Ntufam John Okon, a former chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, had to join APC after the Cross River State governor, Prof Ben Ayade abandoned the PDP for the APC. Since then, he has been an integral part of the APC in the state and is currently fighting for the return of power to the southern part of the state. He is also working hard to ensure victory for Mr Asuquo Ekpenyong, immediate past commissioner of finance in the state.
In this interview, he spoke on the efforts being made by the 7 Alive group which he co-founded for the purpose of securing victory for the APC, even as he declared that the PDP candidate, Ekpo Okon, lacked the capacity to defeat Ekpenyong.
Excerpts:
I know you are one of the champions of seven alive. So how is the seven alive group working to ensure victory in the next round of elections that are coming?
Ab initio, why we advocated in 7 Alive, by supporting the governor(Prof Ben Ayade) to complete his second term, though some people were at that time criticising and trying to make sure he did not get it, was to ensure there is a kind of rotation of power from the north to the south. If we never gave Ayade the full support and encouragement for him to complete his term, then the rotation and zoning process of our democracy or politics could be completely ruined. So that was why 7 Alive was the champion for the second term of Senator Ben Ayade and by God’s grace, everybody supported and also accepted to be part of. For instance, our late Gen Tony Ukpo was the leader of the north and he came down to meet us in 7 Alive, at Chief Asuquo Ekpenyong’s house, where we advocated that there would be power rotation, that if Ayade won the second term, then power would rotate to the south; that’s why you now hear ‘back to south” after the governor had taken his second term in office. I want to thank the governor strongly for keeping to his promise and his word, that if he wins the second term, he will support power coming back to the south, at least for the good of the state, for the peace, harmony of the state and to ensure that there is equity, there is fair play and so on and that is what we are doing. So 7 Alive has been in the know and as you know, we have met with the governorship candidate of APC who is Senator Bassey Otu. We have got a discussion with him and we have joined his campaign fully. We were with him from Obudu all the way when he went for his thank you tour and the reception we had was very high and we are very sure that with the way we are working, by God’s grace, power will come back to the south, with the election of Senator Bassey Otu. There was some confusion here and there because PDP did not keep to their promise of rotation of power and that has made them try to look for victims, like using all kinds of language to describe Professor Ben Ayade. We know is mere politics, but the fact is that by God’s grace, we are safely on the ground and we are hoping that power will come to the south and that has been one of the major objectives of 7 Alive. So we are working very hard by God’s grace.
Let’s go to Cross River – South where you come from. You talked about the back to south mantra. But when it comes to senate seat, it’s always Efik and that there is no sincerity in the campaign for power shift. Those from Ejagham are complaining. How worried are you about this because right now, there is that fear that Odukpani people are coming up again and they want to take the seat.
I think it’s a genuine fear. But like you would notice, the challenge cannot be said only about APC, even PDP is a culprit to that because our young son who was contesting to be a senator, you know him? Barrister Joe Edet, a former special adviser. He came out strongly and there were assurances from that side, that they would give to him. He did not succeed, just like our own. But the issue has to be explained. The emergence of Suki(Asuquo Ekpenyong), as as we call him, it was just accidental that we in 7 Alive did not envisage. That is a programme that would have brought one of us from the south, from Akamkpa/ Biase zone to run as senate. However, when the leadership of the APC sat down and did analysis, they took the decision to bring in Prince Otu as governor and brought up Asuquo Ekpenyong to run as a senator.
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We had to go round to explain this issue. This is the first election that APC is trying to contest against a former strong party that was in government and we changed it to APC government. You must know that the leader of the party has his own fear, has his own concerns. What if we were to give power to Akamkpa or Biase and then our Efik brothers, like you rightly pointed out, turned out to vote for another person in PDP or in another party? That means we would have lost the senate seat here. So what happened was a purely political calculation by the leader of the party and we have taken even leaders in Efik, Mma Giwa, Professor Eyo Etim Nyong, almost all of them have had discussions with us and even the governorship candidate himself has given that assurance that the situation should not be taken to be a permanent situation and that it would be corrected and whatever appointment that comes, to placate the Akamkpa/Biase area, would be done in good fate because what we need is the unity of the south. Those who are trying to raise this issue are also culprits to the same issue. So there is no way government from PDP will come and give this story and you agree because they saw an Ejagham son who contested for the seat and they did not give to him. So it’s an issue that we are concerned and must explain to you as an Ejagham leader. But we have gone beyond that now and we are trying to say, okay, look, let’s move ahead, let’s work after that. If it’s going to the way we are going now, it would not help us.
