WHAT effort has AIPROF been making to contribute to developments in Akwa Ibom State?
We have been making efforts to contribute our quota and that is why we are doing this. AIPROF started this year and it is a forum for people who want good things for the people of the state. That is why we want our voice heard on issues that affect the people of the state because we want the best for the people and for ourselves.
The polity in your state has been replete with calls for the zoning of the governorship seat to Eket Senatorial District, with the argument that Uyo and Ikot Ekpene districts have both had a shot at the office. What is your view about zoning?
There has never been anything called zoning in my state. All those noise you heard people make concerning zoning are all aimed at self-aggrandisement and not in the overall interest and progress of the state and its people. Apart from that, I don’t believe in zoning in Akwa Ibom State and I can categorically say that it has never been part of the politics in the state as far as the governorship seat is concerned. For instance, when the incumbent governor, Chief Godswill Akpabio was contesting, candidates from Eket and Uyo contested against him in the primaries. Somebody like Nsima Ekere, who later became his deputy from my own senatorial zone, was one of the opponents of the governor, if he had won, would they have told him to handover the ticket to somebody from Ikot Ekpene? If there was zoning, why would candidates from Eket contest against Akpabio? The issue is there is no zoning in Akwa Ibom.
But Eket people also have a right to that seat. Why are you kicking against zoning, especially when you are from Eket zone?
Yes, I am from Eket but what we believe is merit and continuity, not zoning. If you talk about zoning, a wrong person may come up and it will affect the governance of the state. Zoning can only give birth to mediocrity. What we are asking for is continuity, someone who has been part of the good story we are today celebrating, somebody who has the pedigree and spirit to continue from where Akpabio will stop, somebody who will not waste two years in trying to understand the workings of government and somebody who will continue to bind the state together in love and unity; someone who is aware of the developmental needs of the state and already knows the blueprint that has brought immense transformation to the state in the last six years. We have to go for the best candidate for the state, forget about zoning. If the best candidate is from the governor’s village, we should go for him instead of a zoning system that will bring about mediocrity and take us back to where we left six years ago.
Do you have anyone in mind?
As of now, the only person we see, who can give Akwa Ibom people what they want is the current Secretary to the State Government, Umanah Okon Umanah. He is qualified to continue the transformation drive in the state because he has been in power and he knows the blueprint of development which Akpabio has deployed to change the state. Though he has not officially indicated interest in running for the office, let it be known that plans are in the pipeline to make him hearken to the call because as the going says the voice of the people is the voice of God. We will soon invite him to take up the challenge for the sake of continuity and development of the state.
Governor Akpabio has been under serious criticisms for lavish spending and being a hatchet man for President Goodluck Jonathan. How do you see these criticisms?
Look, most of these people criticising Akpabio are doing so because they are jealous. They have not been able to achieve what he has achieved in the last six years and are therefore looking at ways to get at him or pull him down. If you enter Akwa Ibom State today, you will see that Akpabio has delivered and if you have not delivered, the next thing to do is to criticise who is working. About being a hatchet man, I do not agree with that view. The governor is a loyal party man; he is loyal to the president, loyal to the party, and loyal to the South-South region. If he is spending money, it is to touch the lives of people and this is not a bad thing. If they call him the president’s son, there is nothing wrong in that; as a father who has children, there must be one that will be very close to you because he obeys your instructions. There is nothing wrong if Akpabio is the go-to for the president. It is the works he has done that has placed him where he is today and that is the root of all these name-calling and back-stabbing.
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