Thomas Ofem (Bob Tee)
Last week I opened the Yakurr political can of worms with the publication of my rumblings on our situation as a people. I called my essay "Is It About the Ugep Man?. Most people would wonder about this curious title for an essay that is meant to review the Yakurr situation and bring to fore deep seated feelings. I would explain my title shortly. I have received numerous comments and rejoinders to my essay. I have also received numerous phone calls- some to commend me, some to denigrate me. As I said earlier, we should all feel free to make our personal opinions known especially if we leave them at the realm of commentary on issues of public concern and importance. Okoi Obono Obla's rejoinder particularly drew a lot of flak from some of the persons he mentioned. One such person was Bassey Eko Ewa- current member of the House of Representatives for the Yakurr/Abi Federal Constituency. Ewa called me on phone from London, visibly angry and disturbed that there was no truth in Obla's claims against him. I dutifully advised him to contribute this debate by sending in his own position on the issues at hand. He has promised to do just that as soon as he returns to the country.
"Is It About the Ugep Man?" I chose this title because of the current political vibes in Yakurr. Although very few persons are willing to admit it, influential persons in other Yakurr communities outside Ugep seem to see the Ugep man as the problem of the Yakurr Nation. The Ugep man is perceived as arrogant, selfish and greedy! Donald Duke was sold on this theory to the extent that he spent a greater part of his tenure as Governor of Cross River State repressing Chief Obeten Okorn Obeten, recognizing Bassey Ewa as leader of the PDP in Yakurr over and above Obeten who was the highest political office holder at the time. Mr. Patrick Iwara (who is currently gunning for the Senate) was the most influential Civil Servant from Ugep during that time and he was there when this was happening. I do not know if he willingly facilitated Duke's repression of Obeten, what I do know is that Bassey Ewa was his "godson" at that point in time. Liyel Imoke has been sold on this same theory about the Ugep man to the extent that the only thing he believes about Yakurr is that, which Bassey Ewa tells him! If history were to be repeated, perhaps Mfawa Ofegobi (Member representing Yakurr I constituency in the State House) would have been Yakurr PDP leader as opposed to Bassey Ewa who is the highest political office holder! Yes, that was exactly what happened in Obeten's time.
An objective and dispassionate discourse on Yakurr cannot be complete without looking closely at the man, Bassey Eko Ewa. This is because Bassey, till date remains one of the most successful politicians Yakurr has produced. Two time member, Cross River State House of Assembly, erstwhile Speaker of the same house, current member, Federal House of representatives and leader of the Yakurr PDP from early 2003 till date! An impressive record for a young man from a very humble background. How did he do it? Outside of politics, I am not sure if Bassey ever held a job. He left the Nigerian Law School straight to the State house and has moved from one elective office to another in a vertical fashion. Bassey's world view is therefore deficient since he missed out on the rich experience other young men acquire from trying out a living in differing circumstances. We would return to this shortly.
I first knew Bassey as Usani Uguru Usani's boy. That was the time Usani held sway over Yakurr politics. At the time Usani's political sun was setting, Bassey was already in Obeten Okorn Obeten's camp- ofcourse, Obeten's sun was rising then. Obeten and Usani had parted ways- but both men played key roles in Bassey Ewa's emergence. Patrick Iwara would later join the list of Bassey's political godfathers at that time. Sooner than later, Obeten Okorn Obeten and Patrick Iwara (both, leading Ugep sons) parted ways too during a period I have come to consider as the onset of Obeten's political decline. As you may have guessed, Bassey was already ensconced with Patrick Iwara who at the point was Donald Duke's "eyes and ears" in Yakurr. It was during this time that Ubi Arikpo- Patrick Iwara's protégée- emerged as Yakur LGA chairman through the combined efforts of Patrick Iwara and Bassey Ewa. Their relationship was rosy and cozy- Patrick Iwara was Bassey's cover in the Donald Duke administration. Events took an ugly turn when Ubi Arikpo decided to repeat his tenure as Council chairman. Bassey played along with Patrick Iwara on the Ubi Arikpo project, but had other ideas in mind- Ubi Itam Ettah (Bomboi). Donald Duke was out and Patrick Iwara's hold on Bassey died. Today, Bassey has new masters- Elder Bolagi Annani and Liyel Imoke, both from Abi LGA. Needless to say that Patrick Iwara and this two have no functional working relationship. There is a pattern here that I find curious and at the same time disturbing. Each of the Yakurr sons that contributed to Bassey's political career ended up politically irrelevant as soon as Bassey climbs to the next rung on the ladder. Is this a coincidence? Could it be that Bassey sacrifices other prominent Yakurr sons and daughters on the alter of his own political advancement? If that be true, then there is cause for alarm. If that be true, then by the time Bassey gets to where ever he has planned to get to politically, Yakurr would have been politically dead, since all prominent Yakurr politicians would have been sucked into the vortex of his political ambitions!
