The dust of 2020 local government elections in Akwa Ibom State has been raised and subsequently settled by purported selection rather than elections of Saturday, 31st October, 2020.
The concatenation of events before the elections had pointed out that the leadership structure of Akwa Ibom State and that of the ruling party have always been short of ideas to make a paradigm shift in giving back the hoi polloi the opportunity to participate in indirect democracy practiced in modern states of the world today.
Just as it was seen in Biblical Belshazzar's "Mene Mene Tekel Upharsin", the just concluded selection process of LGA chairmen and local lawmakers are squished process where the political class in the state have dissected the political power and share it among themselves without listening to the yearning of the people, thereby leaving democracy in destruction.
No wonder Senator Effiong Bob once made a daring statement that was greeted by backlashes by those in power, while those with a wider perspective of how today's politics has become a roundtable divide and conquer, applauded Effiong Bob for telling himself and his colleagues the open secret truth.
If Akwaibomites will agree with what occurred in the just concluded selection process of LGA chairmen and councilors across the 31 local government area of the state, they will certainly agree that the process seemed a rather preplanned one where the state political actors sat on a roundtable and map out plans of installing their minions who are only after the title of CHAIRMAN and COUNCILOR rather than having what to offer the people they represent.
At the moment, the selection (elections) has been conducted by state electoral umpire (AKIESIEC) who's position in processes of elections seemed premeditated as they have made it looked like a robotic movement whose steps is easily predicted by the inventor.
Now flip your pages of the elections to three years ahead (2023), you will indubitably see that these chairmen and councilors won't have any effective representation in their respective local governments.
Reasons being that; they were selected and not elected
They never had laid out plans of giving the grassroots good representations.
Most of them are errand boys who's master count the balance at the pay of salary and other incentives coming in to the council.
They are also there to facilitate some hideous agenda for achieving the goals of their political oracles.
These and many more....
Whoever planned this selection process do not mean well for the growth of democracy in the Akwa Ibom state, do not breath healthy competition which is the thrust of politics in a democratic settings, and the people were disenfranchised in the process.
But for now, let's watch and keep our scorecards handy as we stake stock of performance of this rubber stamp selection like elections process in Akwa Ibom State.
✍️ Patrick Ekong
Comments
Post a Comment