At the valedictory State Executive Council session held on October 20, 2014 in honour of us, the departing members of the cabinet desiring to contest the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) primaries, I addressed my esteemed colleagues in the words of William Shakespeare as follows:
“There is a tide in the affairs of men, Which taken at the flood, leads on to fortune. Omitted, all the voyage of their life is bound in shallows and in miseries. On such a full sea are we now afloat. And we must take the current when it serves, or lose our ventures”.
And I reminded them that “on such a full sea” was Akwa Ibom State afloat, and it was important that we (failing which, I) took “the current” or “the tide at the flood”.

Out of personal conviction, on grounds of principles and for the record, and in deliberate disregard of available, viable and unchallenged personal elective alternatives, I elected to take the current by seeking to contest the Governorship of Akwa Ibom State at the time I did, notwithstanding my pre-knowledge that I was climbing a wall manacled and without a ladder, and the self-acclaimed political savants gave me no much of a chance.

Undaunted I was; and climb I had to, because it was one moment Premier Asquith would call “an obligation of honour which no self-respecting man could possibly have repudiated”. The worth of my success in that enterprise lies in my never-failing resolve to contest the PDP Governorship primary election despite my programmed failure and the prevalent mouth honour of some of my people. The 2015 Akwa Ibom State Governorship election has left in Oron, a valiant community of great history and glorious past, inexpungible marks of both treachery and anguish, two unfortunate legacies for generations.

In the entire process, you, my dear friends and divine helpers, provided the charm and inner spirit upon which I sailed. I find you all inerasable in my life, and cannot thank you enough. Yes, in course of our winding down in January – February 2015, I had several reasons and occasions to thank you and your families for the great support you gave and inconveniences you bore for my decision. But I truly remain irredeemably grateful to you all. As I said then, and repeat it today, whatever has a beginning has an end – no matter the quantum or character of the end. The probable agony of the end is ameliorated by the beauty of attendant revelations and the lifting of the veil to expose the latent traitorousness of some otherwise “important” persons! We all live to meet again in the endurance athletics that politics is.

Today, May 29, 2015 marks the end of politicking and commencement of governance all over Nigeria, the end to all aspirations and campaigns, including the Ekpenyong Ntekim 2015 Governorship project and my return to my professional practice. Today ushers in, in most State capitals across Nigeria and the Federal Capital City, new leaders of equally new governments or authorities (including the President of my country and the Governor of my State). As a Christian living by the tenets of Biblical injunctions in Romans 13: 1 instructing submission of everyone to governing authorities, and without exception or prejudice to ongoing judicial processes in some cases, I wish the newly inaugurated President and Governors well in their new stations and pray that we find in them worthy leaders.

To them all, irrespective of religious persuasion, I recommend the studious reading of Steve Farrar’s book, Finishing Strong, the recurrent theme of which is: “In the Christian life, it’s not how you start that matters. It’s how you finish.” The principle of finishing strong governing the entire contents of this book is as applicable and relevant in Christianity as in secular living. I drew the attention of my friend and appointor, His Excellency, Chief Godswill Akpabio, CON, the immediate past Governor of the State, to this wonderful book and will want to hope he found it useful for today that he has “hit the tape”. A passage at page 18 of that highly recommended book is instructive: “What makes you think that you will be the one man out of ten who finishes strong? What makes you think that you won’t be one of the nine who fall short of the mark? Why? Because when it comes to finishing strong, the odds are against you. Finishing strong is not impossible. It is, however, improbable. It’s going to take some tough choices and an experience or two of personal brokenness in order to have a strong finishing kick when you hit the tape . . .”

The option is no longer available to the already out-gone leaders – President Goodluck Jonathan, et al, but that of the leaders of the newly inaugurated governments in Nigeria - President Muhammadu Buhari, et alia. May they find the grace of God to successfully run their respective offices in a manner that will distinguish governance from campaigns. It is rightly postulated by Thomas O'Neill that it is easier to run for office than to run the office. May it not be their portions, in the interest of our dear country!

Although my party, our party, the once great and conquering Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), woefully failed in the 2015 general elections due to very obvious reasons of mismanagement of unbroken chain of successes and offensive totalitarianism, I remain a member of PDP in this its darkest moment.PDP is not a prison yard, so there is no compulsion to remain. Instead of expending energy and time on brooding over what stung us, the party must demonstrate humility in imbibing the difficult lessons in the school of failure as the core leaders and members of All Progressive Congress (APC) did for 16 years that PDP dominated the political space. I hope PDP does not mismanage this failure as it did its successes. Conversely, PDP may have to pray that APC, demonstrably good at managing its strings of defeats and now populated by PDP defectors, mismanages this solo victory to coalesce the remnants of PDP and the disgruntled APC defectors into yet another weighty party in 2019.

