Gov. Imoke of Cross River under fire

Posted by admin Cross River, Headlines, Raw Politics, State News Sunday, July 17th, 2011

THE Governor of Cross River State, Senator Liyel Imoke may find it difficult to return as governor of the state in next year’s election if he does not put his house in order. The talk is that the state chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is in serious crisis due to the inability of the Governor to appease all the political zones in the state.
National Daily reliably gathered that the party is divided between Imoke loyalists and those who feel that Imoke, former Governor, Donald Duke and a friend of the two Mr. Geshom Bassey, chairman of the State Water Board are taking the state PDP chapter for granted. There are strong reasons, the opposing faction is insisting, to believe that the three men have worked out a succession plan which contradicts the zoning arrangement already in existence in the state.

The zoning pattern suggests that key positions that may come to the state be shared among the three recognized zones in the state: North, South and Central. And the positions are those of the Governor of the State, Deputy Governor and any ministerial slot from the federal level. But there are suspicions that Imoke, Duke and Bassey, also referred to as the three musketeers, have their own prearranged agreement to exchange baton as Governor of the state upon the expiration of term of whomsoever is serving. The plan many believed was brokered when Duke emerged governor of in 1999.

And the plan has almost come to fruition. Duke from the South has served as Governor, passed the baton to Imoke from the Central and barring the arrangement, the next governor of the State should come from the North, but the existing arrangement among the three men may see the next governor of the state coming from the South again in the person of Bassey. Such a development is what a faction of the state PDP is trying to forestall.

Divided House
They have seen the writing on the wall and they are not pleased. The zoning arrangement believed to be in existence in the State chapter of the PDP ensures that the governor designate should be nominated as a Minister in the federal cabinet in order for such to acquire the political clout and popularity necessary to contest successfully for the position and instead of Imoke to field a credible candidate from the North, he decided to field a female in the person of Martina Odom. The aggrieved people of the area believed such a nomination does not augur well for the zone and thus kicked against it. Although the nomination of Odom has been withdrawn, there are suspicions that Imoke may still nominate a weak candidate that will not be able to withstand the political and financial clout of Bassey, the man believed to be in charge of strategic World Bank funded projects in the state.

They are also peeved that Imoke has not demonstrated enough willingness to lobby for a strong ministerial post for the state; he is rather contended with the Minister of State portfolio, rather than a substantive portfolio. They believed that Imoke intentionally squandered the good fortune that was presented to him as the South-South Zonal Co-ordinator of President Goodluck Jonathan during the run up to the last April election, and also the opportunity of the choice of Obudu Cattle Ranch as the President’s choice of relaxation spot where he held strategic meetings on ministerial appointments, just to protect the prearranged emergence of Bassey as Governor.
The people that are feeling the slight the most are the indigenes of Ogoja/Bekwera Local government. They believe that the botched choice of Odom from Yala, and a possible replacement with the State Secretary to the Government (SSG) in Imoke’s administration, Mr. Fidelis Ugbo from the Obudu axis may not present the true picture.
Already, preparations are being made by some aggrieved party members to switch to the opposition in order to stall Imoke’s return to the State House in next year’s gubernatorial election.

Imoke’s inability to pacify defeated aspirants in the last elections with appointments and most political stalwarts that supported him and the fact that he has been keeping the same set of people in government has worsened his political fortune.

The extension
It would be recalled that a Federal High Court in Abuja last February opened a new chapter in the tenure of state governors when it ruled that five state chief executives, who won rerun elections in 2008, started their administration from the date of their last inauguration.
The verdict was at the instance of the consolidated suits filed by the governors of Adamawa, Bayelsa, Cross River, Kogi, and Sokoto states against the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP’s) move to conduct the April governorship elections when they were yet to complete their four-year tenure.

Justice Adamu Bello, who granted the governors’ pleas, stopped INEC from holding the April 2011 governorship polls in the five states, declaring that their tenure started in 2008 and shall end in 2012.

The court further put paid to the ambitions of all the governorship candidates from the various political parties to occupy the Government Houses in the five states, saying there was no vacancy in them.
It held that all actions taken by INEC to conduct governorship polls in the states were no more binding on the political parties and governors.

Consequently, Governors Ibrahim Idris (Kogi), Aliyu Wammakko (Sokoto), Muritala Nyako (Adamawa), Liyel Imoke (Cross River) and Timipre Sylva (Bayelsa) are to remain in office till 2012 as their re-election took place in 2008.
The court declared that their tenure shall not expire until sometimes next year, adding that INEC could only hold governorship elections in the states 60 days to the end of the affected governors’ tenure.wp_posts