‘INEC should be honest and sincere on Saturday’s governorship polls’

“What happened on Saturday during the Presidential and National Assembly election is most disheartening and appears an anti-climax to a man that I know, who had vowed to conduct a free, fair and credible elections. I still believe that there is something that I don’t know, but it wasn’t okay at all. But for my faith in God I would have withdrawn from the race because I had my winning formula, my winning formula was not to pander to people who will go and collect money because I don’t have the money. Every war is a strategy game and you have to know your strength and weakness.”

Architect Ezekiel Nya-Etok is the governorship candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) in Akwa Ibom State. He spoke with AYOYINKA JEGEDE in Uyo on what he will do differently if elected governor, why he supported Senator Godswill Akpabio, and what INEC should do differently in respect of Saturday’s elections.

What will you do differently if you win the governorship seat on Saturday and why do you want the people of Akwa Ibom to vote for you?

Things are going on in this State and in Nigeria, but we are pretending that we don’t know what’s going on. Maladministration has made us the poverty capital of the world. In Akwa Ibom State, we have forgotten the essence of government. No matter how long you stay in the theatre as a nurse, you can never become a Doctor or no matter how long you ride in a bus as a conductor, it does not make you a driver. People talk about being in government, yet they have no understanding of what Government is all about. That is why we have become the poverty capital of the world. How many people have read chapter two, section 14 subsection 2b of our Constitution? That is what gives a matching order on what Government should be; it says the security and welfare of the people shall be the primary purpose of government.

In law, ‘shall’ is the most compelling word. It is more compelling than “must” and if that is the case, then which government, national or sub-national has taken the security and welfare of the people as primary duty? When you talk about the people you don’t need any definition to know that the people means generality of the people, and when you look at the ratings of our poverty index, we have become the poverty capital of the world. It means the generality of the people are poor, multi-dimensionally poor. It means government has constantly failed, both in this state and federal.

When I become governor of Akwa Ibom state, what I will do things differently by applying a political ideology I called social governance ideology. Social governance is a bottom to top approach to governance and development with the primary objective of bringing the citizens out of poverty, bottom to top. What we have is top that does not even get to the bottom, that’s why you go to Lagos, you see things, you go to Abuja you see things, you come to Uyo you see things but go to rural areas, people are languishing. I toured over 85 per cent of all the villages in Akwa Ibom State during my campaign and this is documented with NTA crew. For example, in Nto Urua Odoro in Ika local government area, we saw a woman, who said her husband is 52 years and that since her husband was born; he has never seen an electric pole in his village. If I should show you the documentary we did, you will cry. I’m talking of village by village, nobody has ever, and not even government has that level of documentation of our rural areas like I do. I came out not to be a political governor, but I came out to do the right thing.

What prompted you, why did you want to be governor?

I completed my life at 50. I started completing my life at 45 and completed it at 50. At 50 I had nothing doing, because at 45, my two sons graduated from Covenant University. At 50 my last child graduated, while my first son had his masters from University of Manchester, Britain. By the time you trained all your children, you have finished all you can do. So, it’s been payback time for me. Right now, I have accomplished all I set out to accomplish in life. All I have been doing in the past and what I will continue to do is to give back to the society; I will be 59 in November 1.

I don’t take appointment, because God has settled me well, if I stop working today and even with this governorship stuff, I do not owe anybody. Let me tell you that over 90 per cent of all resources spent on this campaign are from my pocket. I have sold about five of my properties, including the only one I have in Ewet housing estate. I have no regret because I am doing what my heart tells me to do. I’m launching a campaign that people have seen. I’m sowing a seed, if it germinates, it will be fantastic, but if it doesn’t, it will germinate one day.

Why do you have to make huge sacrifice of selling your properties especially the only one you have in Ewet Housing to finance your governorship aspirations?

In life I defined success differently. Success is not winning to me. Scripturally, success is not winning, because the Bible says the goodness of God maketh rich and adds no sorrows.
What that means is that there is a goodness that makes rich but adds sorrow but the goodness of God makes rich but adds no sorrow. What that means is that God can make you win and that winning is without sorrow, but you can win and because it is not of God, it adds and end in sorrow for you. So winning is not success. Success is doing the things you set out to do to the best of your ability with integrity, meaning that there are certain lines you will not cross no matter what happens. There are many things I have had to turn down. For instance, I promised Akwa Ibom for Akwa Ibom Ideology, which means Akwa Ibom money will stay here.

I run an extremely influential WhatsApp group. On that platform, I have governors, ministers, managing and executive directors of the three top banks, chairmen, Tu- Baba, which is coming down to entertainment. All of them are there. I made a statement that anyone may wish to support me but it will not be on a deal situation because I will not mortgage Akwa Ibom for anything in the world. I prayed to God that I win because many of the people contesting with me have reached out to the whole Nigeria for them to be able to be where they are, and if for any reason they win, we are finished because the whole of Nigeria will empty the treasury of this state for return of favour because one good turn deserves another. And when they do that what will be left for Akwa Ibom people? We will become crumps eaters and because the boys will be so unhappy, so disillusioned, they will empty back into the street and they take vengeance on the common man and Akwa Ibom will become one of the unsafe places to live in, so we got to wise up, be careful and know who we support.