Let us keep aside Bassey's political advancement tactics for now and closely look at his role in the recent PDP primaries for LG Chairmen and Counselors in Yakurr. I will comment on these events from my understanding of what happened. In 2006, I told my then political mentor, Chief Obeten Okorn Obeten that I wanted to run for the Chairmanship position of Yakurr LGA in the PDP. Little did I know then, that he was fighting for his own life within the PDP. He asked me not to run. His reasons were that running for elective office requires 3 things that one must posses to be successful- money (a lot of it), charisma and popularity. He said I had no money, but I can run if I just wanted to test my charisma and popularity. I saw this as a challenge and took it head on. I ran for the position under the Action Congress (AC) banner. The rest is history and someday we would talk about it. As a build up to the elections, and as part of my wide consultations, I had a meeting with Bassey Eko Ewa one evening in Calabar. Present at that meeting was my then Campaign Manager (Kennedy Ubi Ibiang). I asked Bassey for his support and told him that all I needed was for the elections to be free and fair. Bassey informed me then, that Cross River is a PDP state and he was key to having Sir Patrick Otu as the State Electoral Commission (CROSIEC) Chairman. That CROSIEC would do his bidding despite my popularity. I thought he was bluffing at that time, but it came to pass that while election materials were carted away to Ofem Ikpi's house in Ekori- leaving the electorate no opportunity to vote, Bomboi was declared winner a few days after by CROSIEC! Bassey had shown the Yakurr people what he is capable of doing. Nobody spoke up against this rape of the Yakurr people. It was Bob Tee's problem. We forgot that an injustice not redressed paves way to another injustice.
After the elections, I packed my bags and headed to Abuja where I had left my family for several months. My decision was to leave Yakurr politics alone and focus on my self and family. It was not to be. Bennard Eno Inah (Bassey's aide) and a some of my supporters put pressure on me to return to the PDP since in their reasoning, it would be easier to change the system from inside. One year after the elections, I finally gave in during a meeting brokered between Bassey and I in Calabar by Bennard. Bassey was excited! The stubborn and troublesome Bob Tee has come to his side without any political demands. I knew from the beginning that my venture into the PDP was going to be a test of my will against Bassey's. I pushed these thoughts aside and publicly re-declared for the PDP in my ward (Ijom) early in 2010. Thereafter, I made a public declaration at the Chapter level of the PDP. So, today, I am a card carrying member of the PDP.
Once in the PDP, I started courting and deepening my relationship with Bassey, whom I discovered was the Yakurr PDP itself. On one occasion, I had a meeting with him at his office in the National Assembly complex in Abuja. Present at that meeting with me were Sebastine Eko and Emmanuel Ofontem (Ojukwu). That was when Bassey first told us his desire for Ubi Itam Ettah to get a second term in council. We didn't like the idea and told him so. He tried to convince us of Ettah's achievements in office, that boiled down to the building of an abattoir that is unused and the completion of the Yakur LGA guest house. Both projects we argued had no impact on the people and that they do not reflect the amount of funding the LGA receives on a monthly basis. Bassey stuck to his guns because he had already convinced Liyel Imoke that the only Yakurr man who can protect the Governor's interests in Yakurr is Ettah! The rest of the events that took place where designed to actualize Bassey's sole desire to impose Ubi Itam Ettah on the Yakurr people. The formation of the Yakurr PDP caucus, the zoning arrangement that excluded other smaller Yakurr communities from the process and pitted the Ijom man against constituency II, the blood letting that attended the primaries in Ugep and the eventual emergence of Ettah as the PDP flag bearer in Yakurr.
In all these, Bassey did not pause for once to ponder on the future implications of his actions. In one of my discussions with Yibala Inyang (Dumbra), Bassey's bossom friend, I tried to have him explain to me the reason for Bassey's fixation on Ettah's return to council despite the public outcry against him. Dumbra was as dumbfounded as I was. Dumbra actually had intentions of running for that office but for what I could glean from him, Bassey resorted to subtle blackmail and references to their long standing friendship to intimidate Dumbra out of his ambitions. The future will tell if Dumbra did the right thing by chickening out. More questions: Is Bassey's desperation to return Ettah to council as chairman based on Ettah's past performance in office? Does Bassey have the right to be the judge of Ettah's performance on behalf of the entire Yakurr? If Ettah is so qualified, why is Bassey scared of an open, fair and just primary election that would give other contenders within the PDP a fair chance?Are Bassey and his allies sharing from Ettah's loot of council funds? Is Bassey part of a wider conspiracy to politically nail the Yakurr man through a puppet council chairman who cares only about doing the bidding of some forces from outside Yakurr?
