The Unity Government promoted by The Executive Governor of Akwa Ibom State, Pastor Umo Eno between the ruling People’s Democratic Party, PDP in the state and the All Progressive Congress, APC nee other political parties seems to be graduating to a ‘handshake beyond the elbow’ as APC stalwarts in the state begin to poke their PDP counterparts on the face.
This development was very glaring at the town square meeting organized by Akwa Ibom State Government for Itu/Ibiono Federal Constituency held yesterday in Itu Local Government Headquarters.
At the meeting, it was evident as it has become the culture in recent government events, that stalwarts of the People’s Democratic Party, PDP are unable to chant the toga of their political party, sometimes even the Chairman of the People’s Democratic Party, PDP in the state, is unable to chant the party’s name in an event organized by the state government, a supposedly PDP Government, because of the fear of the Governor who is promoting a ‘unity government’ and invites members of other political parties to government events.
At yesterday’s town hall meeting speaker after speaker had spoken without chanting the name of their party, obviously, the PDP. Even the Secretary to the State Government, SSG, Mr. Enobong Uwah, who is the leader of PDP in Uyo, the capital city of Akwa Ibom State, addressed the audience by declaring the purpose of the town hall meeting, and spoke at length yesterday in Itu/Ibiono town hall meeting without mentioning the word, PDP, not even by mistake. He rather chanted the popular Ibibio traditional chants, saying ‘Akwa Ibom Isongho, Itu/Ibiono Isongho, yak Isong odot ukana’.
House of Assembly members spoke, House of Reps member spoke, commissioners spoke, all without mentioning the ruling party in the state, PDP, but when it was time for Senator Ita Enang to speak, after greeting His Excellency the Governor and a few stakeholders, Ita Enang chanted loudly, APCeeeee, APCeeee, APCeeee, he did not end there, he added in vernacular ‘nyin iwak ikan’, meaning “we are the majority”. The statement, ‘we are the majority’ was confusing and had no other intention than to possibly mock, insult and poke the members of the PDP on the face – because there is no possibility that APC had the largest attendance in a PDP state government town hall meeting, neither do they have the largest population in Akwa Ibom State for now, his statement however, emboldened the few APC stakeholders who were in attendance at the event as they became very unruly thereafter, cheering Ita Enang intermittently and reacting unnecessarily to his comments despite sitting very close to the Governor and other PDP stakeholders under the same canopy.
Ita Enang’s bold display of comfort and an attitude of ‘we are taking over’ did not end there, apart from making a lot of demands and requests from the Governor including asking him to urgently pay for compensation on the Calabar-Itu higway project executed by the Federal Government, he boldly requested for the allocation of percentage and slots to the All Progressive Congress in the state’s empowerment programmes, a request that did not sit well with the Governor.
When the Governor, Pastor Umo Eno mounted the podium to speak, he chanted PDP, and that was obviously necessitated by Ita Enang’s boldness to advertise his party in an opposition government’s event. Hitherto, the Governor had been declaring that the ongoing town hall meeting across the Federal Constituencies in the state is not a political event nor an activity of any political party, hence the invitation and attendance of other political parties and the need to keep political party togas away from the event. And government officials and other attendees at the town hall meetings have been keeping to the rule of not mentioning political parties, until Senator Ita Enang broke the rule at Itu/Ibiono Federal Constituency town hall meeting.
When Pastor Umo Eno mounted the podium, apart from chanting PDP, he took time to disagree with Senator Ita Enang on the issue of allocating slots or percentage to the APC. Pastor Umo Eno made it clear that beneficiaries of his empowerment programmes are selected from the portals created by the state government for citizens to register, adding that it was not possible to allocate percentage or slots to anyone in the state for empowerment. The governor also made other analogies to clear himself that he is all about unity and development and not political sentiments. “When we are hungry, that hunger knows no political party, our elites use this political party, ethnicity and religion to divide us, but at the top echelon their children are marrying each other across party lines. Party is just a vehicle to a destination, what is important is the development of the state”. Pastor Umo Eno said.