Nigerian politicians who defect with a wave of hand to other political parties are not politicians but opportunists and adventurists, Emmanuel Enoidem, a one-time Akwa Ibom Commissioner for Housing and Urban Development declared.
Enoidem, who was speaking on Planet 101.1 FM, Uyo Tuesday in a programme tagged: Akwa Ibom Mandate, queried “Yes, I asked Senator Ita Enang, now (Senior Special Assistant to the President on National Assembly- Senate) if Peoples Democratic Party had won election in 2015, would you have the opportunity to move to another party?
“Those who cross from PDP to APC are opportunists. They are adventurists- those are not politicians. Politicians will wait for the manifestation of the party and he believes in the constitution of the party- what brought people together in the party, and you will want to stay with the conviction that about the party. Those who cross to other party do so for their own interest,” he noted.
On opinion by Ita Enang asking Governor Udom Emmnauel to render account to Akwa Ibom people in the stadium, he quipped “Sometimes Enang dances to the gallery. It is not for the governor to go to the market square to render an account of money he has collected. Let me ask Ita Enang a question. Didn’t President Buhari come to power on account of the promise of accountability?
According to him, “As we speak, the amount of money collected by his government has not been made public to Nigerians by the APC-led government. What is he talking about then? Also, it is wrong to say that President Buhari has made Governor Udom to pay salaries. Instead, he has denied us the money that should come to us naturally.
Akwa Ibom produces the highest crude oil in the country to the purse of the federal government, but we are not getting what is due to the state. Akwa Ibom is being owed N150 billion by the federal government on account of money spent on federal roads which we have approval from the federal agencies. The factories built in the state are done through Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and this done with a level of trust an investor has on Akwa Ibom State Government.”
He continued “Apart from Lagos State, another state in Nigeria that has been able to attract a high Foreign Direct Investment is Akwa Ibom. So, it is not the function of assistance the federal government is giving to Akwa Ibom, so one should claim that.
The ex-commissioner, who debunked the notion that PDP failed at the national level due to impunity, argued “Of course, I stand here to say there is nothing wrong in the party, but people have been complaining about impunity in the party. In the sense that a candidate will post at different strata of the party for different election, but I dare say that the political problem is not peculiar to PDP alone. I think APC has impunity at different level of their system. PDP having ruled the country for 15 years began to take a lot of things for granted- began to be complacent.”
“I think what happened that provided the interregnum arising from the loss of power to the opposition party is a wake-up call for PDP and it is good for the polity, the Nigerian nation, and am sure by the time PDP returns to rule in 2019; they will not take things for granted knowing that Nigerians are watching and that they have a credible opposition. It is good Nigerians wanted an option and they have tested it, but there is no alternative to PDP,” Enoidem added.
