Before Wednesday, January 7, 2015, the regular refrain
among the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, leadership in Cross
River State was, “there is no opposition in Cross River state”
but the rally held by the All Progressives Congress, APC, on
the above date has seemingly changed the political language
and equation in the state. APC The rally, which was organised as one of the campaign stops of
Major General Muhamadu Buhari (retd), the APC presidential
candidate, attracted an unprecedented crowd of supporters
which no opposition party has been able to muster in the past
16years of the present political dispensation and this marks a
significant tipping point in the political affairs of the state From all parts of the expansive state, crowds of the party’s
faithful converged on the Mayne Avenue Primary School,
venue of the rally as early as 9 am singing and dancing while
awaiting the arrival of Buhari and his entourage whose delayed
flight arrived the Margaret Ekpo International Airport , where
another large crowd of supporters was waiting for him, at about 4pm before proceeding to the rally centre. Many political watchers in the state were taken aback by the
large turnout of supporters judging from the near comatose
position of the APC and other opposition parties in the state. Following their persistent battering by the forces of the
ruling PDP right from the days of Mr Donald Duke who during
his eight years tenure consistently wooed over many members
of the opposition parties while those who remained adamant
were decimated politically. From being the majority with 13 out of the 25members in
the State House of Assembly in 1999, the APC then called
APP went down to zero in the 2003 elections as all those who
contested elections for the positions of chairmen of councils,
Senate, House of Representatives, State House of Assembly
and even councilors on the party’s platform lost woefully until 2011 when Ernest Irek, a member of the PDP who lost
nomination to Mr Fabian Okpa crossed over to the then ACN
and won Okpa in the general election to become the House of
Assembly member representing Obubra 11 State Constituency. The cantankerous outcome of the party’s state executive
council election of the party in 2014 did not help matters as
some staunch members were expelled leaving many people
disgruntled. However, like the proverbial kiwi which rises from
its ashes, the party found its foot back in the months of
November and December 2014 with the influx of some PDP members following the acrimonious outcome of the PDP
primaries and this significantly boosted the ranks of the
party. Effectively, with the entry of defectors from PDP, the party
which in 2011 could hardly present candidates for elections in
half of the constituencies was able to fill every vacant
position as many people, particularly the PDP renegades fell
over themselves to pick the party’s tickets to contest
elections for the various positions. So most of these candidates unlike the dead woods of the past were able to
muster resources to ferry their supporters from across the
state to the rally venue. Elective positions With the large turn out and the enthusiasm on the faces of
most of the candidates an d their supporters, the state is set
for a strong battle for elective positions beginning from the
House of Assembly to the governorship and the presidential
election. The party may, however, need a miracle to win the
governorship slot owing to strong political calculations and
indices that prevail in the state. But to say the party would lose all the positions it has
fielded candidates has always been the situation in the past ,
would not be a wrong assessment of the political situation in
the state.
Source www.vanguardngr.com/2015/01/apc-jolts-pdp-cross-river/