By Okon Osubong
The first Nigerian to be called to the English Bar, was an Oron man. Every Oron man and woman is proud of this fact, which is an indication of Oron’s early contact with Western education. Today, folks in Oron have the strongest sense of grievance in Akwa Ibom State in the upcoming governorship election. They feel denied and short-changed in the political equation. This feeling is boosted by their strong sense of entitlement to the governorship of the state.
But who actually robbed Oron of producing the governor of Akwa Ibom State in 2015? Oron occupies a peculiar situation in Akwa Ibom politics. It is the third largest ethnic group after the Ibibios and Annangs respectively. They are found in Eket Senatorial District, where they flourish in five out of the twelve local government areas, which make up the district.
Eket Senatorial District has the greatest cultural mix in the entire state. It is home to ethnic groups like Oros, Ekids, Ibenos, Andonis and Ibibios. The agreement when power shifted from the mainly Ibibio Uyo Senatorial District to Ikot Ekpene Senatorial District was that when it would shift to Eket Senatorial District, Oron should have the first go at power. Pundits posited that this was in furtherance of the so-called tripod arrangement of power revolving around the three major ethnic groups. But even as this was being said in Oron Township Stadium in 2007, during the Akpabio Campaign, some Ibibio people protested that the Ibibios couldn’t wait for power for sixteen years.
Those who thought this protestation was an idle joke were jolted to reality when Obong Umana Okon Umana, then
Secretary to the State Government, began to campaign in 2011 to succeed Governor Akpabio in 2015. He and his supporters claimed that no one should expect the Ibibios to wait for power for sixteen years. By this, they meant that to allow an Oron man to succeed an Annang man (Akpabio) would amount to denying the Ibibios of power for sixteen years. They posited that the Ibibio were the first son, the Annang the second son and the Oro the third son in the Akwa Ibom family. As the first son, they claimed, the Ibibio should give power to the Annangs and take it back before giving it to Oro.
Given the fact that this was a very strange narrative as Nigeria is in such a situation with three major ethnic groups, but no one has ever described Nigeria as a tripod. But as a test of Obong Umana’s vaunted Ibibio nationalism, it was decided that power should still rotate to Eket Senatorial District with the Ibibios there making the first call. Faced with that situation, Obong Umana changed the storyline to “power must return to the centre before it goes anywhere else.”
The whipping up of ethnic sentiments put the entire governorship arrangement in a tailspin. If an Oron man were to run against Obong Umana, Obong Umana would trounce the Oron man with all the Ibibio votes. Obong Umana knew this and prayed for this scenario. If Umana, on the other hand, had not shown up and had respected the zoning arrangement, Oron would have been able to muscle its way to reckoning in Eket Senatorial District. The problem was: how do you have a candidate who will break the ethnic tilt in the Umana campaign? The solution was to go for a fellow Ibibio man from Eket Senatorial District.
Eket Senatorial District has not produced a governor in Akwa Ibom State since the state was created in 1987 (28 years ago). Uyo has produced three governors (Otuekong
Idongesit Nkanga, Obong Akpan Isemin and Obong Victor Attah). Umana is from Uyo Senatorial District and should have allowed patriotic sentiments to supersede his selfish feelings. He does not mind robbing Eket Senatorial District of another eight years of producing the governor. If he succeeds, it means that Eket Senatorial District would wait for power for 36 years (2023) and even then with the truncating of the zoning arrangement may not be sure of assuming power then.
When the G-22 came back from Abuja, Umana was at hand to meet them. In a secret meeting with the G-22, he invited them to join him in the All Progressives Congress (APC). The G-22 made him an offer. Since we are all from Eket Senatorial District and we believe it is the turn of Eket Senatorial District to produce the governor in 2015, pick anyone of us and surrender your ticket to him or her in the interest of justice and fair play and we will join APC. Umana backed down.
The questions some misled people have not bothered to ask is, “If you love Oron so much, why did you not support an Oron candidate to run for 2015?” The other question is, “You claim that you will handover to an Oron person, how would you do that when your present stance is that there should be no zoning in the state and we know that in 2023, another Ibibo son will definitely be in the race?” Perhaps the third and last question should be, “As a proof that you love Oron can you please tell us one single Oron man you ever appointed as your aide, driver, assistant, or gave a contract to in the course of your illustrious career?”
Obong Umana is behaving like the man who set his seat on fire in the theatre and ran out screaming “Fire! Fire!! Fire!!!” He single-handedly wrestled the Governorship slot from Oron and hoped to keep it for himself. Now he is hoping that Oron will help him to achieve his selfish objective by telling them stories. Umana is more of Oron’s problem than a solution as far as the governorship of Akwa Ibom State is concerned. Oron were not looking for a deputy governorship slot.
Source: Okon Osubong is an Oron-based trader.
