Three main reasons have been identified for majority of defections to the All Progressives Congress by Akwa Ibom State politicians who have been described as people who are looking for personal benefits at the federal level.
This is the position of Chief Nduese Essien, a former two term member of the House of Representatives for Eket Federal Constituency of Akwa Ibom State, former minister for lands, housing and urban development and former member of the National Conference and a foundation member of PDP in Akwa Ibom State.
In an interview in his hometown in Eket, Chief Essien opined the fear of being probed by the federal authorities, the quest to gain political appointment at the center and the desire to claim some outstanding contractual debts from the federal government have accounted for most recorded defections in the state.
“…some people, who feel that they can make some benefits from there, are running there to see if they can get some benefits. We have heard of cases of people who have been asked to defect before they are given a contract or before they are paid their outstanding at various organizations that are controlled by the Federal Government.”
The former federal executive council member was optimistic that “as soon as those gains are no longer forthcoming, they (defectors) will return to the PDP.”
He also, opined that the reason for most federal appointments to Akwa Ibom people is “because the state is controlled by another party and the Federal Government controlled by the APC is trying to make some in-roads into Akwa Ibom.”
“…one of the ways they can do that is to appoint people from here to form a nucleus of support for the APC in the next elections,”
The former lawmaker maintained that the defection of Senator Nelson Effiong to the APC was for selfish reasons explaining that before he even left, Senator Effiong “never for once came back home to interact with his people and after he left, he has also not come back home to interact with his APC members because the APC is not there on ground.”
He insisted that the defection “ was an attempt by the senator to run away from his responsibilities to his constituency, explaining that, “now nobody can hold him responsible for the remaining part of his tenure at the Senate. He is neither responsible to the PDP that is dominant in the state nor to the APC that is not there in his senatorial district.”
He said the APC did not prepare to run a government as their concern was more in pushing aside the ruling party, without even expecting that it would succeed.
“It has succeeded but it’s finding it difficult to run a successful government.”
He assured that “the PDP will definitely get back to power, because APC has not been able to hold itself. It also has some internal issues just like the PDP. Some Nigerians disapprove their performances to the extent that they are either looking at the PDP coming back or another party coming to change the administration of the APC.”
Chief Essien opined that “the internal disagreement in PDP at the national level is self-imposed because the governors that invited Ali Modu Sheriff to run the party for them made a very serious blunder despite the advice of several Nigerians that knew Sheriff very well.”
“We saw it coming that this man did not come with good intentions and that certainly he may have come with a plan designed by enemies of the party to come and scatter the party and make APC a dominant party in the country,” he said.
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