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Inyali Peter | 24th October 2022
The affirmation of Sen. Prince Bassey Otu by the Federal High Court sitting in Calabar today as the validly nominated governorship candidate of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC in Cross River State should inspire his challenger, Sen. John Owan Enoh to have a sober reflection on his past, specifically, the gesture he enjoyed from some governorship aspirants in 2019.
Enoh who was APC 's candidate in the 2019 governorship election and one of the three aspirants who participated in the May 26th, 2022 primary that produced Sen. Otu had petitioned the court seeking to upturn the result to his favour after failing with same bid with the APC' s governorship Appeal Panel.
Unlike the other third aspirant, Barr. Chris Agara who had since accepted the outcome of the primary and declared support for Otu, Enoh has been doing everything possible to depose Otu and crown himself as candidate. The lawsuit is one of many gimmicks he had deployed to achieve his objectives.
However, just as the Holy book says, the will of man may not be the will of God, the court has decided in favour of the 811 delegates that voted Otu that he is qualified, was duly cleared and elected as the authentic candidate of the party for the 2023 governorship election. This means that the only way Enoh would have been candidate is if he had done better than scoring only 84 votes.
Although it's within Enoh's rights to seek redress for any process he's not satisfied with, it's about time he rethinks his actions with the view of reciprocating the gesture other aspirants showed him in 2018 under very terrible circumstances.
In 2018, APC adopted the direct primary module to elect candidates for the 2019 elections. At the time, Enoh who defected from the PDP barely a year before the primary and became the only elected National Assembly member in the party from the state, found favour before the Comrade Adams Oshiomhole's led working Committee. Everything about the primary revolves around him, including the governorship primary.
Although he had the former Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Dr. Usani Usani to contend with, the Minister was almost perceived as an alien by the NWC. Enoh was the beautiful bride while the Minister had no place in the party.
It was alleged that Enoh singlehandedly determined everything regarding the party in the state including nomination of members of the panel that came to conduct the governorship primary. The manner in which the panel members conducted themselves perhaps, leaves little or no doubt about the insinuations as they acted as people who were in the state with the sole aim of delivering them. And indeed, they did.
Truly, after the conclusion of the last primaries by all political parties in the state, those who still remember the 2018 APC experience would agree that it still stands tall as the worst ever primary conducted by any political party in the history of the state. Other governorship aspirants were not only humiliated and embarrassed out of the race, they were denied access to even cast valid votes for themselves. Materials were hijacked and results were concocted from all corners to favour Enoh.
No doubt, no aspirant stood a realistic chance of defeating him (Enoh) in the primary because the Oshiomhole's led NWC had taken aside in favour of him. But even at that, no real election took place. While party faithful including some of his supporters were waiting for materials to hold elections in some locations, results from their wards and chapters for elections they were still waiting for were already out. In a few places were materials were seen, it was alleged that they were all fake materials.
Despite this fundamental rape on democratic norms, all the aspirants who presumely participated in the primary that produced him withdrew from the race and declared support for him. Only Dr. Usani did not and it was because since he knew the leadership of the party was bias, he justifiably boycotted the exercise but then deployed the "bad guy" approach by organizing a kangoro one for himself.
But for Prof. Etim Nyong, High Chief Edem Duke and Mr. John Upan Odey that recognized the legal panel who produced Enoh as candidate, they had every reason to fight because of the shenanigans and overwhelming sharp practices that greeted Enoh's emergence. But, these gentlemen imbibed the spirit of sportsmanship and not only moved on, but collapsed their structures for him and the party in 2019.
Now is the time for Sen. Enoh to reciprocate the gesture by ending his legal tussle and declare support for Sen. Otu and APC. If he won't do this because of his long standing friendship with the candidate, he should do it because of the opportunity the party gave him almost in a platter in 2019 to become Governor barely one year after joining.
In the end, what's important is that the party wins. APC has taken all the necessary steps, starting from acknowledging the justifiable power rotation policy in the state to having a very competent, popular and greatly acceptable candidate.
As a leader who also enjoys enormous followership in the state, Sen. Enoh must at this point, think of the task of delivering the party and not the vain of pursuing personal gains that may lead to nowhere.
Disclaimer:
The above article does not in anyway represent the thoughts, stands or opinion of TDN as they are purely that of the author
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