During an interview held in his home,the professional
architect, former politician and leader of the Ibibio in Akwa Ibom State, Obong Victor Attah, spoke
on national issues and on the recent defection of his successor in office,
Senator Godswill Akpabio to the All Progressives Congress, APC.
Read the information gathered from the interview below
WHAT IS YOUR TAKE ON
THE CURRENT STATE OF THE NATION?
Nigeria is in very severe distress and has been for a long
time. The Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria (CBCN) composed two prayers a
long time ago, one is called ‘Prayer for Nigeria in Distress,’ and the other
one is ‘Prayer against bribery and Corruption in Nigeria.’ We have almost gone
past the stage where certain actions can have effect on the country. I think we
need we need divine intervention.
This distress is caused by politicians, who have lost every
kind of morality, integrity, and honour and I find that very distressing.
WHAT VALUE DO YOU
THINK SENATOR AKPABIO WILL ADD TO THE APC?
The APC celebrates Akpabio at the national level, but I can
tell you that at the state level it is a completely different thing. There is
something we say in Akwa Ibom. We say that when you manage to cook a nice pot
of soup, you should cover it down properly because if you leave it open and
allow certain unworthy creatures like cockroaches, millipedes, and centipedes
to crawl inside, they will turn your nice pot of soup sour. This may just
happen to the APC in Akwa Ibom.
There was a time I could have said Akwa Ibom State had
become at least 80 percent APC and I would not be wrong. There was also a time
the whole state was PDP. Then somebody as prominent as Don Etiebet left the
party and went to the All Peoples Party (APP) and became chairman, he later
returned to the PDP, because other political parties did not stand any chance
and I welcomed him back to the PDP. Then suddenly, Akpabio came, and all of
those people moved en masse to the APC. Start with Akpanudoedehe, who was his
campaign manager in 2007, followed too by Nsima Ekere, the deputy governor,
Umana Umana, the Secretary to the State Government (SSG), every prominent
person, including Etiebet, who is very close to Akpabio moved en masse to the
APC.
But today, look at the decamping from the APC back to the
PDP. So I can say the APC have got their pot of soup completely sour by certain
things they are doing. Let me see whether the APC can win Akwa Ibom State with
Akpabio. But I can tell you with conviction that if the APC manages to win Akwa
Ibom today, it would be in spite of rather than because of Akpabio because if
you leave it to Akpabio, I don’t believe the APC would go very far in Akwa
Ibom.
Today what we hear is that Akwa Ibom is going to be in
similar situation that Warsaw was in the hands of Hitler. Is that what they
want in Akwa Ibom? Akwa Ibom people will resist it vehemently. This kind of
statement shows we have lost every kind of morality and ideology both in the
formation of political parties and the pursuit of our various political
ambitions.
WHO DO YOU BLAME FOR
THE KIND OF ARRANGEMENT WHERE THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT DOES COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT
PROJECTS?
Of course, it is the fault of the Federal Government. If
they had listened to us and restructured the country, we would not be talking
about such things. Again look at a serious thing like the Independent National
Electoral Commission (INEC) budget, perhaps, because they could not have their
way with changing the election sequence, and, I must ask do we need a different
sequence whenever we have election?
However, in a true federalism, the Federal Government has no
business with state elections. The states conduct their elections. The federal
government should be concerned with only the Presidential and National Assembly
elections. Because we have this unfortunate thing we call a federal
arrangement, we have situations like this. Because of this situation we have,
they are now prepared to cripple the INEC and prevent them from conducting
credible elections.
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