Whether we like it or not, we are in minority in the south. However, power is about battling, about competition, about compromise and we are believing that we have reached a stage where even our Efik brothers have agreed that the current situation is not suitable. Some of them, I tell you that it was not their fault but the leadership, to take the decision and that decision was not taken to spite the Akamkpa or Biase people but it was taken in good faith to ensure that APC as a party produces a senator in this election. This is the first election that APC is going to face with PDP or Labour and we cannot take anything for granted. It’s what we just have to accept and we have accepted it in good faith and explained to our people and by God’s grace, everybody seems to have approved, with the hope that justice would be done in the nearest future and we would not run into that kind of situation.
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What are the chances of Asuquo Ekpenyong in all of these? I know that he has visited Akamkpa recently. What is his rating? What chances are they hopes are they giving him in Akamkpa?
Well, if we are talking about Akamkpa, we are all united, at least in APC, to ensure that Asuquo Ekpenyong wins in Akamkpa Local Government. For instance, even the aspirant for senate at that time, Chief Okon Owuna who was asked to contest for house of assembly, has accepted in good faith after initial disappointment and is campaigning for Suki (Ekpenyong); the same thing with the candidate of my constituency, the current chairman of Akamkpa Local Government who is contesting for election as the House of Assembly member in my constituency. He has also seen the need for us to work together and it is now a team and with the way we rate his intelligence and experience of Asuquo Ekpenyong, it is obvious he will get Akamkpa. That one we are sure of, because when he came, he presented himself, we had affiliations with him being that Eniong was part of Akamkpa and his father is a well-known name in Cross River politics. So it was well accepted and he laid down his programme of supporting agriculture, supporting medium and small scale industries. You will be surprised that he is a very big investor in our own area, in the area of transportation and so on. So he laid bare all those programmes and assured us that if elected, he would ensure that Akamkpa people would be well taken care of in whatever program he would pursue in Abuja, and of course you know that the young man is already in the center of the politics of APC in the national. So we are very hopeful, some of us combined, still we are united, we would deliver him in Akamkpa and of course we also have the assurances of other local governments. We have a very popular candidate in Emil Inyang who is contesting for Federal House, and his own reach in Biase and other leaders in Biase, like Alex Ukam and others, Elder Ikpi and other Biase sons who have come out strongly to defend him. So we are not only talking about Akamkpa, but we are talking about his reach in the southern senatorial district which of course we are already on ground, driving the programme.
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When you look at the candidacy of Ekpo Okon, are you not afraid? I mean, Ekpo Okon has been there and for Ekpenyong, this is his first time of presenting himself for elective position.
Ekpo Okon has not been consistent in the politics and if you are not consistent in politics, you will have a lot of downs. If you remember, he ran election with my brother Senator John Owan Enoh as a running mate. Please go and check the result he got, go and check. I’m talking about even in Odukpani where he comes from. I don’t want to talk about other areas like Akamkpa and so on. So he has been in politics. Politics is about stakeholders in the communities, the leaders of the communities decide who they would campaign for and who they would mobilise. Mind you, the youths are more and the youths are so determined and happy with the young man called Suki because of his own style, meeting them, talking to them, giving them hope. So, Ekpo Okon is there but he would not be able to defeat Asuquo Ekpenyong, I’m sure of that. Ekpo Okon cannot defeat Ekpenyong. Check what happened to him when he failed the election of PDP, Gershom took it. So it is not possible for you to say that Ekpo Okon would be a threat to Asuquo Ekpenyong. He’s not.
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What do you think are the things that go for Asuquo Ekpenyong?
First, Asuquo Ekpenyong is a youth, a young vibrant achiever. As commissioner for finance, you discover that the records were immense. He was a star performer in Ayade’s government. Initially, he was to run as a governorship candidate until it was given to Senator Bassey Otu. He is the youth that is loved, he has the ideas, the intelligence and he has already drawn his programme, a programme of empowering young people in small scale industry, in middle industry and transportation. He has assured them that he will empower them. So he is more of a candidate for the youths, apart from us who are the major drivers in the political scene in Nigeria supporting him. He has a lot of support from the youth who are now of course the major drivers in the political field in Nigeria and of course, we have seen that. I don’t know if you followed the programme with Tinubu, when they were presenting the APC manifesto; you saw him(Ekpenyong) present and dissect the economic part of Tinubu’s manifesto at the national level, and for a young man to be part of that kind of national politics, it shows you that if he goes to Abuja, he is going to bring us a lot of goodies. So he has a lot of things going for him and by God’s grace, I think that he would prevail over other candidates in the south. Mind you too, politics is rub me, I rub you. Otu is campaigning for him, he is campaigning for Otu and if you know the popularity of Otu, mainly in the south, we call him, “Sweet Sweet Prince” and anywhere he goes in the south, he campaigns for his senatorial candidate and all the other candidates; the same thing he does in central and the north. So I’m also seeing that aspect of Prince Out being part of one of those positive drive that would give us more votes. I don’t want to mention that which you already know- Mma giwa, Eyo Etim Nyong and other leaders are- strongly behind the young man. So, it is not only about him,it is also about us. That is what I can talk about him for now.
