Editor:Recently the Senator representing Ikot Ekpene Senatorial District at the National Assembly, Senator Aloysius Etok made the news for the wrong reasons. On a good day, the Senator is very reticent, hardly vocal on national issues or issues affecting his senatorial district. The only other time that he came into national consciousness was when he had a running battle with the Chairman of the Pension Reform Task Team, Mr Abdurasheed Maina. At that time allegations were made back and forth against Maina and Etok.
The Chairman of the Task Team, Maina, had alleged that the Senate Panel chaired by Senator Etok had demanded N2 billion bribe and that the refusal to part with it had made the Etok Panel to be biased towards the task team. To which Senator Etok had responded that he would faint if he saw N2 billion. Since that controversy, nothing much has been heard from Etok either in plenary, interview or constituency briefing until his latest interview.
In the infamous interview, Senator Etok was quoted as saying that the senatorial seat for Ikot Ekpene would not be vacant in 2015 as he intends to go for a third term. But the clincher was when he took some rough shots at the Governor of Akwa Ibom State, Chief Godswill Akpabio and claiming audaciously that the Governor never played any role towards his becoming a Senator. Hear him: “Akpabio must as a matter of fact respect my office if he does not respect me like I respect his office of the governor which also covers me. So respect is reciprocal.
“As for the governor seeking to go the senate, I have told him that there is no vacancy in the senate. He can look elsewhere. If he needs a vacancy to be filled, let him look into the state execute council vacancy and fill; but in the senate no vacancy because the people I’m representing have not told me they have finished with me. They have not told me that I’m not going to the senate again. However, if the governor wants to go to the senate, I should be the first person he should consult because I’m the one holding the mandate even if I was a cripple and he wants my office and my chair. If he doesn’t talk with me, that means that I will hold the chair and the chair will be broken. The governor must know that,” he reportedly said.
The initial reaction of most people to the interview was caution. They doubted, if Senator Etok could have uttered the words ascribed to him, concluding that he might have been misquoted. But since it was a radio interview, many have listened to and reviewed the tape and shook their heads in disbelief. Expectedly, this treacherous statement has drawn the flaks of political stakeholders across the senatorial district. All the Chairmen of the Local Government Areas in the zone led by the State Chairman of the Association of Local Governments of Nigeria (ALGON), Hon. Nse Ntuen has given the embattled Senators seven days to rescind his statement and own up to this blunder failure which they will initiate a recall process. Similarly lawmakers and political elders from the zone have condemned Senator Etok’s utterances.
Even social media commentators were aghast at Etok’s political treachery. According to a commentator, “With the statement credited to Aloysius Etok, I sincerely believe that the Senate has erased his sense of the past. It is not only foolhardy but the peak of self illusion for him to believe that he can return to the national assembly for the thirrd time. Mr Etok who even in his federal constituency came a distant third during the PDP primaries in his senatorial district, has over night become a political lord who is desirous of holding tight to the senate as his birth right. Imagine such an illusion. On the issue of challenging Akpabio, Mr Etok has so forgotten that without Akpabio and the manipulative machineries of the PDP, he would not have won an election even in his ward. He should spare Akwa Ibom people the comic relief and say something else,” Samm Etuk said.
For those who are familiar with politics in Ikot Ekpene Senatorial District, it was obvious that Senator Etok was not the first choice of the zone for the Senate seat. Some political horse-trading here and there with Chief Akpabio putting his feet down for him saw the Annang, the majority ethnic group in the zone grudgingly conceding the seat to him who obviously could not have won a fair contest. If it was difficult giving him a ticket for his first term, Senator Etok proved a hard sell for a second term.
At the outset of the primaries, Governor Akpabio had called a meeting of political stakeholders from the zone in the Governor’s Lodge and persuaded all those who had indicated their intention to contest to step down for the Senator. It was the first time stakeholders would openly disagree with the Governor. They described Senator Etok as a stingy and selfish politician who had not attracted any development project to the zone neither had he touched any live. Governor Akpabio promised that the Senator would turn a new leaf. And that was the message of the Governor throughout the campaign rallies in the senatorial district, which attracted jeers whenever the Senator was introduced. But that is the Governor Senator Etok claimed played no part in his election.
Many have also wondered what manner of politician Senator Etok is. In the full glare of a live national television, Governor Akpabio had narrated how he had engineered his election as a Senator and asked him to rise and take a bow in acknowledgement of the role he had played, which he did. So when did he wake up from his slumber to realize that Chief Akpabio never played any part towards his becoming a Senator? This must be the brand of politics that Chief Akpabio has often referred to as tortoise politics!
Instead of provoking a recall process as has been threatened by his constituents, Etok may do well to serve out the remaining of his colourless tenure as Senator. Mendaciously declaring that he would seek a third term, shows how far removed from their constituents some politicians could be, especially those who ensconced in their abode in Abuja. Seeking to challenge Chief Akpabio for a ticket of the party maybe Senator Etok’s way of committing political hara-kiri, that is if the people would ever forget his duplicitous utterances.
Anietie Ekong, a political affairs analyst writes from Abuja.
