TheCable

How else could anyone describe desperation than the rabid reaction of the All Progressives Party in Akwa Ibom State to the endorsement of Governor Udom Emmanuel for a second term by former President Olusegun Obasanjo. Since the former leader’s visit to Uyo last Sunday, APC in Akwa Ibom has been in panic mode.

The party is totally jittery.
They have tried to spin all kinds of lies. But people are tired of their unfounded refrains so the lies have lost their power. They are no longer achieving the desired impact. Rather, the song in Akwa Ibom is continuity. It is about continuity of peace and harmony; continuity of growth and development which Udom represents. The people have consistently enjoyed peace and development under the present administration. They know what they want. They don’t want to vote for terror and deaths, the kinds prevalent in many APC controlled states.

Besides, the governor has placed the state on the highway of industrialization. The state is now an investors’ delight. Even APC cannot deny this. Despite this, the party has been giving all kinds of reasons why Obasanjo cannot dictate to Akwa Ibomites who to vote for. They even said the former President is irrelevant in Owu, his home town, hence, lacks the capacity to influence the politics of Akwa Ibom State.

But we all know that the best way to treat anyone whose views are inconsequential is to ignore them. But they say Obasanjo is irrelevant, yet he cannot be ignored. Rather than ignore the ex-President, APC has even gone ahead to take a full page advertorial on the subject matter. Who is fooling who? You don’t waste your money and resources on somebody irrelevant, if truly he is.

If Emmanuel has not performed and if Obasanjo cannot garner votes in his immediate constituency as claimed, then he should be ignored.

APC should stop convincing people whose minds have been made up on who to vote for. One does not need a soothsayer to know that APC is troubled. It is understandable, every day, defeat stare them in the face. Key personalities in the society have continued to laud the good works of Emmanuel. The other day, Akwa Ibom church leaders endorsed the governor for a second term. Members of the group include the Prelate Emeritus of Methodist Church Nigeria, Dr. Sunday Mbang.

They said the governor deserved a second term because he had performed creditably well in delivering dividends of democracy to the people. Besides, the clerics averred that the subsisting zoning arrangement that produced the last two predecessors since the return of democratic rule favoured Udom’s reelection.

That Udom has been doing his best in the last three and half years to transform Akwa Ibom is obvious even to the greatest of his critics. Besides, many people know Obasanjo for his frankness. Even when he supported President Buhari to become Nigeria’s President, he still told the world in the midst of it all that the President was not good at managing the economy.