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JOE EFFIONG, UYO
Former spokesman of the House of Representatives, Hon Eseme Eyiboh, has stressed that the All Progressives Congress (APC) has now filed candidates for all positions in Akwa Ibom State, for the 2023 general election.
Eyiboh, who is the APC candidate for Eket Federal Constituency, told Daily Sun that with the court clearing Sen Godswill Akpabio to contest the Akwa Ibom North West Senatorial ticket, he was confident that Mr Akan Udofia, whose gubernatorial ticket was declared invalid by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), would equally get justice at the court to contest the election.
“In my last interaction with you, I had said time will tell. On the 20th of September, in compliance with its guidelines and the time table it set for itself, INEC published what it called the final list of all the candidates of all the political parties for the national assembly positions.
“In Akwa Ibom State, all our names were there including my own name and that of Sen Godswill Akpabio. But unfortunately, the naysayers, who said APC in Akwa Ibom State had no candidates, were not fair to the public by also helping to publish the INEC final list; or apologize that they misled the public.
It means that what they did was deliberately intended to demean and disintegrate and dismember the party and make the party suffer undue poor perception.”
He said why some people in the state were spreading the news of APC not having candidates in Akwa Ibom was because people wanted to go to elections unopposed.
“On the fourth of October, INEC is expected to ;publish the names of the governorship candidates and state house of assembly candidates.”
Eyiboh said though he is not the spokesman of the party in the state, he foresees Akan Udofia’s case falling in line with that of Sen Akpabio since the cases were similar.
According to him, even if Udofia’s name would not be published on the 4th of October, he believes that when judgement would be delivered on the October 6th, it would be in his favour to still make him a bonafide gubernatorial candidate of the party.
“So I’m taking the rug off the feet of the naysayers who would be ready to go to town to broadcast that APC has no gubernatorial candidate when the list comes out on the 4th, because we have a candidate.
“We prefer to fail in the ballot than to run away from the responsibility carrying our people along. We are preaching prosperity; we are preaching growth and opportunity; we are preaching political engineering that reflect innovation and departing from the past to enthrone to our people a leadership that will make us proud; leadership that is not deceit-minded or plagued by the political party anthem but by the felt needs of our people.”
Eyiboh who had represented the same constituency at the House of Representatives between 2007 and 2011, said he is going back to the national assembly with experience which would enable him to introduce innovativeness and contacts that would help resolve some national and local problems of the nation.
“The world over, we have gone past the age of submarines and bayonets. Wecare now in the age of innovations and artificial intelligence. So in legislative business, you don’t need to go to war with one another. There are various windows that should be engaged.”
He explained that his name was initially not on the list released by INEC in Akwa Ibom because “Igini’s list was a product of the cyber corridor. whereas my name was published by the INEC and pasted in all the local government areas within his federal constituencies without my going to court. because I’m a product of grace.”
He stressed that there should be a difference between institutions and individuals as well as politics and governance for development to thrive in Nigeria.
“Politics should end at the point of the political party primaries that are expected to be democratic. Governance should start from the point of implementation and enthronement of the constitution.
“It is very worrisome that we are trading experience with mediocrity. Experience would bring about the networking to make things happen without necessarily making a law for it. And that’s what I’m taking to the national assembly.” Eyiboh said.
