I am sure I can make a difference in the House of Reps Frank Effa Mr Frank Effa is the Chairman of Lourde’s Academy Calabar and a respected business man. In this interview with mycrossriver, he bares his mind on his ambition to contest the House of Representatives seat for the Ikom/Boki Federal Constituency and other serious political issues affecting the Central Senatorial District of the state. The interview makes an interesting reading. Can you give us a brief insight into how much work you have done politically now and in the past? Politics is not new to me nor am I new to politics. . I have been involved in politics right from my school days while I was in the university. I was very active in politics so many years ago. That is sixteen or more years ago. In the state, we started the PFN with John Okpa and co. but while we were doing that I discovered that some things were not right. I like people being straightforward, even if one is trying to introduce or manipulate anything for his own benefit, let us see the cost of it and it was on that score I had a little disagreement with John. He was pretending that he was not in the leadership position of the PFN, and that made me to ask him a question that if he was not in the leadership position, why was he the only person going to Abuja and taking everything and was always on the spotlight. I told him that he should nominate someone else to go and come back and tell us what is going on there so that the people in Abuja equally know other people who constitute what is going on here but he refused. On that score, I left and they continued. After that, I got involved with NRC and that was the party in which I put a lot of efforts and also tried to contest the chairmanship of my local government, Ikom but it wasn’t to be as because my townsman, Matthew Ojong had just won primaries then under the SDP to run for the governorship of the state. So it was not to be because it was impracticable for two kinsmen to be both governor and chairman of local government. So I withdrew from the race though I continued in the party but later we had a little disagreement with Ebri the governor of the state. Abiola had just won election then and we agreed as a party to congratulate him since he had defeated our presidential candidate, Alhaji Tofa and we went ahead and issued a congratulatory message and soon after that Lagos decided that it was not too good for us to congratulate an opposition party and asked Ebri to withdraw the statement and Clement decided that he was going to do it but I said , look you have already put up your statement you cannot take it back , bedsides this man really won the election and he insisted he was going to do it and I said if you do it I am going to resign from the party and he did it and I resigned. I think about two weeks after that that government was over thrown and they said I was part of the coup that I knew about the coup and I said okay if you say I knew about the coup, go ahead and report me. Essentially that was how I slowed down with politics and decided to go quiet and do my things. When in 1999, the PDP formed government in the state, I was not part of the party because my support was for Mark Ukpo. Incidentally, Mark was in APP but I did not go into APP either but that was my support. So for the eight years of Doanld Duke, I did not know where the governor’s office was. I did not know his commissioners and had no business with them. Even since Liyel Imoke had been there I have not visited the Government House – that is how I had operated until now . so that is the little about me in politics Now that you are trying to get back, are you sure the system will welcome you. I did not leave because the system was bad. I simply disagreed with what was going on. I am not in a position to pass judgment whether the system was bad or good I just could not function there. Are you then under any pressure from your people to get back because of one reason or the other. That notwithstanding, there is a name the people call me – the Senator we could not have. That was because if I had agreed to their terms I would have contested to be Senator in 2003. I may not have been personally involved in the day- to -day activities of politicking, my boys have always been there. Most of the people politicians rely on in Ikom are the people that I brought up and those are the same people who have been saying to me please come back into politics and I feel obliged to do so because it was like I abandoned them. You need to realise that they need somebody that they could trust. Somebody that can talk to government and they listen and there are some discussions that they would not be there. And from such discussions some decisions would take place and they would be left out. So they need someone who will be able to know what is going on and protect their interest. The situation was such that for them to remain relevant they had to work extra hard and to tell you the truth they have tried because they have had to do a lot on their own. So if am going back as a player, they are ready for me. You have a dilemma here because you are from Ikom and there is a Senator from Ikom who is doing very well and he is seeking to return to Senate. Is there a consensus that the House of Representatives that you are gunning for should be occupied by Ikom along with the Senate. It doesn’t even arise because as far as I know the zoning has been done; it is not my fault, the