‎2015 Poll: Ibibio, Oro Locked in Secret Onslaught

‎2015 Poll: Ibibio, Oro Locked in Secret Onslaught
By Franklyn Isong

2015 governorship race in Akwa Ibom state seems to be a fight of the fittest between the two ethnic groups of Ibibio and Oro as several sponsored political groups have emerged from both tribes canvassing support for the zoning of the state top job to its zone, our checks show.
Akwa Ibom state is made up of three major ethnic groups of Ibibio, Annang and Oro. While the people of Oro nation are known to be gearing up towards occupying the governorship seat in 2015, the major ethnic group in the state, Ibibio has reportedly asked them to wait as, according to them, the seat was bound to return back to the Ibibios who ceded to Annang in 2007/2011.
It is established that Akwa Ibom State is made up of 31 local government areas, out of which Ibibio race has 14 local government areas spread across the three senatorial districts of Uyo and Eket and Ikot Ekpene, and Oro has 5 local government areas located along the coast line of Eket Senatorial District.
Already the area (Oron) has produced a deputy governor, several state chairmen of political parties including PDP, senators for Eket Senatorial District, and other top government officials, including ambassadors and ministers of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, according to our checks.
However, bids by Oro nation to clinch the governorship position of the state have always remained a mirage because of its little political straight, and as an Ibibio elder who spoke with this paper on grounds of anonymity put it, “politics is a game of numbers, and so if they (Oro nation) must look for the state’s top job in 2015, it must be after 2015 because the seat is there for us in 2015. This is non-negotiable and not contestable.”
Weekly Insight spoke with some prominent Ibibio elders last week in Uyo on the 2015 power struggle between the two ethnic groups, and they maintained that Oro nation has always had its fair share in government of the day in the state. They observed that right from the administrations of late Obong Akpan Isemin, Obong Victor Attah and down to that of Chief Godswill Obot Akpabio the area has always been duly represented in the so-called tripod arrangement in the state. 
They said, “it was the Ibibios that ceded power to Annangs in 2007/2011 because they lobbied the Ibibios for it, and sought their support and entered into an accord with the Ibibios. Oro nation has always felt that it could just jump into the race for governorship without due consultations with other major ethnic groups in the state.
“If they have consulted us, we would have advised them on the right time to look for the governorship seat of the state. As it stands, no elder in Ibibio land has been consulted by any Oro man for that office else they would have known our position on the 2015 governorship position.
“There is no how we can negotiate with the Oro nation for 2015. The power must first return back to Ibibio land in 2015 before we consider any other ethnic group for it; but in 2015, the power comes back to the Ibibios irrespective of the zone, whether Eket Sen. District, Uyo Sen. District or even Ibibios of Ikot Ekpene Senatorial District.”
However, a former commissioner in the state from Mbo LGA of Oro extraction, Hon. Chris AbasiEyo, has while fielding question on the matter in a telephone conversation from Abuja yesterday, told this paper that the governorship position of the state was a constitutional right of every Akwa Ibom citizen irrespective of ethnic group. 
He argued that the Ibibios and Annangs have taken shots at the office and that they should support the Oro nation for the top job. 
Chief Eyo who preferred to be addressed as the Crown Prince of Bakassi Peninsula, said that no Oro indigene would support any candidate to the office in 2015 from Eket Senatorial District if the candidate is not from the Oro nation, noting that if the office goes to either Ikot Abasi or Eket Federal Constituency, Oro people would further be marginalized in the state because as it stands, “we have been sidelined because the deputy governor is from Ikot Abasi in Eket Senatorial District.”
He contended that it would be better for Oro people to work for aspirants from Uyo Senatorial District than Eket Senatorial District.
He assured that there were ongoing consultations and dialogue with the Ibibios to step down for Oro nation so that the tripod can be said to be respected in the interest of equity and fair-play.
Meanwhile, a member of the Oro Union confided in this paper that some senior politicians from the area held a meeting in Abuja in the residence of one of theirs who is occupying a sensitive position in President Goodluck Jonathan’s government, disclosing that the meeting took a critical view of the state politics and the 2015 governorship seat. He hinted that out of about nine possible aspirants for the seat, three whom the meeting considered serious and fit were adopted to work with at the moment.
The source further added that these names were still subject to change as “in politics change is permanent,” noting that the three names would soon be presented to an enlarged meeting of Oro people before they are forwarded to the ruling PDP as candidates for the governorship position of the party.
At the moment, there are several groups working for one candidate or the other from both ethnic groups in the state. 
Meanwhile, a prominent elder statesman in Ibibio politics, Elder Joe Udobia, has argued that “Oro people have jumped the gun”, saying that Akwa Ibom State was not created on ethnic basis.
The former Special Adviser to Obong Victor Attah on Political and Legislative Matters stressed that “what the Oro people should be asking for should be power shift to Eket Senatorial District,” noting that “thereafter, the district can sit on a round table to agree on which federal constituency to zone the position to.”
Further on the issue, the leader of an apex Ibibio socio-cultural organization in the state, the Akwa Esop Imaisong Ibibio, Ntisong Essien Udo Ekidem, has hinted that the body will summon a meeting of pan-Ibibio political leaders in the state to take a position on the matter this week.