These are all questions that we must consider and hope that if Bassey reads this, he should provide us convincing answers. Yakurr has no leader currently. Bassey is not the Yakurr leader. He is the PDP leader in Yakurr. I would have expected that his position as PDP leader should provide him the opportunity to prove to Yakurr people that this generation can provide meaningful leadership to the people. He still has that opportunity, but the onus lies on him.
In our next and concluding discuss, we would examine the status of the Yakurr youth and the role he has played in all these.
Let us keep aside Bassey's political advancement tactics for now and closely look at his role in the recent PDP primaries for LG Chairmen and Counselors in Yakurr. I will comment on these events from my understanding of what happened. In 2006, I told my then political mentor, Chief Obeten Okorn Obeten that I wanted to run for the Chairmanship position of Yakurr LGA in the PDP. Little did I know then, that he was fighting for his own life within the PDP. He asked me not to run. His reasons were that running for elective office requires 3 things that one must posses to be successful- money (a lot of it), charisma and popularity. He said I had no money, but I can run if I just wanted to test my charisma and popularity. I saw this as a challenge and took it head on. I ran for the position under the Action Congress (AC) banner. The rest is history and someday we would talk about it. As a build up to the elections, and as part of my wide consultations, I had a meeting with Bassey Eko Ewa one evening in Calabar. Present at that meeting was my then Campaign Manager (Kennedy Ubi Ibiang). I asked Bassey for his support and told him that all I needed was for the elections to be free and fair. Bassey informed me then, that Cross River is a PDP state and he was key to having Sir Patrick Otu as the State Electoral Commission (CROSIEC) Chairman. That CROSIEC would do his bidding despite my popularity. I thought he was bluffing at that time, but it came to pass that while election materials were carted away to Ofem Ikpi's house in Ekori- leaving the electorate no opportunity to vote, Bomboi was declared winner a few days after by CROSIEC! Bassey had shown the Yakurr people what he is capable of doing. Nobody spoke up against this rape of the Yakurr people. It was Bob Tee's problem. We forgot that an injustice not redressed paves way to another injustice.
After the elections, I packed my bags and headed to Abuja where I had left my family for several months. My decision was to leave Yakurr politics alone and focus on my self and family. It was not to be. Bennard Eno Inah (Bassey's aide) and a some of my supporters put pressure on me to return to the PDP since in their reasoning, it would be easier to change the system from inside. One year after the elections, I finally gave in during a meeting brokered between Bassey and I in Calabar by Bennard. Bassey was excited! The stubborn and troublesome Bob Tee has come to his side without any political demands. I knew from the beginning that my venture into the PDP was going to be a test of my will against Bassey's. I pushed these thoughts aside and publicly re-declared for the PDP in my ward (Ijom) early in 2010. Thereafter, I made a public declaration at the Chapter level of the PDP. So, today, I am a card carrying member of the PDP.
Once in the PDP, I started courting and deepening my relationship with Bassey, whom I discovered was the Yakurr PDP itself. On one occasion, I had a meeting with him at his office in the National Assembly complex in Abuja. Present at that meeting with me were Sebastine Eko and Emmanuel Ofontem (Ojukwu). That was when Bassey first told us his desire for Ubi Itam Ettah to get a second term in council. We didn't like the idea and told him so. He tried to convince us of Ettah's achievements in office, that boiled down to the building of an abattoir that is unused and the completion of the Yakur LGA guest house. Both projects we argued had no impact on the people and that they do not reflect the amount of funding the LGA receives on a monthly basis. Bassey stuck to his guns because he had already convinced Liyel Imoke that the only Yakurr man who can protect the Governor's interests in Yakurr is Ettah! The rest of the events that took place where designed to actualize Bassey's sole desire to impose Ubi Itam Ettah on the Yakurr people. The formation of the Yakurr PDP caucus, the zoning arrangement that excluded other smaller Yakurr communities from the process and pitted the Ijom man against constituency II, the blood letting that attended the primaries in Ugep and the eventual emergence of Ettah as the PDP flag bearer in Yakurr.
