The truth about zoning in Nsit Atai Local Government Area
Some time in 1999, some elders in Nsit Atai felt it was politically necessary to fashion out a way of allowing for a rotatory leadership wherein all the clans / political blocs in the local government area would have an equal representation both at the local government and membership of House of Assembly levels.
Sequel to this, a committee was set up to work out modalities on how such a feat could be achieved without any rancour. The mandate was very clear: to make a proposal that would ensure equitable distribution of political offices, taking into an account, the political blocs that exist in the area.
Immediately, the committee swung into action using the laws of Akwa Ibom State as a guide and listed sixteen signatories to authenticate the report for onward submission to the elders.
As it is the case sometimes with classified documents, the proposal was not exposed, but was only given to the elders to study. However, within the ranks of the elders, some of them colluded and tinkered with the documents with an intention to give some regions advantage over others.
Specifically, they excluded Ndisiak Clan from the documents, but forgot to either edit page 17 or delete it. Therefore, Ndisiak is listed on page 17 of the documents to benefit from Chairmanship slot like other clans/ blocs, but it is missing among those to benefit from House of Assembly seat.
However, an observation was made by some elders concerning the unholy exclusion of Ndisiak Clan from the list. This sparked a serious controversy that led to nine out of the 16 signatories refusing to sign the document ( some of them are still alive to confirm this).
The remaining seven who perhaps were the ones working against Ndisiak went ahead to sign, but the document had not been put to use as the refusal of majority to sign was a clear sign of rejection.
It is also interesting to note that the document was not for only PDP, but for all the political parties with presence in the LGA. That’s why other parties like the defunct Alliance for Democracy (AD) was also listed to sign the document.
In that same 1999 when the document was supposed to be put to use, Late Elder Ime Udonte from Afaha contested Chairmanship election against Otuekong Raphael Bassey from Essien Itiaba. The question now is: was the zoning arrangement obeyed then?
Again, in 2011, Obong Asuquo Derby of Ibedu contested against Sarah Elijah of Afaha and Sarah Elijah contested against Mark Esset from Ibiaikot in 2015.
In 2019, Prince Aniefok Attah, Ndu Davis and Ubongabasi Ossom all from Ibedu contested against the re-election of Mark. In all of these, no one stopped anybody.
It is alleged that a certain aspirant who knows that he can not match the intelligence and popularity of Emem Ibanga offered some Elders five hundred thousand naira to help him by zoning Emem out of the contest. The aspirant, we learnt, has less than five credits in his WAEC results.
One therefore wonders why someone who is lucky enough to have the support of the ‘Elders’ and that of all the ‘delegates’ is still worried about who should or shouldn’t contest against him.
In the whole of all of these banters and political gimmickry, one would expect the elders to be busy working to ensure the emergence of Pastor Umo Eno as governor, instead of taking House of Assembly matter more serious that the task ahead.
