“The crowd has long left, Udom is standing alone,” popular Eket journalist, Odungide says of the governor’s travails

By Nse Peter
A renowned journalist in Akwa Ibom State, Mr. Samuel Odungide has bemoaned the political travails of Udom Emmanuel, saying that the governor has been abandoned by the Akwa Ibom people.

Mr. Odungide who is from Eket Local Government Area said, January 10,  in a message he posted on Facebook that from his interactions with politicians across Akwa Ibom State and also from his investigations it was obvious that the people have left Udom Emmanuel.
Odungide said, “Gauging their sentiments against the backdrop of the political uncertainties, I dare say that the crowd has long left the arena and Udom is standing alone.”
Odungide said he sympathized with the governor, but that his policies were however unpopular with the Akwa Ibom people.
He blamed the former Akwa Ibom governor, Chief Godswill Akpabio for putting in place the current political structure in the state and also writing a script for Udom Emmanuel to follow.
“Udom will fail ultimately. He will fail because it is impossible to act another's script particularly, on a theatre (stage) as it is,” the respectable journalist wrote.
“This controlling mechanism does not only reduce the governor to a mere puppet but also position his reputation and personality in the path of scapegoatism.”
He said he was against the zoning of the Akwa Ibom governorship seat in 2015 because of his fear that it could throw up a mediocre as governor of the state.
“The people of the state actually spoke on Friday when they turned out en-mass to welcome the ‘later to be sworn in this year’ governor of Akwa Ibom State, Mr. Umana Okon Umana,” Odungide said.
Think Akwa Ibom! learned that Odungide’s message on facebook came as a shock to Governor Udom Emmanuel’s media aides who felt that the message may be a sign of resentment against the governor among his own kinsmen in Eket.
Information available to Think Akwa Ibom! suggest that Udom’s media aides may have taken a decision to prevail on Samuel Odungide to take down his critical comment on the governor so as not to influence other youths in Eket.
“I don’t know if they have reached out to him or not by now, but I am sure if they can’t prevail on him to pull it down, they will try and extract commitment from him (Odungide) not to post such critical comment any more,” a source within Government House, Uyo told Think Akwa Ibom!