In all these, Bassey did not pause for once to ponder on the future implications of his actions. In one of my discussions with Yibala Inyang (Dumbra), Bassey's bossom friend, I tried to have him explain to me the reason for Bassey's fixation on Ettah's return to council despite the public outcry against him. Dumbra was as dumbfounded as I was. Dumbra actually had intentions of running for that office but for what I could glean from him, Bassey resorted to subtle blackmail and references to their long standing friendship to intimidate Dumbra out of his ambitions. The future will tell if Dumbra did the right thing by chickening out. More questions: Is Bassey's desperation to return Ettah to council as chairman based on Ettah's past performance in office? Does Bassey have the right to be the judge of Ettah's performance on behalf of the entire Yakurr? If Ettah is so qualified, why is Bassey scared of an open, fair and just primary election that would give other contenders within the PDP a fair chance?Are Bassey and his allies sharing from Ettah's loot of council funds? Is Bassey part of a wider conspiracy to politically nail the Yakurr man through a puppet council chairman who cares only about doing the bidding of some forces from outside Yakurr?
These are all questions that we must consider and hope that if Bassey reads this, he should provide us convincing answers. Yakurr has no leader currently. Bassey is not the Yakurr leader. He is the PDP leader in Yakurr. I would have expected that his position as PDP leader should provide him the opportunity to prove to Yakurr people that this generation can provide meaningful leadership to the people. He still has that opportunity, but the onus lies on him.
In our next and concluding discuss, we would examine the status of the Yakurr youth and the role he has played in all these.
4 comments:
The second series of the Essays of Bob Tee on the political imbroglio and conundrum on Yakurr was as explosive and controversial as the first which is still generating intense interest in Yakurr. It certainly ruffled some political feathers and stirred controversial in the different political camps and factions which the PDP has splintered into in Yakurr. One of the first people that confronted me was Mr. Francis Ubi Lekam, a well known Community Leader and Opinion in Ugep who is a known protégé of Chief Obeten Okorn.
Mr. Lekam confronted me in my father’s house in Ugep on Saturday the 17th July, 2010 when he tersely asked me ‘’ Have you seen what Bob Tee wrote about Chief Okorn? I answered in the affirmative and told him I had written a rejoinder to it. He had grumbled what on earth Bob Tee should write such a thing about Chief. I answered that I do not see anything wrong with why Bob Tee has written. I told him what Bob Tee wrote was the truth nothing but truth. The next person was Mr. Neil Offem, the irrepressible Editor of the X-Ray Newspaper; which opinion was similar to the one Mr. Lekam had expressed. Apparently he too was not happy but I told him that Bob Tee was in order and that who ever is not happy with what Bob Tee had said should feel free to write a rejoinder rather than castigating him in the true spirit of democracy.
The next person that confronted me was Dr. Dan Abubukar. He called me on Friday to express his reaction to my rejoinder to Bob Tee’s essay. He had commended me firstly but when he wrote me an email his reaction was different. He accused me of being bitter and too hard on some political leaders who are not my friends in his reckoning. He thereafter commended me for my various contributions to national discourse and promised to engage me any time we meet face to face. I replied to the email telling Dr. Abubukar that I was not bitter and do not harbour and hatred against anybody but that was merely expressing my personal opinion in very passionate way which I have the right to do. I told Dan Abubukar that I had never being a bitter man but a jolly good fellow despite all the disappointments. It is pertinent to reproduce the email sent to me by Dr. Dan Abubukar thus:
This is very interesting. The trend of yakurr politics must change and for the better. We are experiencing a purposeful wind of change just as we know that purposeful governance is key to yakurr development. Facts as itemised in thisessay is mind bugging. The Ugep man in yakurr politics, Central Senatorial district and Cross River state is like the eyeball. It is unfortunate for the ugep pawns that have over time been used sacrificially for the upliftment of others ambitions. The same old stategy of causing in-fighting amongs Ugep lads which manifest in segmentation and divisions of our focus, strenght of numbers and vision is still working. the ugep man is a force but that force has remained weak even politically. I feel pain and shame that the yakurr have succeeded in killing their political strenght selfishly by the thinking and creation of the"UGEP-MAN" as percieved to be different from the yakurr man as well as a threat to the Yakurr man as well. We are brothers , Let us forge a common front and save the great yakurr by encouraging fair politiking, good governance and purposeful leadership.
Okoi Obono Obla's contribution is great and welcoming, as it calls for more collections that may come as criticisms or commendations. Why is Dr Dan personalising the issue? I advice he makes his contributions public if he sure has one so we can all digest it in the same spirit.
Well-done Bobby T, I am witing for the third series as well as the response of the PDP Leader Bassey Ewah. I reserve my concerns, an early response would have done him well as he would have cleared some greys before more unpleasant comments, moreover it is online which does not require his comming back before a comment however WE PRAY FOR UNITY AND GROWTH OF YAKURR
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