By ETIM ETIM
It is about two months to the commencement of party primaries and nine months to the beginning of the governorship campaigns, yet the political terrain in Akwa Ibom State is unusually calm. The usual boisterousness and noisy campaigns that dominate reelection season are absent. There’s no single poster, banners or billboards on the road. The opposition parties are all dormant and inactive, but the ruling party – the All Progressives Congress – is having a field day, traversing the state and mobilizing support for the reelection of Gov. Eno, Senator Godswill Akpabio, President Bola Tinubu and all the other candidates. In January, Gov. Eno, seeking reelection as the sole APC candidate, launched his campaign organization known as ARISE With Renewed Hope Initiative (AWRHI). On February 19, AWRHI began a tour of the 31 Local Government Areas. So far 12, the team has visited 12 LGAs, drumming support for the President and all the APC candidates. In the evening of Saturday, February 28, the campaign train led by its President, Engr. Uwem Okoko, accompanied by its International Coordinator, Rt. Hon. Udo Kierian, and other executives, visited my LGA, Ibesikpo-Asutan,.
It was a colourful spectacle, with members of the AWRHI dressed in their red shirts, emblazoned with pictures of Tinubu, Akpabio and Eno. As in all political events, there were singing, dancing and speeches. The Council Hall was filled to the brim with all the key politicians from the LGA. More people were seated under the canopy outside the hall. Ibesikpo-Asutan is the home of former governor Victor Attah and First Republic Minister of Agriculture in the Eastern Region, the late Chief Efiong Okon Eyo, popularly known as Eyo Uyo. He was among the early personalities who pushed for the creation of states for the minority groups of Eastern Nigerian right from the 1940s. The advocacy eventually led to the creation of Akwa Ibom in 1987. While Chief Eyo belonged to Chief Awlowo’s Action Group (AG), my father was a staunch member of Dr. Azikiwe’s NCNC. Chief Eyo and my father were both friends and political opponents. Till this day, Ibesikpo-Asutan has sustained its energetic political traditions. It came in full display as Gov. Eno’s campaign team arrived.
The evening began with a rousing welcome speech from Council Chairman, Edidiong Inyang. He listed Gov. Eno’s achievements in office with particular reference programmes and projects in his LGA. The chairman then pledged full support of the community to the governor. ‘’In the 2023 elections, this local government gave Pastor Umo Eno 15,000 votes, and that was under PDP. Today, we are in a much bigger platform, APC. In 2027, we shall give him over 50,000 votes’’, the crowd cheered. The rest of the speakers pretty much echoed the same point. The boast seems realistic given the absence of other candidates. International Coordinator, Udo Kierian described AWRHI as a campaign vehicle designed to take the governor’s campaign message to the nooks and crannies of the state, and noted that all former governors of the state had set up similar organizations to drive their campaigns.
The group’s president. Engr. Uwem Okoko spoke of the outstanding performance of President Tinubu and Gov. Umo in the last three years and urges the people to ensure that the two leaders, as well as the Senate President are reelected. ‘’It is in the interest of our state that Senator Akpabio is not only reelected into the senate, but also reelected as the Senate President’’, Okoko, a civil engineer whose construction firm handles major construction projects in the state, intoned. Again the crowd cheered. Other speakers of the night were Dr. Ita Udosen, APC South-South Zonal Secretary; Linus Nkan, Commissioner for Budget and Economic Planning; Ubong Attah, member of the House of Assembly; Emmanuel Obot, former member of the House of Representatives; and Octogenarian Chief T. O. Akpan, who was in the Cross River House of Assembly in the Second Republic. In addition to the speeches, Local Government executives and Advisory Council for the campaign group were also inaugurated.
Eno’s campaign train is going round the state in the wake of two important activities conducted by APC: electronic registration of party members and successful organization of ward and local government congresses in the state. The absence of a strong opposition capable of mounting a challenge to the APC in 2027, coupled with the governor’s strong approval rating and wide acceptability across the state, will make Eno’s reelection the easiest electoral contest in the history of the state. The train will move to Nsit Ibom; Etinan and Uyo LGAs on March 5, with grand finale at the governor’s LGA on March 19. There are also plans to launch Port Harcourt, Lagos and Calaber chapters in the weeks ahead.
