AS AKWA IBOM PDP WAITS WITH BATED BREATH!
– Jonathan Swift, Anglo-Irish satirist, author of Gulliver’s Travel
By Destiny Akaiso
The strongest omen for imminent futility of the 2023 Akwa Ibom State PDP governorship election primaries of March 28, 2022 was the withdrawal of Senator Bassey Albert (OBA) from the race at the nick of time.
The moment OBA, a man providentially immune to lost endeavors; a formidable force and seasoned political strategist took that resolute stand in a contest he is fully prepared for, I knew that such a race was doomed to end up in chaotic disaster of no redemption.
But, ironically , it might be the beginning of a liberation journey for the people of Akwa Ibom State. For instance, just few days after, parties and governors across the country have started facing the boomerang effects of their totalitarian tendencies.
In one recent instance in as many cases since the primaries, a division of the Federal High Court in a sitting in Abuja presided over by Justice Taiwo Taiwo, disqualified the candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) for Delta State, Rt. Hon. Sheriff Oborevwori.
An aggrieved aspirant, Mr. Olorogun Edevbie, had approached the Court in a suit with the prayer that, among other things, the PDP violated its constitution and the electoral guidelines during the State’s congress that produced Oborevwori as governorship flag-bearer of the party.
The plaintiff therefore sought an order to restrain the defendant from parading himself as governorship candidate of the PDP. The court granted his prayers.
Although every suit is examined on its peculiar substance and merit, the litigations against the PDP in Akwa Ibom State also have their onus in travesty, and the Court’s stance in Delta State reverberates with strong strings of correlation to the peculiarities in Akwa Ibom.
Initially, the system made it look as if there was nothing to be alarmed, whatsoever, howsoever, because according to them, PDP is a religion in Akwa Ibom State.
I can recall that for OBA’s condemnation of the process and clairvoyant withdrawal from that primaries, he was described as a “mere noise maker”, “rabble-rouser”, who was “heating up the polity”.
But the last two sittings of the High Court in Abuja over the subsisting “status quo ante bellum”, wherein the court admitted the plaintiffs’ prayers as genuine, have proven that there is fire on the mountain for PDP in Akwa Ibom State.
Like Edevbie, OBA premised his refusal to contest in the primaries on obvious manipulation and infractions that characterized the PDP ad hoc delegates’ list/nomination, as well as a standing court order by the Court that parties concerned should maintain the “status quo ante bellum”.
Following the two sittings of the Court in the past two months, it must be interesting to see how visibly apprehensive and fidgeting they have become those who at the beginning had jumped in from all direction with truckloads of funny interpretations of the legal caveat.
Disinterested experts with sound contrary opinions, who analyzed the matter without sentiments, were instantly blacklisted in royal quarters as fifth columnists and haters of State.
I was particularly intrigued by how even qualified and highly respectable SANs played to the gallery, offering sophistic than logical advisory.
No doubt, many merely did so to give their sponsors a temporary feel-good moment. Many did so knowing in their minds that they were just interlopers who knew next to nothing about the legal patois. Their actions were basically a show of bravo and power that lacked circumspection.
They must have forgotten that matters of the law is not like chicken pepper soup that everybody and anybody can lay claim of knowing how best to prepare and scoring one’s self high in the end. As we now wait for July 15, it cannot be denied that some are now experiencing intractable spells of insomnia.
But to the contrary, as checks have shown, only OBA’s camp is doing its things with typical ease, focused and strategic as ever, waiting in confidence for the D-day, poised to move on as was originally planned.
The other day in Court, the fireworks became so intense and got to a dramatic comic point of near capitulation when someone pleaded with the judge for the “wisdom of Solomon”, to be applied in his instance. But the judge’s logic proved superior and indicative of the transparent mien of a man who believes in the merit and sanctity of justice.
“But what if the Nigerian Factor ultimately spoils the case?” Some have asked. That’s understandable. But judged by how the matter has gone so far, coupled with unfolding day-to-day precedence in related cases in other States, the Judge handing this matter does not appear to be a Nigerian who easily can bend rules for gratifications. Besides, that’s why the appellate courts are in existence.
On the Akwa Ibom State’s political calendar, it is apparent that July 15, 2022 will open many doors to and close as many against persons and opportunities, with the potential to alter Akwa Ibom’s political complexion and calculus as we move forward. Observers are already of the opinion that PDP might have no governorship candidate in 2023.
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