For now and in retrospect, I hold a personal opinion that we needed this break in PDP to restore sanity and prudence. And the moment we are in now was foreseen by the discerning. The signs were legion, and in January 2015, the G22 in a widely published advertorial in a national daily had warned that “some of those masquerading as leaders of the PDP look set on a mission to destroy the Party and would be celebrated as heroes in some quarters at the defeat of the President in the general elections. Mark our words!” This has come to pass with Mr. Game Changer so radically changing the status of PDP from a winning machine to a knocked engine in a mere space of 17 months as the National Chairman.

Reading Debasish Mitra’s AAP victory a blow for ‘politics of arrogance’ in the Times of Oman of February 14, 2015 will put our party’s defeat and APC’s victory in the last general elections in Nigeria in proper perspective. Read him on:
“AAP has not only won in Delhi, AAP has not only crushed BJP — the Goliath of Indian politics, it has also rewritten the narratives of Indian politics and changed the political discourse of the nation. The real achievement of AAP is not in demolishing BJP but in making history in Indian politics.
. . .
AAP has not only won in Delhi, AAP has not only crushed BJP — the Goliath of Indian politics, it has also rewritten the narratives of Indian politics and changed the political discourse of the nation. The real achievement of AAP is not in demolishing BJP but in making history in Indian politics.
. . .
BJP lost because it stressed more on arithmetic of polls and back-stage strategies of Amit Shah. It forgot that in a democracy and a republic the people are the masters.
. . .
Arrogance and efforts to tear apart India's secular fabric received a befitting response from the people in Delhi”

Liz Mathew’s "Voices in stunned BJP" talk of ‘politics of arrogance’ in The Indian Express of February 11, 2015 and MK Venu's "The price of arrogance: How Amit Shah damaged PM Modi’s governance agenda" of December 7, 2014 in the FirstPost all described BJP's electoral misfortune as “defeat of politics of arrogance” occasioning horrific humiliation. What is the demonstrated effect of political arrogance in these separate Indian reports concerning the party in power? Electoral defeat; and, in every constitutional democracy, it occurs most times in cataclysmic proportions as PDP’s.

The defeat of PDP drives home the malaise that afflicted our party (the PDP) for almost two decades which finally brought us to this sordid state. As arrogance and impunity humbled the dominant BJP in the Indian political arena with its first major defeat in Delhi, so has the Goliath of Nigerian politics paid the supreme price for our predatory political behavior. We seemed to have forgotten the oft-repeated coinage of Byron Price, AP’S Washington Bureau Chief popularized by and now credited to Tip O’Neills that “All politics is local”, signifying that successful politics is directly proportional to the prevailing local (constituency) sensibilities. The predatory behavior of the PDP leadership ignored the deep-seated local sensibilities of some constituencies, including mine, and provided a basis for unrestrained adherence to the principles and practice of local politicking.

The Adamu Muazu-led national leadership of PDPD particularly broke new records in abuse of their positions of trust to obtain millions of dollars from aspirants seeking the party’s tickets to contest the general election to various positions, especially governorship aspirants, some of whom (for the first time) made formal corruption complaints to EFCC against some of the ticket-trading leaders. The corruption that plagued our party’s nomination processes is too ingrained, overflowing and systemic for any cosmetic redress.

In my candid view, therefore, our recovery ability solely lies in our resolve to conduct the affairs of our party in accordance with the ancient principles of justice, equity and good conscience, with due recognition being accorded local aspirations and peculiarities. The belated resignations of the National Chairman of PDP, Alhaji Adamu Muazu and the Chairman of the party’s Board of Trustees, Chief Tony Anenih, on May 20, 2015 (and the handing over of their offices to the sources of our problems, their known substitute agents and committed abettors!) cannot debug PDP at this stage of our fugue. It’s a half-baked idea that won’t go anywhere and hasn’t, so far, positively resonated among the generality of the PDP members. The remnants of the deceased leadership can hardly be trusted to embark on the improvement of the battered image of the party in accordance with the expectation of the followership.

To you all, my friends and oppugners in the PDP family, I urge that you remain guided by the principles of democracy and faithful party politics as I wish you the very best until we meet again at Philipi, God willing.

Happy Democracy Day!

God bless Akwa Ibom State! God bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria!!

[+] www.wetinhappen.com.ng

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