The planned defection of the Senate Minority Leader, Senator Godswill Akpabio to the All Progressives Congress, APC could set the tone for new political thinking in the South-South geopolitical region in the expectation of leaders of the country’s ruling party.
Akpabio would undoubtedly be the biggest catch for the APC which had in the last three weeks lost several high profile members including three governors, 14 senators and more than 30 members of the House of Representatives.
The APC’s loss across several states would, however, be well soothed at least momentarily, with Akpabio’s defection.
Akpabio’s loss would be of great significance given the fact that he is about the PDP’s second-highest political office holder, at least, until the recent defection of Senate President Bukola Saraki to the PDP.
Saraki’s entry put down Akpabio in the pecking order to number three, following Saraki and Ekweremadu.
Also significant is the fact that in focusing at Akpabio, the APC would have considered the former governor’s stronghold on the politics of Akwa Ibom State.
The former governor before leaving office in 2015 succeeded in creating an uncommon personification of his image in the politics of the state when he singlehandedly facilitated the emergence of Mr. Emmanuel as his successor and most of the elected political office holders in the state.
His efforts, particularly in making Emmanuel governor of the state, forced a number of high-level members of the party who sought the governorship office in 2015 to fight him. Many of the 22 governorship aspirants styled as G-22 eventually found their way into the opposition APC.
Though the strengthening of the APC through the inclusion of strong politicians like the 2015 governorship candidate, Umana Umana, the former deputy governor of the state, Nsima Ekere, former member of the House of Representatives, Eseme Eyiboh among others appeared to bolster the image of the opposition, Akwa Ibom State, however, remained essentially a PDP state, especially with Akpabio in the party. However, the former governor’s exit from the party is bound to increase the status of the party in the state.
However, it is also bound to create its own uncertainties. Many of those who left the PDP out of the problems they had with Akpabio are bound to receive the entry of the former governor into their midst with trepidation.
As at yesterday many of the leaders of the opposition were waiting with bated breath on the defection of the man that had for eight years defined the politics of Akwa Ibom.
However, after days of agitated tension, it appeared last night that the momentum that was expected from the defection for the opposition was waning. That much emerged after all members of the State House of Assembly who were at one time lackeys of Akpabio visited Governor Emmanuel to pledge their loyalties to him. They also endorsed his second term aspiration.
The strong statement of disavowal by the deputy governor of the state, Pa Moses Ekpo, who was also enthroned by Akpabio also appeared to have strengthened the hands of the governor.
Akpabio’s former disciples in the PDP were still at the eve of the defection still wondering over the motive for his action?
Meanwhile, the defection of the governor was also stoking ethnic sentiments in the state with the majority Ibibio claiming that Akpabio had brought their son to the precipice and abandoned him. That sentiment is bound to resonate positively in the political sphere for the governor.
But how Akpabio is received in the South-South caucus of the APC which is the bastion of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP is another thing.
Akpabio will with the defection reconnect with his one-time ally, Rotimi Amaechi who until recently was the political leader of the APC in the South-South. With the national chairman, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole and Amaechi and now Akpabio among the major figures driving the APC in the South-South, the PDP is set to be given a run for its money in a zone where it had for long held sway almost without challenge.
In a remarkable way in bestrode the polity in an uncommon fashion, Akpbabio started his defection with negotiations from the top with meetings with President Muhammadu Buhari and party leader Asiwaju Bola Tinubu. When he touches ground tomorrow or next to announce his defection then will the polity know whether the man is really common or uncommon.
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