PDP, Ndoma-Egba and APC – Iwara George

It is interesting that Senator Victor Ndoma-Egba’s purported plan to decamp to APC has generated enough discourse lately. Little wonder quasi and pseudo political pundits have trivialized the issue which received immense and enormous applause amongst Cross Riverians as Senator Ndoma-Egba was not the only that was one shut out of PDP.

His followers were also not spared, the winners in the cancelled ward congress which saw Ndoma-Egba’s faction emerging victorious, House of Assembly, House of Representatives, Senate and Governorship aspirants that are loyal to Ndoma-Egba with their supporters were also shut out of PDP and they have long decamped to APC. He is merely joining them to provide leadership as his character, integrity and political reach at the centre is needed in Cross River APC.

As a follower of the events that preceded the 2015 elections, ward congresses were conducted in 2014 and Senator Ndoma-Egba’s line-up emerged victorious while the then State Governor’s line-up lost. Same scenario played out in Enugu State between Senator Ike Ekweremadu and then Enugu State Governor Sullivan Chime.

A political settlement was brokered at the instance of PDP where Ekweremadu retained his Senate seat and the Governor took the rest. Why wasn’t same done in the case of Cross River? Why did PDP order total cancellation of the result of the ward congress conducted by a committee sent by PDP chaired by a man of impeccable character, Alhaji Shuaibu Oyedokun, even when the case was still pending at the Federal High Court Abuja? Why was Senator Victor Ndoma-Egba, SAN, then Senate Leader singled out for malignment? Questions without answer.

Ndoma-Egba’s exit from PDP is not just because he was shut out and denied ticket, it is because he cannot retire from politics now and in Nigeria one needs a political party as a platform to play politics. It is true he was a Senator under PDP for 12 years, but when your employer of 12 years decides to prematurely terminate your employment without any justification, you shouldn’t continue to hang around them. You should move on and moving means getting engaged by another employer. Senator Ndoma-Egba is merely yielding to our yearning as we the constituents can’t stand him being retired from politics as he is below 60years of age and his services are still needed.

And I still wonder the reason for the fuse over Ndoma-Egba’s decampment. Two of PDP’s former national chairmen are now in APC. Why did they leave? The highest ticket a party can give to anyone is that of the President. Olusegun Obasanjo a former President tore his PDP membership card and decamped to APC. Atiku Abubakar as a former Vice President also decamped even while in office. All these boil down to the party’s inability to handle its affairs.

It is now established that PDP loathes and despises what APC desires and hunts for and that is political intellectuals.

Political intellectuals

PDP Governors and former governors either by design or divine succeeded in pushing away the resource of the party which is the intellectuals as they are afraid of challenge, they instead prefer yes men.

In a way this attribute accounted for APC’s victory in the last general elections as all those shut out of PDP like Senator Ndoma-Egba switched parties and emerged victorious afterwards.

In Kebbi State, Senator Atiku Bagudu was a PDP Senator. He was denied PDP’s governorship ticket, APC offered him its platform and today he is the governor of the State. Same scenario played out in Benue, Niger, Bauchi, Jigawa and Plateau states.

Senator Barnabas Gemade a former national chairman of PDP was edged out of the party by the former Benue State Governor Gabriel Suswam and PDP was silent; he moved over to APC and won the election afterwards. Ndoma-Egba was principled enough not to have taken the mandate of PDP to another party as that was what played out then. He instead chooses to remain in PDP to exhaust their mandate to the displeasure of many of us as we pleaded with him to decamp before the elections.

I still remember Senator Udoma Udo Udoma, a political intellectual that was retired by the former Akwa Ibom State governor, Victor Attah. He is nowhere to be located now in the National and State political map and the State is worse for it. We in Cross River cannot fold our hands and allow that happen to us. As at now Cross River has no voice at the national level as they have all been cunningly plucked out.

We lost our oil wells and Bakassi, tourism and sports left to our sister state and Cross River lost its national visibility. Until PDP as a party decides to return power back to the people, and not to allow its State governors decide who gets what, when and how, it will never get its act right again.