Barrister Ini Ekpo, a legal practitioner and lead counsel for Reigners Bible Church at the Commission of Inquiry, is the All Progressive Congress (APC) Chairmanship candidate for Mkpat Enin Local Government Council in the forthcoming Local Government Elections in the state. In a chat with Darlington David, he speaks of APC’s plan to tackle corruption at the grassroots, his role at the Reigners Church saga, the assassination attempt on him and his intention to run for the Mkpan Enin Chairmanship and sundry matters. Excerpts
No one would have expected you to be interested in grassroots’ politics let alone running for the Chairmanship of Mkpat Enin Local Government Council. Why the aspiration?
The reason is due to the fact that for some time now, people from my Local Government Area have been aspiring and actually became Chairmen of the council, they made promises, they put on the table a lot of things they claimed they were going to do when they become chairmen, unfortunately my people have been continually disappointed by these men because none of them has ever been able to keep to such promises. People who had become Chairmen in Mkpat Enin Local Government Area, where I come from failed to practice what they preached. They get in there and forget about the people and become sponsors of their own selves. So my aspiration is driven by my desire to give an exemplary leadership to the people of Mkpat Enin, and a template for the entire state. To channel a next line of governance for subsequent administrations in the area, I am driven by patriotism and service.
Mkpat Enin has four political blocs and I am aware they stick tightly with the zoning arrangement in the area, is your Ward favoured by the zoning arrangement?
My aspiration is in line with that zoning fomular. The chairmanship rotation is going to Ukpum Minya Clan, which is my Clan and up till now, we have not had any issue arising from zoning. It is something we have practiced for years and we live with it. So my aspiration has satisfied that condition.
Your party recently alleged that the PDP will hijack the election at the LG level, how certain are you of victory?
Well, I like the language you have chosen; ‘hijack’ it simply mean that which is illegal, not lawful. The time has come for us to say enough is enough! We now have that government in power at the national level, the APC government under the leadership of president Buhari. He is against such, which is part of corruption the man is preaching against, not only preaching, he is also practicing it. So this is another way of giving him a lending hand to say that what you are doing, we appreciate. We want to take the fight against corruption to the grassroots’ level. Some persons who are used to hijacking may be getting ready to do so, but will be disappointed this time. And if you give me the opportunity, I will like to give you an example of Sampson in the bible. He was such a strong personality, so strong that he was able to handed a lion, but at a point in his life, he did not have such power again, when he wanted to display it, he found out that such powers have deserted him.
So I think the PDP has suffered that fate, unknown to them they have lost that strength, that power in this regime. They may still be calling themselves PDP but without power. This time around, they need the power to be able to hijack the ballot papers, they need the power to run away with materials, they need the power to forge documents, this time around they will find out that they do not have such powers again. So what we are going to do is to depend on merit and on the voice of the people, if they agree and vote us in, nothing will take that away from us. We will be ready and strong enough to defend our mandate to the highest level. So take it from me and let the world know, that APC of our time is determined to fight corruption and injustice. If we fail the election, it would simply mean that the people did not vote for us. We will not allow the excuse that someone ran away with the material to draw us back.
Can you lead us into your blueprint to know what to expect if you are given the mandate?
Well, I gave my blueprint to my political party and they were satisfied before allowing me to bear the flag of the party. I have presented it to my people and I wouldn’t want to further expose it so that the opposition would not hijack it.
Mkpat Enin is one of the frontline beneficiaries of the Udom Emmanuel’s industrialization policy by virtue of the Coconut Industry, why complain?
I disagree with you that we are beneficiaries of this government. What has coconut done for anybody in my Local government area? Have you seen any beneficiary of that project? Just take a ride as if you are going to Eastern Obolo, you will sight those things they call coconut. They are like dead palms, stunted to the ground, a lot are dead and stunted. Nobody is doing anything there. They just went in there, take over people’s land and decided to plant coconut. Is there any compound in Mkpat Enin that does not have coconut? Was that anybody’s need in that area? You see! That is what we are saying, that a project must be intelligently planned and directed to meet the actual need of the people.
APC is seen to be responsible for the hardship Nigerians are currently facing as the party is seen not to be working out its electioneering promises; do you think this political party will fly in rural Akwa Ibom?
First of all let me correct the impression that APC is not working. When you say APC is not working, I want to know where and to the extent to which they are not working. Let’s come back to our state, if you say APC is not working, I like to say that there is no change in the state because APC is not in charge of the affairs of Akwa Ibom State. So we cannot blame what is happening now on APC. What we are seeing here is not good enough; it simply means we need change. For example we have a government that is attracting so much revenue from the federal allocation; it is in the forefront of states having high revenues in this country. And all that the government could do with such money is to open a syringe factory, open a toothpick factory, and open a pencil factory. Now let me ask you a question; when was the last time that toothpick was your problem in this state? When was the last time that pencil was your problem? When last was syringe your problem? It is not as if these items are not important, but the items are in the list or a category that is too cheap that even the poorest human being can afford. So if these are not problems of people of this state, and you make factories of them, then you have solved problems of no one. Even the poorest person can afford even 100 pencils for his children. The poorest person can afford toothpick.
