Like any indigene of Akwa Ibom State, Nsima Ekere has every right to seek and contest for any political office of his choice. What is not right is the strategy he is using to accomplish his political ambition.
Encouraging defections from one party to another through lies and empty promises, eventually, can (and will) lead to riots and violence. Akwa Ibom State has experienced enough shed of blood of innocent victims in the name of politics.
What Nsima Ekere engages in is the use his position in the Niger Delta Development Commission, or NDDC, to lure potential voters from PDP into APC, under the promises of contract-awards. The truth is that there are no such contracts.
It is important to bear in mind that even if NDDC were to build any infra-structure in Akwa Ibom State, it would still have to obtain the permission and approval of the state government before any execution.
Because Nsima Ekere has no credible and functioning political structure in Akwa Ibom State, with which he can mobilize to win election (of any position), he feels that destabilizing the PDP party in the state would be his best approach.
As it stands now, despite all the lies, Nsima Ekere is not a registered member of APC and because of the tactics he is using towards becoming the next governor of the state, the PDP party, in which he is actually a registered card-carrying member, considers him to be a turn-coat member, who cannot be trusted.
Nsima knows all the voids that would work against him in his quest for the governorship position. What he is counting on, which he doesn’t waste time in relaying to anyone who cares to listen to him, is his closeness to former Governor of Rivers State, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi. It is a known fact that it was Amaechi who engineered his appointment into NDDC.
Nsima believes strongly that Mr. Amaechi, who was the campaign manager for then candidate Buhari, will use his contact to influence the APC hierarchy to hand him the APC governorship ticket.
But Nsima Ekere will not secure the APC governorship ticket. While the national hierarchy of APC members may tolerate his appointment into NDDC, they don’t trust him enough as someone who have the personality and influence to win the gubernatorial race under the platform of APC in Akwa Ibom.
The last thing APC would want to do is to repeat the same mistake of 2015, when they fumbled by supporting the “UOU2015” propaganda of blessed memory.
The lack of trust by APC national executive is not the only thing that Nsima Ekere needs to worry about. The people of Eket Senatorial District, for reasons best understood by them, do not like the personality of Nsima Ekere. They see him as untrustworthy, self-centered, divisive, calculatingly cunning, and extremely greedy.
It could be recalled that in 2007 general election, Nsima Ekere was the first choice of Godswill Akpabio as a running mate and thereafter, a deputy governor.
But top-notch politicians around the state advised Akpabio against the idea of choosing Nsima Ekere as his deputy. Instead, they recommended Engineer Ekpotu, who eventually became the deputy governor.
At that time (2007), many people, including those who advised Akpabio against his choice of Nsima Ekere as a Deputy, did not know that Akpabio was still harboring the wish of having Nsima Ekere at the Hilltop Mansion as his deputy.
In 2011, when Engineer Ekpotu decided that he has had enough of Akpabio and made known his lack of interest in serving another term as Akpabio’s Deputy, Akpabio was happy and exhilarated.
In his second term, Akpabio picked Nsima as his running mate and was eventually sworn in as the Deputy Governor. Akpabio later regretted settling on Nsima Ekere as his Deputy, because as soon as Nsima was sworn in, he began to put the campaign machinery in motion to succeed Akpabio in 2015.
What Akpabio did not know at the time was that Umana Okon Umana, his Secretary to the Government, was also doing what Nsima was doing. Umana and Nsima began to feud with each other. Back-biting became the order of the day.
Unknown to the general public, the enmity between Nsima Ekere and Umana Okon Umana was so deep and bad that government employees began to take sides to the point which started to cripple the daily activities and functions of the government.
It is not clear on whose backbiting, between Nsima Ekere and Umana Okon Umana, was more effective, but around November 2009 (I stand corrected on the date), while Nsima Ekere was getting ready to go to bed at night, someone called to tip him about his impending impeachment the next morning.
To avoid a possible impeachment by the Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly, Nsima sat up, drafted a resignation letter and tendered it to Akpabio and the House before a meeting could be convened to deliberate on his assured impeachment.
Nsima’s resignation from the government was the beginning of the erosion of his political influence in Akwa Ibom State. He joined the 2015 governorship race but could not go anywhere close to even winning in the Primary.
When G-22 was formed to challenge the outcome of the PDP Primary Election, Nsima Ekere was the first candidate to opt out of the group.
Those who are now following Nsima Ekere, by defecting from PDP to APC, will eventually return to PDP once they realize that Nsima Ekere will not secure the APC ticket for the governorship race.
They will also defect once they know that all the promises of contracts and money were nothing but lies.
The PDP members who are now troubled by defections need not to worry; the defectors will return to PDP.
Written by
The Great Ikpafak Thompson Essien
The Voice of the Poor Masses
Defender of the Oppressed
Social Critic
A native of Ibibio nation of Ubium Republic extraction, now living in the safe and beautiful city of Portland, Oregon, where no AKPF, ADUMA, ADV, and Akwa Ibom State politicians can reach.
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