The questions and issues which they raised were also legitimate and I look forward to your answers. There has also been, as should be expected, some very pedestrian comments on that interesting exposition. Social media offers a cloak of anonymity which emboldens uninformed participation on every subject matter. This, along with the need to clear the space for, hopefully, more effective contributions led to my voluntary absence from the Oro cyberspace. I'm sure we all have learnt to live with this; but I digress!
I know you James, and can vouch for your Oroness. You and I have had quite a welter of discussions on the way to go for our people. So I believe you mean well and must have embarked on this crusade in the believe that it could serve Oro. That you canvass support and campaign for the Akwa Ibom State Government of Deacon Udom could be considered a noble undertaking provided all parties are encouraged to come to the table with clean hands. It is essential to take the story from the beginning. For your effort to impact on our future positively we can not forget the past and gloss over our mistakes. I am sure you agree that lessons are important even if as a guide.
Unlike your other articles which I've already admitted gave lift to our wings, I am not persuaded by your late arguments; but then, our experiences and exposure to the Akwa Ibom political environment are considerably different. I have been a keen player in the Oro struggle and have travelled those roads (and there have been many) and I have come to the realization that except one is gifted in clairvoyance, it is difficult not to be sucked in by the Akpabio plan (which was and still is) anti Oro, largely by the attractive immediacy of its scant baits. Look closely and you will read the script.
If I understand you properly, your plank, simply put, is that the elections are over, a Governor is on seat and it is in Oro's interest to support this Governor. Not only that. You seem to hold that HE Udom Emmanuel, now firmly and immovably on the saddle by God's special providence, has drawn a line and is moving forward with laudable futuristic programmes and, just like Yar'Adua and Johnathan, should be allowed to get on with the job much as PMB is. It also appears to me that, curiously, you were making a special pitch to the people of Oro. If this encapsulation is right, I am afraid I do not agree with much of your observations. Let me attempt an interpretation of some of the justifications you have canvassed.
1. True, Deacon Emmanuel is at this time the de facto and de jure Governor of our state. In my understanding, the germane issues are not even about him. He is rather an object caught in the cross fire, even if a vicarious beneficiary. I am not aware of any organised opposition to Governor Emmanuel's office or person by any Oro group. In fac, the only active political group in Oro are canvassers for Emmanuel. They are the only Oro group with any funds at all. Surely, this must remind you of something quite familiar.
2. There is no Oro person I know of who is working against any of Governor Emmanuel's programs or project and he has enumerated quite some. On the contrary, I see some very energized Oro persons, quite like you, who would swear by the guy's name. A few are even volunteer propagandist for his cause. So, I can imagine that Oro is not Udom's headache. His real headache are the Oro people who create imaginary opposition to him rather than bring to his notice that our land is in deep crises and we are preoccupied at this time in figuring out how to deal with problems that have been compounded by eight years of neglect. In a place where the population must be over 80% malnourished, unemployment is several points above state average and impoverishment deliberately deployed by those we helped and trusted, as a weapon of mass control. You see Brother Abang, nobody in or from Oro is in anyway preventing him from "doing what he knows how to do best." It is on this plank that I find your plea misplaced. Or, is there something you are not telling us? Truth be told, it is not Oro who owe a good turn; we have discharged our duty to our brothers and state as and when due. The shoe is on the other foot. And being slavishly apologetic is alien to our culture; particularly when we can, indeed, with deep justification claim victimization and neglect.
3. It is not correct to conjecture that the election process excludes the judicial interventions or even to insinuate that since President Johnathan did not deem it necessary to challenge the result of his own election then others will or should not. The election process is not over. It is being continued in court. Both Yar'Adua's and Johnathan's elections made their way through the judicial ladder. It is our law and every citizen who seeks the interpretations of the judiciary is within rights and it is unkind to adjudged that process superfluous. So, until there is a verdict, the electoral process in Akwa Ibom still has ways to go one way or the other.
