Akwa Ibom Rerun Elections: APC Saw the Future

APC See The Future

 The rerun elections to fill seats in the Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly have come and gone; with the PDP, as usual, pummeling their raucous opponents - APC, and other parties; recording victory by a broad margin. On monitoring programmes of the parties in the lead up to the polls, the body language of APC suggested they had foreseen the heavy defeat.

While PDP were busy organizing mega rallies, consulting far and wide, and their candidates working hard to garner popularity amongst the electorates – not taking for granted favour they already enjoyed in their respective constituencies – APC were only found behind worthless and commonly spurious articles on print and social media. Still their efforts at such publicity was as weak as can be. For example, an attempt to make noise about Umana Umana’s return to the state, as if that would serve as a boost, was immediately dealt with by a public who have by now refused to burden their ears and eyes with APC messages.

The APC are far better at the publicity tool of propaganda than at winning elections; their history of election failure in Akwa Ibom seems to indicate. In the last Governorship elections and in the rerun that just held, Akwa Ibom gave at least 90% of their votes to PDP, while the APC took several bouts of stern rebuke from leading individuals in the society for an imposing volume of calumny that came from them. While such capabilities worked for them at the last presidential elections, it failed and still fails them in Akwa Ibom. Right now, they constitute a good example for the belief that one can be popular and never successful. This time again, the APC seemed to focus on their strongest capability, leaving the PDP to claim easy won victory.

As could be observed before polls, not one billboard carried an APC message. It made one wonder if truly they had run out of money or maybe they had run out of confidence. Or maybe they had imagined to rig the elections but did not sense an enabling environment or backing from their national leadership.

The assumption of sensing no backing from their national headship could be the first accurate explanation for APC’s cold feet. Architect Otu Ita Toyo, one of their most influential leaders in the state, wrote a lamentation on the eve of the elections; and their primary media arm, APC news alert reposted it in a mutinous non-oral protest;

“We have all been through a lot..... it is known that from the National Assembly to the anti corruption fight the APC is yet to give a coordinated response nationally. Truth be told, we have to overhaul of (corrected to ‘or’) risk giving second wind to the PDP who believe that the end justifies the means.”
And then he accused Umana Okon Umana, for whom many of them forfeited their nobility, respect and dignity to support in the 2015 elections, of bandoning other party objective having failed at his’;
“Without UOU there was scant energy in the APC. UOU is at this time engaged in another level of struggle and there is a limit to what one man with no external support can do.”
He then attempted to make a case against what has become fashionable impulse among rank and file of the party; rebelling against their leadership, trying to whip up some more patience with the party structure.
“We have not felt the essential mobilization from the party leaders and exco... saving a few like the Itas... I have no doubt that we can and should recover but only if we get deadwoods out of the way. I am persuaded that the Exco will do the right thing to save the party in the state”.
APC members are also Nigerians, and it is common knowledge that a true blooded Nigerian cannot successfully be retained in deception, especially those from the Middle Belt and Southward. This is why most Nigerians can foresee mass defection from the APC in the nearest future. Arch Toyo also agreed with this mindset here:
“Finally I hear that 4 years is a long time to stay irrelevant. Well it's not just 4 years, for some people 17 and counting. They deserve a break. But we won't get that break by matching violence or rebelling against our platform. This is the moment for clear headed patriotism like Patty is advocating. Only we must advocate for engagement, tools and organised party organ. We must keep the last of our optimism. The grass on the other side is not greener for men of ideas. I know. I have been there.”

Suffice it to say that the fate of APC has been sealed, beginning with Akwa Ibom State. So dire it is that a common joke among people who witnessed the free and fair rerun elections both physically and following online, was about possible news headlines of APC backed newspapers by the following Monday. Everyone anticipated another grumble from them, implying that they can no longer be taken as seriously as before.

But why are things so awful for APC? Nothing far from their assumption that they could dupe clear-eyed Nigerians into supporting them, with ballyhoo defamation against everything that made sense. They attacked our sense of good judgment, for we gave them some attention – claiming to have some kind of ‘inside’ knowledge, they made themselves popular enough to rig the 2015 elections and get away with it. It was their worst mistake, for now they have the federal government and, 10 months into their administration, they are still toying with sensitive fibres of the nation’s health, governing the World’s biggest black nation and largest African economy with trial and error.

Their sins have begun to hunt them. In Akwa Ibom, where they never succeeded to win favour in the first place, being an APC supporter has become a thing of embarrassment, no thanks to a people-first philosophy of governance by successive PDP governments. A wide disparity between the performance of the Udom Emmanuel led administration - with severe paucity of funds - and that of President Muhammadu Buhari is a major contributor to their election woes and imminent collapse.

Meanwhile, the APC only went home with 10.9% of the total votes cast in the just concluded rerun elections in Akwa Ibom. That figure is certainly an ultra-generous gift from the Akwa Ibom people, as the they, APC did not even approach the elections expecting that much.