From Aniekan Aniekan, Calabar
Dr. Ekpenyong Ambo is the Cross River State chapter chairman of the Social Democratic Party (SDP). In this interview, he discussed the SDP’s approach to building a strong grassroots presence, his views on the current administration and the party’s plans for the 2027 elections.
How is the SDP in Cross River State positioning itself ahead of the 2027 general election?
The SDP in the state has been strategically positioning itself; right now, the way we are getting this influx of people we don’t want to do media hype because we are trying to learn from what happened in the previous election. Looking critically, right now this is 2025 we are supposed to be discussing governance not politics but unfortunately due to the situation on ground politics has become more discussed than governance. The year for political discussion is 2026 which is still far off but in the SDP we are only channelling our energies on governance. There are a lot of visitors who have visited us and shown their intent of working with us and coming into the party, most of them have even started but we have our own agreement of no blowing of whistle, we don’t do public defections.
When you come into the party, you come in and solidify your ward and start building from the grassroots because here, we believe from grass to top not from top to grass. You will not hear the big guns coming round our state office because we don’t operate that way.
The state working committee took a decision that any one that is coming must do his progression from the ward and the ward will give us an information on how progressive the person has been because every election is at the ward level. It is from there that we will measure our strength. As the state chairman, I am representing a ward and it is only from those areas that I can tell what is the strength of the party. It is not the number of persons that come to celebrate with us and we expose them to the media at the top, so that has been our strategy in Cross River State but when the time comes in 2026, we will go public with our harvest.
What lessons did the SDP learn from the last general election and local government elections and how will it inform your decisions, going forward?
If you look critically, in the general election, as the state chairman, I came in during the elections and there were a lot of foundational issues at the time to be addressed. So, coming in, the ideology of the party needed to be introduced deeply into the mindset of the people and unfortunately for us that came in at that time it was an election year and so there was little we could do in terms of time because the SDP as a party believed too much in the process.
Also at that time it was a time of reconnecting, rearranging, repositioning so the last elections were for me an avenue to help us understand the dynamics ahead of subsequent elections. On the local government elections, among viable parties, the SDP was one and we had candidates in almost all positions but we all know the dynamics of local government elections and hope those policies will be changed by the National Assembly. For now, if you look at the momentum in the SDP, we have the right set of people with the right mindset. Also, during the last election, a lot of persons were adopting the ruling party -APC but SDP was not among them, we stood and had our candidate who ran for the election and at the end of the day his deputy disappointed him by resigning and joining the ruling party for his own interest. This was a big blow to the young people of this state. These are some of our observations. Next time, our flag bearer will be decided by the collective house. So, there is a lot of other modalities we are putting together.
In Cross River State, there is a general notion that there is no opposition, how true is this assertion?
Since 1999, Cross River State has been seen as a female part of political environment, exercising power where nobody has the boldness to build a political party from the scratch to the top. In Cross River State, the governor acts as the richest man, the few that have the money are not in the state and don’t understand the dynamics of the state. When they say there is no opposition in the state, it is a big lie. In Cross River State, it has always been seen that when it is time for governance, they allow governance to run because we are a peace-loving people and this does not mean that we cannot play the politics from inside governance. If we do that, we will cause rot in the system because politics is about interests while governance is about the well-being of the society. So, as citizens of the state who head political parties, we think of governance and refuse to play politics in the place of governance. This is why you will not hear people decamping to our party in the media because it is a decision of the state working committee. We want to be strategically positioned. It is sweet for the sitting government to be deceived by those that choose to deceive them. I only pity the governor because, from my own personal discussion with him, I see that he has a good heart but unfortunately he has the wrong set of people around him; people who don’t understand what it means to be in government are working with someone who knows what it means to be a leader.
These and many more will start shooting forth in future but, for now, for the peace and sanctity of the state, we try to take away politics from governance. So let him play his role in governance and let us keep tabs on his failures for political time.
What is the current status of discussions between the SDP and other parties and what are the key issues being discussed?
In SDP, if you look vividly at the statements by my National Chairman, the SDP is not going into any merger but we are open for coalition. We want to win elections using all necessary mechanisms that will convince Nigerians and people of the state that this is the right way to follow. We encourage other parties who are interested in merging to go ahead but we are open to coalition and there is a discussion ongoing led by the myself and the state chairman of the Young Progressive Party. Most of the political parties are looking at rallying round the SDP due to the momentum that is on underground. We don’t want anyone coming in with personal grievance into the coalition. We are going to give the government of the APC a good fight, and our ideology is bringing in people.
It’s almost two years now in the saddle, how do you rate the present APC administration in Cross River State?
Based on what the previous government had done you will think that what he is doing is wonderful but on my own part I will give him 30 percent, very low, because when you compare the influx of resources with other states like Ebonyi you will see that we are still behind and if he tries to bring the issue that the past government did not do well, it is a continuum and you are expected to add something to something. As we speak, the APC government has done below par. I can even say we are retrogressing because what the present government is trying to fix have long passed the trend, it is a joke because you cannot play on the intelligence of many. We cannot be talking about this kind of street light that is not up to the standard of the 1999 street lights. There are modern street lights with digital cameras that help communicate, reduce speed and crime. As a government, the APC has failed us and keeps failing us. In governance, there is no room for excuse.
There are multiple taxes in the state and SMEs are complaining; these taxes discourage people from coming in to invest. I have to tell him the truth because he is my brother. He has done below par but still has some years to meet up and it is necessary he starts thinking outside of the box, look around his team and start evaluating them individually.
I know some commissioners who are doing very well and are fit for the office but the majority of his commissioners are not up to the task.
How does your party hope to address the issue of godfathers and what are the measures put in place to prevent it within your party?
We are built on solid ground and have a very formidable policy, no matter how big you are, when you come to the party, you must follow the law. The sanity of the party is more important than any individual. We are trying to make sure we exhibit what we would exhibit in government by ensuring our books guide us so that, when get into government, we don’t do otherwise. We have nothing like godfathers, the only leader of the party is the national chairman at the national level and the state chairman at the state level.
What are your thoughts on the federal government’s priorities in terms of infrastructure development, particularly as regards the coastal highway?
We have a road that the Federal Government has refused to fix for so many years, the Calabar-Itu Road, and they are going for another project. Everyone is looking for projects that they can use to siphon money. There are primary concerns that the Federal Government needs to fix. Cross River, and Nigeria, is not difficult to manage.
Do the primary things first and the rest is gone. Fix the necessary roads and Nigerians will applaud you and when you are starting a new project they will believe in it. But this one you have not fixed the old one and you are going for a new one, that’s confusion. We are supposed to be talking about finished and continuity of projects and not abandoned ones. The present administration at the centre is no more focusing on governance but politics, trying to play media politics and tell Nigerians that this person has defected to my party.
How can Nigeria’s electoral system be insulated from partisan politics and what role should parties play in the selection of electoral officers?
The first reform we need to have is to ensure the executive arm of government of Nigeria ceases to be the appointing authority for who to become the umpire. We should have an electoral college that comprises leaders of political parties who can select someone who can lead the process and not one appointed by a sitting President who belongs to a political party. This will make the President sit up and focus on governance and not politics.