So why should you go and concentrate on areas that cannot benefit the people? Now let’s come to the allegation that APC has failed in this country. You would agree with me that it is easier to destroy than to build. Now if the PDP used 16 years to destroy, don’t you think it will take more years to build? You cannot build all that they destroyed within 2-3 years, even if it’s a miracle. If you want to blame this government you have to know that it is a Democratic dispensation, where everything works according to protocol. For any democratic government to succeed, you must take charge of the legislature.
Now, this government was fortunate to have won election in the executive, in the national assembly, they have the majority in both chambers, but they were hijacked even before the inauguration of the national assembly by some few discontented persons. So the present government does not have that weapon in the legislature to carry out what it wants, it cannot do it because they are always there to dismantle every effort. It’s now like a bad marriage; it appears to exist but not just there. So that is the problem we have, but in spite of that, the government at the center still decided to go on with it plan. There was a time an American Institution predicted that Nigeria will cease to exist in 2015, I tell you that if this particular person did not come up as the President, that prediction would have come to pass. Some individuals became richer than the state or even nation; they had so much money in their purse than those in circulation. What did they do? They started financing arms, purchasing ammunitions, cause chaos so that people would not go after them, but the government said no! We must fight corruption for the first time in the history of Nigeria. Even justices of the Supreme Court and High Courts were indicted. We have never had it so good. For any government to have had the audacity to do that, it should be applauded.
So, fight against corruption is the starting point of any form of development. And see another reason the government is not seen to be living up to expectation; being a Democratic dispensation, when you arrest people and charge them with corruption, you still have to hand them over to the judiciary, but they have not been able to help this government because each time you take corrupt politicians there, they set them free! That is the problem we have. But as a party, APC is trying.
One of the affected items in the recently concluded constitution amendment is the issue of Local government autonomy. As one who is eyeing that level of government, what would that mean for the grassroots?
It is most desirable. I know that so many Nigerians wanted it to happen. We were so thankful to God that it happened because anything short of that would have been collusion. That is why someone like me is stepping into the Local Government Area to show an example. Because at that point in turn, there will be no longer any excuse that there was no money. The LG administration will now have finances to drive infrastructural development. And I want to make Mkpat Enin an example for the rest of the LGAs in this state, to let the people know that Local Government Areas can actually embark on capital projects. If all that is due you is coming to you, it would be very easy to do all that is needed to do to develop the grassroots. So I support LG autonomy and I am grateful it passed.
Nigeria @ 57, how have we fared?
A fool at 40 is a fool forever. I think we are farer away from where we came from and we are nearer to the Promised Land than where we came from. I know we have not yet arrived, but we have come a long way, owing to the nature of our challenges of corruption, challenges of call for cessation and challenges of vandalism of our lean resources. I think the government of the day is handling the aspect of corruption very meaningfully.
You are a highly respected lawyer of over 20 years standing, can you tell us what informed your decision to defend a Pastor whose church collapse led to the highest number of casualties ever recorded in this state, during the panel of inquiry?
The purpose of that panel of inquiry was to unearth the immediate and remote causes of that collapse church building. Could the church have been particularly guilty? Or what really happened? As we speak now, I sympathize with the families of those who lost their lives and like you have said, that incident recorded the highest victims in this state, People died! I’m sure you know that. However, the report is yet to come to the public, so to that extent I wouldn’t say much about this but what I would tell you is that the tribunal is going to come up with a report that will satisfy everyone. Those who went and saw what happened got evidence and facts that a lot of things went wrong with the technical inputs which the church should not take responsibility for. You would see that the walls or building is still intact, what actually collapsed was the roof. The church caused the panel to know that they had about seven persons who bided for the construction of the roof, and the contract was given to the highest bidder because he said he wanted the most effective work. They were almost the best in the country; the church went ahead and paid. So the church had no way of supervising professionals, it was not done free of charge, they did not use unskilled labourers, they went for the best hands, the Reigners Church collapse was nobody’s fault, it failed everybody. So to that extent for me, I would like everyone to wait for the report of the committee.
You were attacked and shot shortly after sittings of the panel, are you sure it was not connected with the unpopular position you took?
I wish I knew the culprit. The people that shot me told me that they were detailed to take my life, and I asked them why, they said I should ask those who sent them. I don’t know those who sent them but I thank God I survived. Well, God just wanted to keep my life because I was already killed. The life I have now is a new life God has given to me, because everything that should have been done to kill a man was done to me. They wanted to take me and my wife but I begged them to leave my wife, they asked me to tell her my last word and then they shot severally into my chest. All I know was that they were hired assassins, so I thank God he saves my life.
You are making case for Nsima Ekere come 2019, are you satisfied with his performance as MD of the NDDC so far?
The Nsima Ekere-led NDDC has done more than enough, so much that the people of the entire Niger Delta region are satisfied. There are streets that were not assessible for over 10-25 years in this Uyo, but today they are express. Not that there was no NDDC before now, but because the man in charge now loves the region and his state, he has passion for what he is doing. If he can handle nine states satisfactorily, then it is his kind of leader that we need for Akwa Ibom. Before now people did not know the usefulness of NDDC, but now they are appreciating it because of the man in charge. He performed to a level that the state government at a point became intimidated and started claiming to have awarded some of the roads he was doing, till today; we have not seen them touch such areas. We are proud of him as our own distinguished son. He is handling a very tedious office which personally I would not like to, because of its tasking nature, but he is handling it very effectively.