PDP said adhere to the zoning formula the way it is done and I wasn’t in that meeting. They who are up there were in those meetings . One thing we should realize is that between Victor and I, we are friends and I hope he still knows we are friends but the way these maters have gone, if he decides to blame me, then he will not be fair to me. If the thing has been zoned out to another constituency, I don’t think we should leave Ikom empty. I was not the one who took that decision but if they come back tomorrow and say Victor is going back, then good but until then we have to represent the place. Giving the relevance of the position of Senate Leader, people say it is not advisable for the constituency and the state to trade off that position. Yea. When the person went there, he took over from somebody why didn’t he allow the person to go for a second tenure . Maybe if the person had continued he would have been Senate President today. But when it was convenient, he took it and said it was only one term for everybody but now that it has come to his own turn, he has gone three times and have forgotten what he said when he took over from somebody, does it make sense. When the governor spoke during Senate Leader’s empowerment programme, he said the state cannot send second eleven for a crucial match but what is going on now with the zoning seems to contradict that position. Sometimes players play football and they get too old and they have to change them. So sometimes the first eleven is better. I hear the Boki people are still interested in occupying the position of House of Representatives. The person who is there is still willing to go. Are you aware of that position since you are from Ikom. He is not different from Victor. He rides on the back of victor. So if Victor is not going, he cannot go back. The pact we had with Boki is quite oblivious of the Senate position but Victor wanted to have a clear ride so he acquiesced to that arrangement where if I am going to Senate, Boki can continue going to House of Representatives. That was why Boki has been there for twelve years. Otherwise the arrangement we had was that if Boki goes one term, Ikom goes one term. So if you have gone three terms and at end of it all the person who used to make it possible for you to go all those terms is no more n the picture, you can’t continue. It is only fair that you had it over as per our previous arrangement. There seems to be a tear in the party because some people do not seem to agree with the zoning arrangement. People like Essen Ayi, Prince Otu and Daniel Asuquo in the south, In Senate Leader and Eddy Ogon in the Central have all disagreed. What is going tom become of the PDP I am not sure there is any tear. Let me make one thing clear. You can see those who disagreed with the arrangement. There is nothing that stops people from being greedy; nothing can curb your greed but you. It is until you get there that you know whether your greed can sustain you or not. Eddy Ogon has been there so what is he looking for there again. Is he saying that he did not complete four years?. If so he did not need to complete eight years. If he didn’t go, his brother has done eight years plus his own four years make sit twelve years. For the people who are disagreeing, when it benefited them, they were part of it but now that it doesn’t suit them anymore, they say they are no more for it. I don’t know about Daniel Asuquo, I don’t know bout Essien Ayi, but I remember Victor for instance during Donald’s second term when he was to go in, we had what we called Atam Congress, which was very serious and they wanted his identification with that group but he said look, I am a member of the establishment, I cannot get myself involved with Atam Congress. He disowned that group because he was part of the establishment. To him what the establishment is doing was good. In 2011, he said the same thing that he was part of the establishment, so if today the establishment says, please our brother, just wait, why is it a problem. Why can’t he just wait. Is he saying he is not a part of the establishment anymore? In the context of zoning that you are talking about, is there anything like that in the Constitution of the PDP. Dont the individual have the right to challenge such arrangement? . Excuse me, it is not my place to decide if PDP zoning is wrong or right, but if you have benefitted from that zoning yourself, why do you query it. When it was convenient, they gave it to you and you took and nobody protested now that it is zoned to another place, you insist you want to continue, how? Don’t the individual have the right even if he had benefitted in the past to say, look you guys misfired by zoning the position in the first place, this time it is not going to work? That individual does not have the right. He sold the right. He took it when it suited him and did not insist that why are you zoning it to me but took it, so you have sold your right and cannot now query those same people who gave you the position in the first place. What if those who have been zoned out insist on contesting the election. No problem they should go and contest. Let me tell you what it is. When I went to run election in NRC the thing was zoned to somebody else but I fought the thing and I know how hard it is to go against the tide. You can have all the money and nobody is ready to work with you. They should go and collect the form, we would be there in the field. As at