By Franklyn Isong
Lately, I have come across some disturbing reports in the print and
social media in Akwa Ibom state. And I owe it a civil responsibility to
drum this early warning note to all politicians and their overzealous
supporters.
I am referring to some reports attacking the person
of the Managing Director of NDDC, Mr Nsima Ekere.
The unprintable names
he is being called on pages of newspapers and social media by Akwa Ibom
indigenes have raised cause for concern.
If this spate is
allowed, it would only end up heating up the political space and
creating bad blood among friends and among politicians in the state.
I
do not know which court of law convicted Mr Ekere on “armed robbery”
charges, neither am I aware of any of such convictions on “kidnapping”.
But one thing is sure, those writing these must have had their facts.
They must have been armed with their evidences.
But, be that as
it may, I am against such media attacks on an Akwa Ibom son, no matter
the motive beneath them. I do not want to think it has anything to do
with 2019 politics.
Calling someone at the level of a former deputy
governor of a state and serving public servant “armed robber” and
“Kidnapper” on pages of newspapers and social media has certainly
crossed the lines.
And should be condemned by all and sundry. We cannot
continue like this. It is a wrong signage to people from other states.
When on March 9, 2017, the INEC– made public its timetable for the 2019
elections. It was purposely to guide the commission on its planning and
logistics ahead of the elections.
But here in Akwa Ibom, electioneering
campaigns and horse trading started on May 29, 2015; moment after the
incumbent governor, Mr Udom Emmanuel, and all those elected at the 2015
polls were sworn into their respective offices.
By next month,
i.e.; May 29, 2017, my calendar tells me, they must have spent two out
of the four years given to them by the electorate.
So I am worried that
politicians are unnecessarily heating up the polity or allowing their
supporters to do so without any caution. I am also worried that they
have made the state be in a perpetual election mode.
When shall we have
governance? When shall we have developments which are the dividends of
democracy, for crying out loud?
According to the INEC timetable,
Presidential and National Assembly elections will hold February 16,
2019; while Governorship, State Assembly and Federal Capital Territory
Area Councils elections will hold on March 2, 2019.
Unlike other
states of the federation, the only thriving industry in Akwa Ibom State
known to our youths and elders –and even our women who have abandoned
the other room (apologies to President Muhammadu Buhari) to join the
male folks - is politics.
In Akwa Ibom, politics is a religion
whose membership baptism is from the birth of a child. It’s as if, one
is not exposed if one is not a politician.
You have to belong to one
political party or the other, else you are deemed as uncivilised and
treated as outcast by your peers.
It is only here that you must have
been taken to one shrine or the other to swear to mbiam (oath) of
loyalty and that of allegiance to either your godfather, godmother, god
grandmother, god grandfather etc., before you are imposed and/or
superimposed on the electorate.
The peaceful ambiance in the
state is gradually drifting into anarchy. I have been around to witness
past elections in the country and particularly in Akwa Ibom State where
it is usually a “do or die affairs.”
It is on record that 2011
political experience remains the most horrific one to ever think off, in
the history of elections, in the world over. It was as if the winners
of that elections would remain in political offices for eternity.
With
the highest level of pre-electoral violence recorded, I never thought,
the war (sorry elections) were for offices that would be occupied for a
mere periods of four years.
But today, all those elected in 2011 have
since completed that tenure. And we are even talking about 2019
elections.
So why the killings and kidnappings? Lives that were wasted
on the premise of the 2011, and 2015 elections have they resurrected?
NO!
This is why I am crying for the soul of Akwa Ibom. Imagine
the politically motivated assassinations, killings and kidnappings
witnessed in Akwa Ibom state in 2011 and 2015 for elections whose
winners would only reign for a record period of time.
There is God o!
And one day, we will give accounts of our actions and inactions while on
earth.
My wife is my witness, it came a time, in 2011, I thought
I envied those Akwa Ibomites who had to relocate to Iraq, Somalia,
Syria and Afghanistan because the endless war in those areas, at the
time, could not be compared to the nightmares politicians put Akwa Ibom
people through, in the name of elections.
Therefore, if we do
not rise up and condemn the resurgence of media attacks and
counter-attacks, assassinations and kidnappings gradually building up in
the state, we risk going back to the dark days of 2011 and 2015 when
electoral violence was the order of the day. Even the media has a
greater responsibility to play in this.
My conclusion is that,
Akwa Ibom state needs peace for development to thrive. I plead that
Governor Udom Emmanuel should be given a chance to also contribute to
the state wellbeing like his predecessors.
While Obong Victor Attah,
Senator Godswill Akpabio, Obong Nsima Ekere, Obong Umana Umana and other
public office holders currently serving both at the state and federal
level should in the same breath, be seen as key players in the Akwa Ibom
State project.
Food for thought; “Politics is war without
bloodshed, while war is politics with bloodshed,” Chinese communist
leader and chairman of the People’s Republic of China between 1949 &
1959, Mao-tse-tug (1893-1976) said.
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