Whatever is left of the All Progressive Congress (APC) in Akwa Ibom State is in ruins. That ordinarily should not concern me as we all know the APC was and is an emergency contraption designed to carter for the interest of the aggrieved. Why should I be bothered with a party that expelled one of its national leaders and in response, a section of the state working committee, all the ward and chapter chairmen have sacked the state working committee. APC is in tatters, torn pieces, scraps, shreds, clippings, fragments, a laughing stock in the political space.
However, the recent reasons given by Senator Nelson Effiong for joining the APC calls for scrutiny. In his words on the floor of the senate, “I have decided that no reasonable politician who is worth his salt would remain and allow his people to be drifting about without a direction. So I have decided today, the 19th day of January, 2017 to resign from the PDP and move to the party that is bringing peace and direction to this country, the APC. So I move.” REALLY?
Never has a political party in modern civilization been so destructive as the All Progressive Congress in Nigeria and Akwa Ibom state. Whether in power or in the opposition, the party maintains a strong reputation for peddling falsehood to get away with sensitive issues or passing the buck when it ought to take responsibility for its action. In Akwa Ibom State, the party (if any) is in a terrible mess. According to the Forum of APC State Executives, Chapter Executives and Ward Executives in an advertorial published in The Nation Newspapers on February 2, 2017 dissolving the State Working Committee of the party , "The leadership of the APC in Akwa Ibom State is sick. The principal actors in this regard are: The State Chairman (Amadu Atai); the State Secretary (Effiong Etok) ‘aka Charles Taylor’; and the entire Exco of the Party. We wish to inform you that these people have sacrificed the dignity and ideology of the Party on the altar of their lust and unbridled greed. Making money (at all costs) has been their main preoccupation from the very beginning of their assumption of office; and they have largely operated ultra-vires the Constitution of our Party; displaying crass indiscipline and unrepentant impunity in the running of the affairs of the Party in the State.
It is so laughable that Senator Nelson Effiong left the well rooted, organized and performing PDP to a house on fire. if Nelson claims the PDP has crises at the national level, then he has more than enough work to do with his new party at the state level. The APC in Akwa Ibom State is non existent. It operates on fictitious names and does business mainly on the pages of newspapers and on radio. The forum of ward and chapter executives have no kind words for its defunct state working committee. "The perfidy of the State Exco, and their pursuit of money veritably knows no bounds. In the run-up to the two Conventions of the Party in Abuja, and the Primaries in Lagos, they routinely violated Article 21 A (xi) of our Constitution, by altering the delegates list to reflect only those with whom they had agreed to share whatever the Party advanced to cover their hotel and transport expenses . Non-delegates were usually the substitutes in those cases. On other occasions, the State-Exco never bothered to pay the delegates at all. They simply converted and stole the monies, contrary to Article 21 (vii) of our Party Constitution (2014) as amended. The State Exco has also taken it upon itself the un-prescribed authority under our Party Constitution, to issue suspension letters indiscriminately to anyone who challenges their impunity. The State Chairman of the Party (Amadu Atai) specialized in creating fake names and forging fake signatures of non-existent party officials at all levels, which he used in such suspension letters. This action is contrary to Article 21 A(vii) of our Party Constitution.
'During the Party Convention in December 2014 where Akwa Ibom State delegates were supposed to be paid to augment their hotel, feeding and transport expenses, no delegate ever received any money. It was simply criminally converted by the State Exco for their personal use. They similarly converted money which was the State’s share from the sale of Nomination Forms; as well as money sent for the training of Party agents in all the Units in the State. Many members of the State Exco have become sudden owners of storey buildings and jeeps; while the Chapters and other functionaries of the Party in Akwa Ibom State, only hear of money given to States that do not have APC Governors for instance, but have heard of no such declaration by the State Exco members who could be perhaps up to their usual sleaze."
To make matters worse, the few persons masquerading as APC leaders in the state are extremely corrupt. The tiny efforts the Federal Government has mustered ends in the pockets of the chieftains. The statement issued by the forum of ward and chapter executives says it all: "The State Exco has converted all plans of the Federal Government for the poor, into money-making ventures; and bastardized almost all the Federal Government’s empowerment initiatives.
'In administering the ‘N-Power’ scheme, they collected the sum of N20,000 (Twenty Thousand Naira) per person, from thousands of people who intended to benefit from the scheme; but till date, there are no beneficiaries, and monies collected from the hopeful beneficiaries have not been refunded. Even the Conditional Cash Transfer Policy of the Federal Government, meant for the women was fraudulently administered, as the State Exco of the Party in Akwa Ibom State, collected the sum of N5,000 (Five Thousand Naira only) from all the women. They also hold seminars to train people to await the several palliative measures programmed by the Federal Government for the poor. They charged fees for attendance at the seminar; and printed and sold forms, claiming the forms are from the Federal Government for those who will be considered qualified to benefit from the schemes including contractors to the school feeding programme planned by the Federal Government. Apart from the fact that all of these actions contravene Article 21 (vii) of our Constitution, the deception alone has defrauded people of millions of naira and is set to rubbish the Party’s fortunes in elections when not realized'.
This is the kind of party our brother and senator opted for. It is sad and regrettable. A party that is nonexistent and at best in full blown crises on all fronts. Clearly, the APC or whatever is left of it does not mean well for Akwa Ibom State. Our brothers, like Nelson Effiong have found new friendship in a gang of political buccaneers and strangers whose main aim is to capture Akwa Ibom State, an oil rich state and relegate it to the status of a bank save for a few itchy fingers. Other than demonize Governor Udom Emmanuel and oil a propaganda syndicate to attack the policies and personality of Governor Udom Emmanuel, the APC has never advanced cogent plans or blueprints for the state neither has it even conducted the affairs of its own party in a credible and corrupt-free way. The good news is that the inordinate lust to conquer Akwa Ibom state by the APC whether in 2015 or 2019 has been stymied by the unconquerable response by the Akwa Ibom people. The people have sent a strong signal to the imperialist forces colluding with local rebels that Akwa Ibom state is not for sale. Everything the APC touches becomes inconclusive. Even the very campaign promises of the party has been severally denied, one of the first of its kind in modern democracy. The party intends to derail Akwa Ibom people to the Hobbesian state where life is nasty, brutish and short.
The APC is clearly a promise all, do nothing party. It does not have the structure to win any election or to govern Akwa Ibom state. The party can only boast of a bunch of fanatical and boisterous people who assume that anger can win elections and gain power. But it has never been so. Anger imposes instinctive options that are not rationally distilled. Such base passions fizzle out when the individual is sober or encounters truth. I know that the so called APC faithful of today would one day return to the altar of truth. The APC in Akwa Ibom state is too hurriedly assembled and too angry to avoid mistakes. In the end, it will tell lies, fight itself, apportion blames and destroy the polity.
The people of Akwa Ibom State have kept faith with the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) because of its time tested and excellent record of performance in governance. A party, though not perfect constantly engages the sections of the society before arriving at any major decision. There would always be a few Judases, like Senator Nelson Effiong who would always betray their greed and then find excuses to cover up their mess. Does the APC, whether in Uyo or Abuja look like a party that would bring "peace and direction" according to Senator Nelson Effiong? Are Nigerians not completely fed up with this chains that came in form of change?
Finbarr is a Public Affairs Commentator
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