and urged others to work for the success of the party. Contesting at the individual level is a battle. I will rather that my party wins and I lose the primaries than win the primaries and because of my winning the primaries, my party loses. I will rather lose the battle than lose the war. It is not a question of do or die. I have been a beneficiary of the goodwill of the people of Cross River State. I have sat back and looked at the entire scenario. I have looked at my fellow contestants who have come out and I believe I can fix most of the problems of Cross River State better than some of them because I have had the experience.
Direct or indirect primaries have been a major issue in the country recently. What is your take on it?
There is this English author called Frederick Forsyth. In one of his books titled ‘Devil’s Alternative’, there is a story about the secret service going on a mission. The head of the service is trying to see how he can minimise the loss of lives and his deputy says, “Sir in whatever way we go, there will be loss of lives for us to get to that target.” That is where we have found ourselves now. Why the people opted for direct primaries is that they wanted to remove power from those who they felt with their resources can manipulate indirect primaries, but the danger in direct primaries is that we are not new to the security challenges in the country today. Take for instance where we are today is Calabar Municipality, we have 10 wards. So on the day of primaries we are going to have 10 centres and those are 10 flashpoints which results will come that you will accept while with indirect primaries we are going to have only one centre. So you look at the pros and also look at the cons. Either way we will have trouble. But the point is that we can control the indirect primaries, if we the people are truly determined to exercise our constitutional rights, irrespective of whose ox is being gored. That is the situation. You apparently can know the capacity of an individual, but he comes with some money, you collect the money and do his bidding, tomorrow he expresses that lack of capacity you turn back to complain over something you knew and of course, he came with money. So that’s a problem. It’s like a child waking up one morning, killed his father and mother, then claim to be an orphan. For me, given the security situation in the country today, I think the best option will be indirect primaries. Already our security system is overstretched and in some cases they have not been able to meet the security needs of the country. In my party, there are 196 wards, so on the day of primaries, you will be talking about 196 centres. What is the strength of your police force or are you going to draft in the Army? Soldiers are not trained to maintain civil peace but to maintain the territorial integrity of this country. The level of their patience and that of the civil police are not the same and I always frown at taking soldiers from the barracks to tackle civil uprising. The Army should come in at the extreme where the civil police has shown demonstrable lack of capacity to handle the situation. Can you imagine direct primaries in the South-East, what it will boil down to? First, I was very excited because if you want to be a governor for instance you should be able to go to the 196 wards. Today we have people who are governors and have never been to some villages and wards. I have had the opportunity of traversing the 196 wards of Cross River State. That was why I said in my opening statement that I know Cross River State. None of my fellow contestants can say that. I have been to all the wards and helped to establish the party in some of them.
What are your thoughts on state police?
That is where we have problems. The key to resolving most of our security challenges lies in state police. What are their fears? The governor’s will hijack them, but who are the people who are maintaining even the police here? I know that while in office, we bought the police over 200 cars, fixed their barracks and the only thing the Federal Government did was pay their salaries. The country is too large for a centralised police force. The state police is necessary because we are evolving. Even what we have now is still a police force that was established by the colonialists, something that came from the West Africa Frontier Force. This force was formed to protect the white colonialists and they built barracks for them so that at any point the whites want them, you go there and fetch them. Show me any first world country that has a police barracks. When you remove the police from the populace and congregate them in a particular environment how will they detect the criminals among them? The police should live with the people because they are civil police. So there is something structurally wrong with our policing system. Create state police and when you do, it will be under the command of the state governor. You can fight an Army with an Army, but you can never fight the people with an Army. It is the determination of the people that matters. How long will we continue to have one police force that will take care of 200 million people? We have come to a level where we cannot run away from state police.
What is your message to the electorate in Cross River and other stakeholders ahead of 2023?
It is not going to be first or last in this state and we should continue in peace. For us the contestants, we should be civil with each other and run an issue-based campaign, avoid mudslinging and instigating people to do that which is not civil. Cross River State is noted for peace and I urge all to continue maintaining peace. The 2023 general election will come and go but the state will remain.
THEWILL Correspondent, Aniekan Bassey has over six years experience that spans across several fields in print journalism including development communication, sexual reproductive and health rights issues, crime, climate change, social justice, business and human interest stories.
