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Author: Amanze Obi
Posted to the web: 7/9/2005 10:29:56 PM

The peaceful political landscape of Akwa Ibom State has been jolted. The amiable Governor, Obong Victor Attah and his subjects are being harassed.
The bull-in-china-shop here is the octopus called the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). From Anambra State and, to some extent, Plateau State where the party's internal contradictions have fouled the air, the PDP has moved to Akwa Ibom State. The state is about to taste PDP's phlegm. The consequences are likely to be unsavoury if the development is not handled with restraint and maturity.The man at the centre of the morass is a certain Chief Chris Ekpenyong who, until his impeachment on June 23, 2005, was the Deputy Governor of Akwa Ibom State. Until recently, not many people outside Akwa Ibom State knew what the relationship between Attah and Ekpenyong was like. Like most deputy governors in other states of the Federation, Ekpenyong was hardly known outside his state. But when, for some reason, he fell out of favour with his master, the hitherto obscure deputy governor came to limelight.But the searchlight beamed on him was for ignoble reasons. He had been accused of corrupt enrichment. He was also accused of abuse of office by using his position to acquire undue advantages. Some other allegations were also levelled against him. To establish these allegations, the state's Chief Judge, Justice Ekiong Idiong, set up a panel to investigate the allegations levelled against Ekpenyong. The findings of the panel confirmed the charges against the deputy governor. As far as the job of the panel went, 90 percent of the charges levelled against Ekpenyong were in order.On the strength of the recommendations sent to the legislature by the Justice Idiong panel, the House was convinced that the deputy governor has erred. He has abused his office and should therefore no longer be allowed to taint the exalted office anymore. Consequently, impeachment proceedings were rolled out against him. When the matter came up on the floor of the state House of Assembly, 23 of the 25-member legislature unanimously voted for his removal as deputy governor. By this act, the assembly has done its legitimate job, and then it went about its normal business.However, shortly before Ekpenyong was impeached, the PDP leadership in Abuja had, unceremoniously, jumped into the fray. It had made a half-hearted attempt to intervene in the matter. Unfortunately for it, it did not step out boldly to say what it wanted. The PDP leadership probably thought that the Akwa Ibom legislature was playing the quixotic game of our House of Representatives in Abuja whose members’ stock in trade is to pretend to be up in arms against Mr. President any time they want to be gratified. The PDP probably thought that the lawmakers in Uyo were merely flying a kite; or that they just wanted to rattle the deputy governor. But the assembly was not out to do any of this. Rather, it was convinced that something had gone wrong. As people who swore to uphold the constitution, they would not sit askance and watch an erring deputy governor act in ways and manners that bring his office to public opprobrium. There was conviction in the mind of the assembly members. Having been convinced of the propriety of their action, they also brought principle to bear on it. They would not be compromised by the papier mache pretensions of the PDP. It was this spirit that made the legislators ignore the PDP and its antics. The trick of the Big Brother in Abuja did not work.The legislature having carried out a constitutional responsibility which did not favour the miniscule clique in Abuja, we expected the PDP to swallow the bitter pill. We expected the party to accept the situation with equanimity and see it as another ingredient of democratic governance which must be applied whenever the situation demanded. Instead of that, however, the PDP chose to bellyache. It decided to wash its dirty linens in the public by going beyond its bounds. The issue now is that the new PDP leadership assembled by President Olusegun Obasanjo has decided to take the unending war in the party to Akwa Ibom State. It is making demands of the state legislature. It wants the assembly to reverse its decision on the former deputy governor. For the PDP, due process was not followed in the removal of the deputy governor. The panel that investigated him did not do a thorough job. The party therefore wants everything done so far to be set aside. In its place, the party has set up its own Special Panel to investigate the face-off between the former deputy governor and the state legislature. This is where we are now.But observers of our polity are amused at what the PDP is doing. The party, for all we know, has no place for rules and regulations. It does not care a hoot about propriety. It does not have regard for constituted authority except the one that is doing its bidding. That explains why the party did not worry about the criminal abduction of Governor Chris Ngige of Anambra State by daredevil elements in the party. That was the reason the party flouted court orders given on the Anambra crisis. That was also why the party, lately, insisted on the expulsion of Ngige from its fold even though a court has ruled against the party's position. Examples that point at PDP's disregard for rules and regulations are legion. Is it therefore not strange that the same party has suddenly woken up to cry foul about lack of due process and haste in the removal of a deputy governor? This is classical double standard at work.If we are to stretch the argument a little further, we would ask the PDP the due process it adopted when Audu Ogbeh, its former National Chairman, was forced to resign at gunpoint. What due process did PDP follow when Nigerians woke up one morning to hear that it has dissolved its National Working Committee, a development that led to the sacking of its former National Secretary and Deputy National Chairman (South) among others, and their immediate replacement with other party men? In spite of these numerous examples which point to PDP's lack of respect for propriety, we are not in any way saying that the Akwa Ibom legislature has behaved like the PDP. It did not. We merely drew this long list to show how amused we are at PDP's posturing on the situation in Akwa Ibom State.Having done that, we can now make the point that the PDP must know the limits of its powers. A political party is not the same thing as a government. The Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly is an arm of the state government. It is made up of people who are elected by the people of the state. The legislators are therefore in office to make laws for the good governance of the people who elected them. In the course of their jobs, they relate directly with the executive and the judiciary in the state. They are not answerable to PDP in Abuja. It therefore beats the imagination that the party is using intimidation and blackmail to get at the legislature. This is a clear case of arm-twisting. The legislators should do well to reject this blatant attempt at making them appendages to a clique whose interest in the affairs of the state is questionable.In fact, beneath PDP's claim to propriety lies a hidden agenda. It does appear that the leadership of the party wants to undermine the supremacy of Governor Attah as the highest authority in the state. If the action of the legislature is to be revisited, the man who should intervene in that regard is Victor Attah. Even at that, it is too late in the day. To ask the legislature to reverse itself is to make a mockery of the House. Rather than engage in this wild goose chase, the PDP should stop to ask whether Ekpenyong is being punished for no just cause. Are the allegations levelled against him frivolous or do they have merit? These are issues which the party ought to have been interested in when it mattered. There is no need now to cry over spilt milk.For Attah and his subjects in the state, we can only ask them to resist this attempt at making Akwa Ibom another battle ground for PDP's many unresolved contradictions.