2023: Pundits knock G3 over Adhoc congress protests
As the build-up to the 2023 Governorship nomination primaries of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP in Akwa Ibom State draws closer, pundits have taken a swipe at some aspirants who they described as sore losers who cannot clinch the PDP ticket no matter their level of desperation, crude tactics and propaganda against the party.
The pundits who slammed the trio of Senator Bassey Albert, (OBA), Mr Akan Udofia and Mr Akan Okon over the futile protests they sponsored against the recently concluded Ward Delegates Congress of the party argued that the plot by these aspirants to scuttle the progress made by the party is dead on arrival and an exercise in futility.
They flayed the aspirants for absconding on the day of the congress and not participating in the process only to turn around to claim there was no congress, explaining that this is a sign of failure on their path.
A political analyst and on air personality, Mrs Iris Samuel posted on her verified Facebook page predicting failure for OBA and his co-travellers now known as G3.
Iris in her comments wrote, “Does Mr Onofiok Luke know something that Mr Bassey Albert, Mr Akan Okon and Mr Akan Udofia do not know? I’m asking because he ain’t complaining about the Ad-hoc Delegate Election”?
Truth is, the options on the table for Mr Akan Okon, and Mr Bassey Albert are very limited. They have played all their cards, well maybe except defecting of course. Their chances of negotiation with Mr Udom Emmanuel is next to zero.
OBA will not clinch the PDP ticket no matter how much he tries. If push come to shove, Mr Udom Emmanuel as a sitting Governor with all the leverages and power. When the chips are down the PDP will come to reason. The PDP can’t afford to gamble with Akwa Ibom State. Mr Emmanuel will deliver on Mr Umo Eno you can take that to the bank,” she said.
Iris Samuel further argued that the two forces that can stop Mr Eno from occupying the hill top mansion are; Death and the APC, which is the main opposition party in the State. However according to Iris, “Pastor Umo Eno will not die anytime soon and is set to win””.
“For Death, Mr Eno is not dying anytime soon, so wake up to reality, I think he is fit enough to live another fifty years,” Iris submitted.
Another pundit and political activist, Mr Solomon Nse, advised the aggrieved aspirants with a sense of entitlement to reason again and come off their high horse.
“In politics, if you were once the ‘preferred’ against all odds for a position just know another man can enjoy that same privilege. Life na turn by turn!,” he admonished.
In the same vein, Hon Ubong Akpabio, another pundit said it was hypocritical for Akparawa Ephraim Inyangeyen, former Chief of Staff to the Governor and arrow head of the OBA-for- Governor project, to dismiss the just concluded Ward Congresses as a sham. He maintained that Inyangeyen only did that because he was no longer a part of the government.
According to him “If he was still in the system, he would have come with a press release with an inscription like Chief of Staff Commends the Governor for Credible Conduct of Delegates Primaries.””
On his part, a public affairs analyst , Mr Mmekabasi Akpabio equally dismissed the protesting aspirants as hypocritical. According to him,when he sees aspirants complaining that “they’ve been robbed in yesterday’s delegate congress, I wonder if hypocrisy has another meaning.”
A veteran journalist and Editor of Newstrack online, Comrade David Augustine however charged the aspirants to come to terms with reality as the Ward Delegates Congress is something they have participated in and benefitted from in the past.