OBA-Amba: Not Again in 2023!
“Democracy is based upon the conviction that there are extraordinary possibilities in ordinary people” – Harry Emerson Fosdick, American Cleric
By Destiny Akaiso
Going by current happenings in the State, there is no telling that Akwa Ibom people have been pushed to the limits of their patience and understanding.
The drums are loud and almost deafening. The momentum is irresistible. The commitment is overwhelming. The message is clearer like never before.
And expectations are high and assuring. “Not again!” That is the resonating slogan wherever you go from the heart of the metropolis to the deepest creeks of the State.
The strong signals of the firm and contagious resolve of the people to liberate themselves and democracy from the fetters of totalitarian “onemanism” and return governance to the people in 2023 cannot be mistaken even by the worst pretender.
You therefore truly must be a true pretender to pretend you don’t know what is going on or has been going on. Your better name then must be a sycophant, a masochist, a clown in a Fool’s Paradise. Or you must be suffering from inertia and astigmatism – doomed to lose completely in the final analysis.
The Akwa Ibom electorate have no difficulty but regrets admitting that some opportunistic persons in privileged positions have mistaken a considerable percentage of Akwa Ibom people to be gullible in their understanding; subservient in their solidarity; helpless in the bold face of poor leadership; and hapless and hopeless in their contemplation of options for better times beyond the present.
In their conspiracies and contrived definition of power, the tin gods certainly think, and feel, they can play god without consequences.
That’s why they never wished to quit the stage with dignity but to contemptuously perpetrate and perpetuate their inadequacies through the obnoxious culture of imposition of a stooge upon the masses.
They do this for what we know they fear and for what they know we know.
This anti-democratic tradition has brought Akwa Ibom people to the dreaded scenario of double jeopardy in King Rehoboamic’s infamous manifesto:
“My father laid upon you a heavy yoke; I will make it even heavier. My father scourged you with whips; I will scourge you with scorpions” – 1Kings 12:1, (New International Version).
Sadly, in their gullible reasoning of selfish convenience, an insignificant handful still would tell you that it doesn’t really matter. But within them, they know it really matters. Check their previous responses to the subject of an incumbent insisting on foisting his “anointed” or “preferred” against the people’s popular will.
Weren’t they the fiercest opposers and ideologues against such a sadistic, anti-people, and undemocratic culture weaned and nurtured with a predictable source of funds?
The good news nonetheless is that Akwa Ibom people have seen and learnt a lot from peculiar leadership patterns in the State since 1999. They cannot be fooled any longer or taken on a ride for too long by anybody determined to play on their intelligence and corporate destiny.
Hence, of this lack of conscience by those who clearly have treated the people with contempt and impunity, champions of divide and rule politics, the people are up in unbroken unison to break the status quo and alter hegemonic formulas.
Caught in the epidemic discontent across the land, seeing this moment as the best of moments, it doesn’t, therefore, come as any surprise that Akwa Ibom people have unanimously resolved to entrust their destines to the populist leadership template of Senator Obong Bassey Albert (OBA), the man who holds the Seal of Hope and the Torchlight of liberation, towards fulfilling their collective wishes for inclusive and result-oriented leadership.
It is obvious the people were anxiously waiting for a moment like this, for that brave and courageous captain they can trust to champion their cause, a force no one in opposition to true democracy can withstand without serious bruises.
OBA, therefore, does not come as someone in need of any introduction to the masses; someone mercilessly tied to the apron strings of insatiable and treacherous godfathers; someone whose past is rooted in endless controversies; and the future in frightening ominous doubts.
OBA does not come cap in hand. OBA does not come as a specimen for an experiment in the theatre of probabilities. He comes with audacity and unsurpassed Providence, with a backdrop of antecedents that offers fresh hopes in all ramifications, to change the cause of history and leadership trajectory of Akwa Ibom State.
No matter how far and tortuous the road may have been, no matter how long the agitation may have lasted, the long wait for this moment was worthwhile on the divine calendar. History has shown that great leaders are born in the moments of greatest needs. This, indeed, is that moment in the lives of the Akwa Ibom people!
“To hell with the anti-people obsession with imposition! Not again in 2023!” The people are saying wherever you go. Abraham Lincoln then was right: in democracy, “Elections belong to the people”.
