IBESIKPO ASUTAN L.G.A: AFTER THE STORM. By Osondu Ahirika February was a month of tumult for Ibesikpo Asutan Local Government Council. I began ruminating on that fiery February, as I sat through the Love and Unity Feast celebrated by The Brotherhood of the Cross and Star, the denomination to which Ibesikpo Asutan Council Chair, Ekpe James, belongs as a cleric. The event, with elaborate religious aplomb and fanfare, was held at the Council Headquarters on Sunday, March 16, 2014. Attracting, the venerable presence of the Chairman, BCS Executive Council and Head of Administration, His Holiness, Olumba Olumba Obu, a.k.a King of Kings, Apostle Ekpe James played Chief Host. The festival of love and unity, and its call to brotherhood and one love, I believe, was a soothing redoubt, after the months of turbulence that rocked the Council. Share my reminisce on that storm which rocked Ibesikpo Asutan. A splinter group of the Council Legislature led by Hon. Sylvester Harry, representing Asutan Ward 4, were locked in a political tug of war with the Chairman of Council, Apostle James. It was a needless political conflict. Poorly conceived and so weakly prosecuted, it left every critical and unbiased observer in bafflement of how mediocrity has rendered an otherwise revered institution of Government, at the third tier, so venal and ridiculous. Speaking to a reporter, on what has turned out to be a huff and puff, Hon. Harry, obviously acting a shabbily contrived script raged. it is true, he said, we want to impeach him,(Ekpe James) if he fails to settle our entitlement owed us which is over 60Million Naira. Such hawkish posturing has no legal predicate. For else, when did owing, or alleged failure to pay entitlements, become an impeachable offence? Are payments, and even implementation of passed budgets not subject to availability of funds? As if to betray how illusory, or impotent this threat of impeachment fire and brimstone amounts, it was disclosed that they were planning a Peaceful demonstration before the Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly over the matter. At least, they know impeachment processes are tedious and well beyond their sole wield and rabble to execute. The next words of the Leader were the commonly used allegations of, gross incompetence and high handedness levied against the Council boss. As if to pad up those spurious accusations, famished by their overuse in political conflicts, a purported assault of a female Councilor was added, to put bite to a facade of guilt, they tried to invent. The Ibesikpo Asutan Council rift actually started before February. Its disruptive seed was sown when they conspired and removed the former House Leader, Hon. Ekwere Edet representing Asutan Ekpe Ward 2. He was not going to be a tool in the hands of political puppeteers, who are accustomed to railroading Ibesikpo Asutan affairs into their breast pocket, as well, funnel her resources to their charge, control and dispense. Feeling wracked by the liberating and populist agenda of Apostle Ekpe James; and unable to put him under their teleguide, they resorted to the uninspired strategy of political estrangement as against rapprochement. I have lived the better part of 11 years of this democracy in Ibesikpo Asutan. I am therefore an interested party, albeit a neutral arbiter. I can vouch, Apostle James has run that council with a human face. That is, given his human empowerment programmes, which I have never witnessed in that Council since the return of democracy in May 1999. Folks, let us reason together. Last Xmas, he doled out 12m Naira worth of empowerment for his people. In all, 700 bags of rice was given out, 79 beneficiaries spread across the ten Wards of the Council, smiled home with 100, 000 Naira each. Still, in a sagacious, unprecedented gesture, he graciously reimbursed every opponent that ran against him in the Chairmanship election. Those aside, set for inauguration(some call it commissioning) on April 4 is a modern Office Complex replete with facilities, a Post Office, a Branch Office for WAEC and many other projects his administration has embarked upon. There are many more things he has done, in cash and kind, that I just will not enumerate here. Suffice it to say, he has seized the moment which God permitted him to positively engage his people and touch lives. The Royal fathers of Ibesikpo Asutan can attest to the fact that, they never had it so good. So why the push to gun down a good man.? Why? Besides, the bipolar socio political structure of Ibesikpo Asutan aggravated the crisis into a deeper schism. Ibesikpo clan to the North and Asutan Ekpe to the South is the amalgam that makes up Ibesikpo