Also, in the last few days particularly I have come under the level of pressure that is difficult to explain. Some persons are trying to persuade me to join Umo Eno and there is a lot that will come my way by doing that. I thanked them profusely and at the end of the day, I looked for the politest way to tell the person that I have nothing against my brother Eno, he is a very good friend and knows I respect him. He knows me but you see, I am a man on a mission, so it is not about supporting and getting something.

What are your chances of winning?

Two things, number one is that somebody has to be an answer to the prayers of the people and the prayers of the people is for good governance, a governor that will sit down and work for the people, a governor that will not betray the trust of the people, a government that will look into the rural areas and the plight of these people who are predominantly in the rural area, particularly the women that are suffering. They prayed and God has answered and I am the person who says “God if there is anybody that will work more for Akwa Ibom people more than I do, that loves Akwa Ibom more than I do, let that person be the next Governor.”

What are the lapses in the presidential Election that you think INEC should improve on ahead of election on Saturday?

Nobody hailed INEC chairman more than I did because he is a personal friend. I know him and he knows me. We exchange text messages. What happened on Saturday during the Presidential and National Assembly election is most disheartening and appears an anti-climax to a man that I know, who had vowed to conduct a free, fair and credible elections. I still believe that there is something that I don’t know, but it wasn’t okay at all. But for my faith in God I would have withdrawn from the race because I had my winning formula, my winning formula was not to pander to people who will go and collect money because I don’t have the money. Every war is a strategy game and you have to know your strength and weakness.

INEC should just be honest and sincere. It should leave the ball on the pitch, whoever can score, let the person score. They did that for National Assembly election to a great extent, but when it got to the presidential, they insisted that they want to know who the referee is and give the referee instructions on what to do. The presidential election result was over-tampered with in my personal opinion.

So on Saturday, they should just leave it and the only thing which I said earlier is that it has almost completely disillusioned my power base and it is going to take God to either bring them back.

Politics is a game of strategy. We segmented the voting blocs into three. We had the first we called cash, the second we called conscience and the third we called intellect. For cash, we gave them 30 votes, for conscience, we gave them 60 votes and for intellect we gave them 10 votes.

Have you really appealed to the conscience of Akwa Ibom people to vote for you?

Yes! I have, and I do that at all time and in all places, but I’ll tell you, there are a lot of things we have to learn. There is sowing and there is reaping. It’s going to take a little while for people to know that it is wiser to sow for four weeks and reap for four years than to reap for four weeks and sow for four years.

To us, election time, especially the last four weeks is a reaping time. All we do, as electorate is to collect, while the electorate collect or reap. The politician sows and because the politicians are sowing this for four months, they will reap for four years, while the electorate reap for four weeks, but sow for four years. I have appealed to a lot of them, the reception is good, the enlightenment is good and it is something that needs to be sustained.

On Saturday we’ll be looking forward to God to pour manure on the work we have done and because God is the governor of the universe, because he sustains all things by the power of his word because he is the one that raises up kings and bring down kings, on Saturday He is going to sent His angels on an assignment and the angel is going to direct people to expand on the massive work that we have done already and the will of God will be done in this land.

At the last Presidential and National Assembly elections your party ADC did not win any seat. Even in Ikot Ekpene Senatorial District where you hail from, APC candidate, senator Akpabio won. What do you think about that?

Akpabio and I were inside his car for about 45 minutes while voting was going on during the last elections because we are from the same neighbouring villages so I could even stroll to where he was. I met him at the field inside his car and two of us were there for minutes.

What happened in Ikot Ekpene was a general result because Akpabio never showed up at the polling booth in my village. He won in all the polling booths. He had several strategic advantages over his main opponent. One of which was that when he gets back to the Senate, the Senate presidency is likely coming to the south and as somebody who has been a principal officer of the Senate, he stands a much better chance than somebody who is just going there for the first time as a neophyte. So, we have to be strategic in our thinking and not be unduly emotional or sentimental. Though we had a candidate in my party, ADC for Ikot Ekpene Senatorial seat, but we had to sit down and graciously looked into the whole situation without seeing or having a word with Akpabio. He conceded the position to Akpabio and told me to go ahead and support Akpabio so he can win. According to him, Akpabio’s victory is in our best interest.

That is the highest level of integrity the ADC candidate had. He has never talked one day with Akpabio on this matter neither did he requested for or is expecting any monetary gain or otherwise from Akpabio.

I was even the one who told Akpabio while we were in the car that I came here under the permission of our Senatorial candidate who said you would be a better senator in terms of representation than himself and Akpabio said who is the person. I told him and he said God will bless him and he made no monetary promises.