today, Victor is fighting but a few days ago, fifty four councilors met in Ikom and all of them said they have endorsed Owan Enoh and after that they held a rally. When journalists had a parley with Owan Enoh, were so many government officials there. Everybody from the Central District in government was there but go and have parley with Victor and see how many people will be there. So it is not just Owan Enoh’s fight but a fight for all of them. If you want to fight all those people where would you start. It is just like hitting your head against the wall. Like I told you earlier, when Matthew Ojong won the primaries, that was the end of the road for my chairmanship journey. It is just simple argument. These disagreements going on in the party, wont it affect the party eventually in the 2015 elections. There is nothing that is strange with what is going on. It is in every party. Parties are formed by the coming together of people from diverse back grounds, they are bound to disagree. I have told you how I disagreed with Ebri during the NRC era. If you look at Boki/ Ikom Federal Constituency, since the era of Eddy Ogon to Chris Etta, nothing much seems to be happening there. What do you intend to do in terms of programmes if elected. As a lawmaker, you control no vote. You control no projects. However, intrinsically, there are things you could do in terms of constituency projects for your constituency. And as a lawmaker, you should be very proactive the things you want to do. Not going to some people and buy second cars and line up and call that empowerment. That is not empowerment because some people soon after they collect the car cannot buy fuel for it. And you call that empowerment. What and who have you empowered. It is not as if you gave the person a car and say another one million naira, and say go and run taxi and when the car breaks down, you can fix it with the money. Again who are the beneficiaries of these so called empowerment. If you give somebody like me a car, how have you empowered me? You simply are bribing me because by and large, a car means nothing to me. I can buy so many cars if I want. So basically what is empowerment is what you as a lawmaker can attract that can create employment. Like what Owan Enoh did in the Obubra/Etung Constituency, you can’t fault him, apart from the cars he gave, if you go into the Federal Civil Service today, people from that constituency are every where. From what I was told he even bribes to get those positions to give to his people. Sometimes, I hear that somebody wants to bring a federal polytechnic to Ikom, I want to get there and bring it. We have been waiting for that polytechnic for too long. I want to get there and drag it down because we have heard so much about it and yet the years are finishing. By February next year, you cannot bring any polytechnic again. Even as I talk to you now, you can’t bring any polytechnic because everybody is focused on whetherhe can go back or I cannot go back. So essentially, I can’t tell you I am going to change the landscape of Ikom. Or the landscape of Boki. I don’t have to do that but in my mind I know I can make a difference. If I can replicate what other successful legislators have done, I will be happy. There is a young man who works with the National Park having some problems and he said he met the Senator and the Senator said he should put the whole thing into writing. How can a civil servant put his problem into writing. Some other people will carry telephone and call those who can address the problem. It cost you nothing. You can’t just say to somebody, go and write and sign what your problems are and bring to me which can put the person into more trouble. It does not make sense. These are things from the background you handle. Today in the National Park , the north is seriously usurping that place. Somebody would be there for so many years, a northerner will come and become the boss. That is why the people are protesting. This Youngman, Owan did something for his own people. When this other guy went and met him he said sorry, you are not in my constituency go and meet your own people because if I do anything for you now they will say am crossing to go and do their own responsibility. The Etung boys that are there were elevated because somebody stood up for them and they did not write anything. So those are the little ways you can make a difference You disagreed with John Okpa, you disagreed with the NRC and disagreed with Ebri, what are the prospects that you will not disagree with the system now. If there is a reason for me to disagree I would disagree. Look, I tell people I am not desperate. If I go there and do not like what I see I come back and sit at home with my family. Some days ago it was reported that the national leadership of PDP has endorsed the President, the Senate President and Senate leader. It is not correct. That I know very well. Who ever told you that formulated the whole thing. I was in Abuja myself and I know that when there was this talk that Victor Ndoma Egba had been endorsed , the National Publicity of the PDP at 4 pm AIT News came out with the statement that the only person that the party had adopted is Mr President and that it is the Central Working Committee that that had the power to do anything and until then, every other person would have to submit himself to a primary election.
Posted on: Thu, 16 Oct 2014 04:48:58 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015