Asutan. They observe a very strict rotation of power that balances the equation at every point in time between them. Apostle James is from Ibesikpo Ward 2, while the State Constituency rep in the Legislature hails from the Asutan axis. Trying to impeach the Chair was immediately perceived as an attempt to rob Ibesikpo of their slot by Asutan. Right or wrong, such miseducation about governance, being seen or reduced to clannish and primordial sentiments, have sadly beclouded our reasoning, even in saner circumstances. The result? Ibesikpo Asutan was sitting on a tinder box waiting to explode. The bad blood generated by the crisis had seeped into every pore of interest in the area. The next stanza of the war chant was that, Prince Uwem Ita Etuk, one time Head of Council, immediate past State Chairman of PDP, Special Adviser to Governor Akpabio on Food Sufficiency and Political Leader of Ibesikpo Asutan and now a Commissioner designate in Akpabios cabinet was fingered as the mastermind of the plot. It did not end there. The Member representing Ibesikpo Asutan State Constituency, Hon. Eyakeno Etukudo, and the State Organizing Secretary of PDP and one time Councillor representing Ibesikpo Ward 1, Hon. Elder Aniekan Uko were roped in as accomplices. Good enough, the conscript of the trio was not by Apostle James, but by pundits trying their wit on analyzing the boiling cauldron of Ibesikpo Asutan Politics. All was set for a major showdown. The wise admonition of the Paramount Ruler of Ibesikpo Asutan, HRM Edidem Ita Etuk torpedoed the injurious cloud of acrimony that was gathering. He slammed the so called impeachment move, flayed any attempt to truncate existing power sharing formula in the Area, which an impeachment, if indeed it occurs portends, and sued for peace. Apostle James grabbed the gauntlet and cued in. A Press Statement from him deflated the strain in relations and deescalated the overheat of the tensed polity. He absolved Prince Uwem Ita Etuk, whose leadership he acknowledges and exonerated Hon. Etukudo and Elder Uko of complicity in his embattlement. Apostle James says he has discerned a ploy by disgruntled miscreants to breach the unity chord that binds all these major actors in the area as one. He will not be ensnared by their bait. He has reassured all stakeholders of his conviction that, they remain bound by the charter of working for a better and greater Ibesikpo Asutan. Methink, the Obong Edem Akpainyang led Elders Council should be more proactive and stem the downslide next time it rears its eerie head. The body must not be rendered, a make- believe assembly with no real influence on the superstructure of Ibesikpo Asutan politics. All said, I attuned my ears to the ground and heard the whisper of ants. I understand from this connect, that, Apostle Ekpe James looks to take an audacious lunge from the Council Secretariat to the red chambers of the Senate to succeed Senator Ita Enang as Senator, for Akwa Ibom North East(Uyo) Senatorial District. Hmmm! That is the courage of hope. My surf of the matter revealed that, the seat swings between Uruan, Nsit Atai and Ibesikpo Asutan of Uyo Federal Constituency, who are entitled, going by zoning, for the plum job. Rather than vilify Ekpe James for aspiring, or trivialize his bid, Ibesikpo Asutan people should weave their adroit resolve around this ambition, if their illustrious son does step out for it. No alternative will serve them any better. They have added advantage. Prince Uwem Ita Etuk has one more badge added to his rich resume. He has been elevated to Political Leader of Uyo Federal Constituency and has dismissed insinuations that he is eyeing any elective office in 2015. This is history making, for, as Prince Enobong Uwah, Honourable Commissioner for Environment and Mineral Resources observed, Uyo Federal Constituency has set the pace being the first to attempt this bridge building, of hatching a Political Leader. Im certain, other Federal Constituencies will replicate this. Ibesikpo Asutan should therefore raise the bar and clinch this one. I urge them to root for their son, Ekpe James. The gains will far outweigh their anticipation or any misgivings in the long run. I however charge the Council Chairman to extend a reconciliatory hand of fellowship to, and consolidate his rapport with his Councilors, deleting from reckoning, the passage of rancour he endured. Thats the perfect tableau for peace. Such alignment of forces will further swell his base and steady the ship and affairs of the council. After the storm, there should be calm. Sent from my iPad
Posted on: Tue, 01 Apr 2014 20:32:35 +0000
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