4. I was not in Atteh in the Okiusopolis on election day so I cannot speak to the level of compliance with the electoral law there; but I should believe, given your coefficient of electoral tolerance, that it met your definition of substantial compliance. Others, in fact many more people in the State were not so fortunate. That must account for the judicial challenges. I have not heard anyone accuse Oro persons of stoking the embers of those challenges. As court electoral cases go in Nigeria, keen watchers adjudge the Akwa Ibom cases as epochal in their transparency. We as most other citizens of the state are prepared to abide by the verdict and it is only then that I believe we should attempt to hold thing together. The Frank Okon Challenge kept Akpabio distracted to his very last days in office. There must be a lesson in that.
By the way, I imagine that Peter Etsu would be alive today if we strove to make our electoral processes more credible by following the simple straight forward rules. Instead of deliberately resorting to self help and muscular display of impunity and violence, spiced up with the subversive compromisation of the security and electoral agencies by massive financial inducements. The way it happened in Akwa Ibom State was even more saddening because leading the goons were recognizable faces, many of whom serve as senior officials of government. They should be role models, James; role models for those young people you are so understandably worried about. But alas! It will be interesting to hear your take on this. No! Mr. Abang, that was not the best election we could have and I suspect you know it.
5. You made the case when you said that God has a reason for putting PMB and Gov. Emmanuel at their posts. I do not argue with God or His prophets. It is foolish so to do as the Lord's will always prevails. So, as old Gamaliel admonished in the good Book of Acts 5: 39 which reads: "If it is of God, it will last".
You can see, I suspect, why there were objections to your appeals to the rest of us who believe that there are, indeed, ways of resisting induction to slavery. I did not set out to win you over and so I am content to have your attention for the moments it took for you to read this. If others found the views expressed here enlightening, the write up has served its purpose. Few communities have a second opportunity to reengineer their destinies....I have a sneaky suspicion that we just may get that chance soon. All patriotic hands must be on deck to fashion the way forward within the eternal parameters set by an overwhelming conclave of Oro Elders, traditional institutions, patriotic political and business players, men, women and youths.
Now onto lighter issues. You insinuated in one of your write ups that there must have been something amiss in my relationship with ex-Governor Akpabio. That's bewildering thought, don't you think. Now, to address your concerns. I am not aware of any issues between the former Governor and I and there really shouldn't be one . Certainly no other issues could have superceeded in importance the role Oro played in protecting and supporting him at his most vulnerable and through his two terms. Maybe if you keep your ears to the ground, one of your new stablemates might just spill the beans on Akpabio, Oro and I. I am more the wiser at this moment. I intend to address those political issues when the hurly burly is done. We do not need distractions now. Let me say this for a fact though, maybe it could give an indication of the evolution of that relationship...."I do not recall anyone of any significance, anyone capable of independent analysis who also had capacity to offer alternate advice, anyone who rose above the banter of the sycophantic rabble who surround all potentates, any one from our state irrespective of ethnic nationality but who was also instrumental to Akpabio's emergence in 2007 who was at his side at the end of his first term. Certainly none attended either his second term inauguration or Udom's swearing in (as well as his stepping out) event ...." That, I believe , will give an indication as to where to go look for answers.
I do not know why Edet bothered about your tease, these are not very humorous times for most Oro patriots, understandably so. Thankfully he claimed momentary amnesia but if indeed both of you had met in the Oro stadium that fateful Independence Day as you claim, my money is on you to have carted that lass away as you claim. Let him eat his heart out. The irony cannot be lost that way back then we had a stadium where we met and bantered. Who else had one?
As for Tony and his neat corrigendum on failed empires, we all thank him for the enrichment of our knowledge. It was not quite clear to me where he placed the once powerful Ukpabang Empire. Not to bother, we are not a failed empire. With a hope and a prayer supported by diligent and clear headed organisation, Oro will reclaim it's place; but we sure will need...as they say in these climes....a lot of Patience and Goodluck.
God prosper your thoughts, my brother.
Otu Ita Toyo, an
architect, is a former State chairman of PDP, Akwa Ibom.
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