By Nseabasi S. J. KING
Despite the fact that my worldview is not driven by the precept of the evidence of authority, I am still one who is given to reading and will not miss an opportunity to read between the lines.
I am better persuaded by the authority of evidence, because of my personal view and conviction that the best page of any book one will ever read is his mind. Your informed opinion.
I have read more than a handful of authors, including the cerebral William Shakespeare. He had it in one of his opening lines in, As You Like It, that the world is a stage. And this is understandably so. He was a playwright.
But for a democrat, life should be more than just a stage, where like actors we come to play and thereafter walk away. Life is a burden. That you must discharge while you can. Because it revolves. And brings with it a new audience, actors and interestingly, the stage is not always the same.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has just set the stage for the 2019 general elections. And it is a new one. The timetable is different. A new Voters Register is in the offing. New political parties. And there will be independent candidates this time.
The stage is practically reset for Participatory Democracy as underlined by the principle of Term Limits and Periodic Elections. So for me, 2019 in Akwa Ibom State is not about Gov. Udom Emmanuel and those who choose to love him now.
It is about us. The people. Everyone. Universal suffrage. Vox populi Vox dei. It is about our collective destiny in the hands of one man. And we cannot shy away from it. Divine Mandate or another. We must discuss it. So that in the end, all may be well.
This is the democratic template for 2019. It is called Participatory Democracy. And I charge my State Party Chair, Obong Paul Ekpo, to show class and character, and rise to the occasion. We must all sit at The Round Table. I mean all. No more ‘carry-go’ politics. Let no group or individual shave our heads in our absence in any paid ‘carry-go’ advertorial.
Let the man in Oku Iboku have the chance to negotiate for himself a safer Oku Iboku. Let the Akpan Andem market woman have her chance to extract a commitment for a robust loan policy. Let our NAAKIS Worldwide students have their chance to bargain for a fair and reasonable bursary/scholarship grants.
And let aspirant Udom Gabriel Emmanuel, that is if he wishes to seek re-election, and any other gubernatorial aspirant go to the hinterlands of Edem Idim in Ukanafun, make a stop over on the hills of Ekpene Ukpa in Etinan and offer my people a new and better deal than the usual refrain of ‘there is no money in government.’
The enormous, youthful but unengaged human capital in Akwa Ibom State is money. Somebody should deploy it. Spend it. That should be the hallmark that sets apart a financial expert at the helm from a lawyer or an architect. Not blame-shifting. Someone should take responsibility.
And by so doing, he will be offering me and others a good reason not to run.
