The Thrills and Frills of The Primaries in C/River State
By
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) penultimate Tuesday held its principles to elect candidates who would contest the local council elections
against candidates of the other five political parties.
The election in question is an internal affair of the party. The elections were originally fixed for Monday, July 1, this month, but due to the late arrival of
election materials from the PDP national secretariat, Abuja, the elections were shifted to Tuesday in Cross River State,
The PDP which prides itself "the largest political party in Africa" has been infested with multi-dimensional intra-party squabbles. In Cross River State, the
intra-party bickerings started with disagreements by the major players, comprising the state governor, Mr. Donald Duke and his loyalists on one hand a defeated
gubernatorial aspirant in 1999, Mr. Godwin Kanu Agabi (SAN), the Attorney General and Minister of Justice with his loyalists on the other. Agabi claimed he was
robbed of victory. This disagreement by the major political actors soon snowballed into ethnic dimension. some of the people from the North and Central
Senatorial Districts who feel strongly cheated over the victory of governor Duke came together and floated a socio-cultural organisation, Atam People
Association (APA) with the sole aim of snatching power away from the youthful governor. The APA is an amalgamation of ethnic nationalities in the two Senatorial
districts who are being conscientised on the need for them to come together and install one of their own as the governor to end the alleged politically and
infrastructural marginalisation.
Those in the APA have become so passionate with the project that they proudly carry dual identity. They first see themselves as APA faithfuls before showing any
loyalty to the ruling party. Therefore, when the whistle was blown for politicians under the PDP to get set for the primaries, their campaigns were based on
their political leaning. Ethnic loyalty came in conflict with party loyalty. The party on the other hand did not help matters as it overtly supported some
aspirants in favour of others. Even those who were initially disqualified were asked by the party to contest the election without clearance certificates. This
generated so much bad blood because aspirants who were already jubilating their opponents were disqualified suddenly realised their jubilation was pre-matured.
In addition, the election was characterised by wide scale violence.
In Obanliku and Obudu local governments where I had gone to monitor the conduct of the primaries, there were glaring cases of the party and government
officials coercion and intimidation of delegates who gathered at various ward centres in favour of some of their "anointed" aspirants. In the case of Obudu
local government, the coercion and intimidation became too much that there was wide boycott of the elections which eventually saw Mrs. Cecilia Ally emerging
victorious. She was widely rumoured to be the "anointed" candidate of both the government and that of the party days to the election.
In Obanliku, home town of second Republic Senate President, Dr. Joseph Wayas and the present state commissioner for Utilities, Mr. Mike Aniah, government
officials were seen openly campaigning for one of the candidates, Mr. Sunday Achunekan who just crossed over to the PDP from the APP. Achunekan, an avowed
loyalist of Dr. Wayas, according to information piece together by me was penciled down by the PDP even before the ballot was cast. Protests by other
aspirants and delegates gathered at various polling centres to protest against government officials prevailing on delegation to vote a particular candidate
would not change the situation.
Mr. Joseph Ushiagale, a chairmanship aspirant who regretted the party's favouritism of a particular aspirant as against others said "there were rumours of
government and the party favouring some candidates but I refused to believe such rumours, but with what I have seen, I am shocked and completely dumfounded."
Senator Musa Adede, representing Cross River North Senatorial District from Bendi, Obaliku local government who was home for the elections had to intervene in
Bendi 1 and 11 wards by appealing to the restive youths not to take the laws into their hands. When it became clear that the "anointed" aspirant who just
crossed over to the PDP was to be imposed on the people of the local government.
The youths who were protesting the view availability of election materials in the face of high wired political manouvers, master-minded by government and PDP
officials to ensure the emergence of a particular candidate had resolved to violently resist such an action. But when they were prevailed upon by Senator Adede
to bury their anger for good of the party, they unanimously calmed down. Some of them who spoke to me however vowed they would work against the success of
the party in the August local council elections.
In Calabar Municipal local government council, attempts by government and party officials to impose the "anointed" chairmanship candidate was vehemently
resisted by the other six aspirants who boycotted the elections. Apart from boycotting the elections, the aspirants caused their loyalists to protest to the
governor's office where they lodged their complaints. The aspirants Messrs Clement Ene, David Nsemo, Esu Effiong Esu, Effiom Orok Ironbar, Maurice Inok and
Hilary Etta told newsmen that the election materials were hijacked and taken to an unknown destination by the presiding officers.
They also alleged that contrary to the earlier publicised election venues in the 10 wards, the state party secretariat changed those venues overnight "with only
the knowledge of the favoured candidate while the six of us and our supporters were kept in the dark and not informed of the change of the venue." Esu who spoke
on behalf of the aspirants regretted that while why were waiting at the earlier publicised venues "the election materials were diverted to an unknown
destination, a reason we marched to the government House to register our protest."
As a result of the protest the election results in the Calabar Municipal has been cancelled. No date has been fixed for the election yet. Other local
governments that elections were postponed were Calabar South and Etung. The state secretary of the party told newsmen that elections in those local governments
were put off based on security advice from security agencies. Even though, election did not take place in Etung, there were violence which led to the death of
two persons and the destruction of houses and vehicles. We gathered the violence was triggered by angry youths who were protesting plans to impose candidates on then local government.
The greatest. Setback for the primaries was the violence and protests recorded in different parts of the state. The state police commissioner, Mr. Bashir Azeez
said 19 persons were arrested in different parts of the state in connection with election violence. He explained that one lecturer from the university of
Calabar, was arrested in Bekwarra with a locally manufactured pistol with 41 rounds of annunition and posters of a local government aspirant in large
quantities. He said that 10 other people were arrested at Ogoja in connection with election violence.
With the wide spread violence that characterised the election coupled with allegations of rigging and favouritism. It is not clear whether there would be mass
exodus of aggrieved people from the party. One thing that is clear is that although some may not decamp to other parties, they will however work against the
success of the party in the coming August council polls.
Nov 2002