AKWA IBOM STATE POST 2019: A CASE FOR INTERNAL RESTRUCTURING

“You can kill the proponents of an idea but you can never kill an idea whose time has come” I will make my recommendation but let me say abinitio that the quest for an Oro man or woman to become Governor in Akwa Ibom State is an idea that cannot be wished away or killed.

It will live with us like an open sore that must be nursed to health. It is a wound that we must apply all known
or new medical techniques to stop from festering or risk degenerating into a maggot infested and life
threatening infection.

Just like in the larger Nigeria Project, all is not well with Project Akwa Ibom. Just like in Nigeria all is not well in Akwa Ibom because not all
constituents have a sense of security, belonging and inclusion in a space they call their home.

A twelve year old once told a gathering of world diplomats “why do you people keep creating
problems you have no solutions to?” and in the same guise let me ask the Akwa Ibom political elite “why did you create a dysfunctional society
when you had no plans to devise a solution to make for peace, brotherhood and development?”
Just like in Nigeria where some people believe they were born to rule, in Akwa Ibom some believe
that the State is their exclusive property.

This parochial mindset is what is tearing Nigeria apart, this is what is responsible for the pervasive
suspicion in Akwa Ibom and why the State has not grown to its full economic potential.

Yet the Nigerian Constitution is very clear on its Fundamental Objectives: Section 14 sub 1 says “The Federal Republic of Nigeria shall be a State
based on the principles of democracy and social justice”.

If Africans do not understand democracy, do we not remember social justice, the very fiber
that built the African society? What has become of the tender and living African conscience? Was it an
aberration to experiment with democracy? Section 14 sub 2 paragraph c submits, “The
participation by the people in their Government shall be ENSURED in accordance with the provisions of this Constitution”.

The word “ensured” means it will not happen naturally but made to happen. Why is the State paraphernalia not being used to engender popular and unconstrained participation in Government? What
are the concrete plans on ground to ensure there is social justice in the politics of Akwa Ibom State and Nigeria?

Section 14 sub 3 says “The composition of the Government of the Federation or any of its
agencies and the conduct of its affairs shall be carried out in such a manner as to reflect the federal character of Nigeria and the need to
promote national unity, and also to command national loyalty, thereby ensuring that there shall be no predominance of persons from a few state or from a few ethnic or other sectional groups in that Government or in any of its agencies.”

In a country where there is neither national unity nor national loyalty, doesn’t it show that the provision of the constitution above has been
thoroughly flouted? How about measures to prevent the predominance of persons and sectional interests in Government? Has anyone ever thought about this? How about a sincere desire to design a method that creates balance between majority interests vis-à-vis minority interests? Why are we
in Akwa Ibom interested in getting fairness from the Nigeria Project but determined to deny the minority their share in the Akwa Ibom Project?

Isn’t this double standard shameful?
As we begin to conclude on this piece, let us look at Section 14 subsection 4 of the 1999 Constitution as amended; “The composition of the Government
of a State, a local government council, or any of the agencies of such Government or council, and
the conduct of the affairs of the Government or council or such agencies shall be carried out in
such manner as to recognize the diversity of the people within its area of authority and the need to
promote a sense of belonging and loyalty among all the people of the Federation”.

The Constitution recognizes the need to promote a sense of
belonging and creating loyalty, so why are the majority groups doing the reverse?

We can write tons of volumes just analyzing the above provision when compared with what we currently experience in Nigeria and our beloved Akwa Ibom State.

The bottom line remains that
there has been insincerity in implementing this provision in the spirit it was crafted.

Why this is so can also be enumerated in thousands of pages.
What is true about this country and Akwa Ibom State is that there are tons of hatred, suspicion and
misunderstanding prevailing.

What shall we say about these things? Should we continue to pretend all is well until the walls fall on us or do we begin to take steps to correct the manifest abnormally in the system? To begin with, the two dominant political parties in the state are not spirits neither are they driven by ideologies.

They are peopled by us, some of whom have a fixation on politics of domination and nothing else.

However, this mindset has kept Nigeria poor and socio-economic development a mirage!
The reality on ground is that the Ibibio ethnic group has the highest number of local governments and the largest aggregate population
in the State.

Nevertheless, this cannot be an
excuse for political rascality. In a democracy, the opinion of the majority has undeniable weight.

Therefore we need the Ibibio nation to tell the world that by virtue of being the largest group in Akwa Ibom the office of the Executive Governor has become their exclusive divine right or alternatively
put in place a template that can assure the other groups, whose only crime is their political number,
that they have a stake in their State, including but not limited to occupying the Hilltop Mansion.

Allowing the status quo to remain will to a situation where House shall rise against House and Family against Family.

When I became politically aware, the prevailing sharing formula was premised on the Tripod arrangement until it was discarded for the
Senatorial Zone arrangement.

The new arrangement is full of loopholes, unjust, manipulative and hypocritical. When someone from
my stock spoke in favour of it some years ago when it was pilot tested, I asked God for permission to ‘hate’ him for a few minutes.

That man was obviously beclouded by his closeness to the corridors of the Hilltop Mansion then. Sadly, he
is not around to witness what has become of his child.

The truth of the matter is that the Ibibio are right that they cannot wait for 16 years or more to access power if they are to allow minorities a shot at it.

I do not know their reason but my reason is their size and spread. The cure to this legitimate fear is the Two-Zone arrangement that was
proposed by the Oro nation during their agitation in 2015.

The proposal is to divide Akwa Ibom State into Zone A; made of all Ibibio states wherever they may be found in the Senatorial Districts, and
Zone B which will house all the other ethnic nationalities.

The genius in this is that power will alternate between the two Zones every 8 years. With this masterstroke, the Ibibio can always take power after two-terms by an incumbent minority Governor.

This is my stand. This is what we
should be campaigning for across the two parties.

This is what Oro and Annang should be campaigning for as the next election cycle approaches.

I ask all men and women of goodwill to join me to ask Mboho Mkparawa Ibibio, Ibibio State Union and
the revered Asan Ibibio as well as any other critical stakeholder in the Ibibio nation to provide leadership for Akwa Ibom State by jettisoning all primordial sentiments in favour of proactive measures to build a state that shall long endure.

If ephemeral power clouds their reason, then they should look at history. Babylon was once a
worldwide empire, so was Egypt, Persia, Greece, etc. Bottom line? Nobody or group is powerful
forever. Let Love Lead.

Uyeh Akadakhaene
Oduonim Isong Inyang,
Member, Oro Nation Leadership and Business Roundtable.
Member, GoodOmen2019.