The Ejagham Federation, an ethnic group found in eight local government areas across the three senatorial districts of Cross River State, has formally declared support for the candidature of Senator (Prince) Bassey Otu of the All Progressives Congress, APC, for the 2023 governorship election holding on March 11, against the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Senator Sandy Onor.
The group’s formal declaration of support for Otu’s gubernatorial aspiration was announced at a World Press Conference organised by the Ejagham Federation and attended by delegates from Bakassi, Akpabuyo, Calabar Municipal, Odukpani, Akamkpa, Etung, Ikom and Ogoja local government areas.
The conference was convened to appraise “the unfortunate elevation of ethnic argument in the 2023 gubernatorial election in Cross River State.”
After a proper examination of the historical, political and social dimensions of the development, the group insisted that ethnicity cannot have a place in the 2023 Cross River governorship poll even as it maintained that the zoning arrangement, which has been followed since 1999 must be adhered to.
Speaking at the conference, a highly respected politician from Cross River Central and leader of the Ejagham Federation, distinguished Senator Victor Ndoma-Egba, SAN, wondered why anyone would want to use the Ejagham identity to play politics.
Ndoma-Egba, a former Senate Leader and erstwhile Chairman of the board of the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, said, “Dr Joseph Okey of blessed memory was appointed to succeed Hon. Ekok Ojogu, as the head of the Ejagham Cultural Association. Dr. Okey was appointed simply because it was thought that he had no political ambition. This was a man who had just come back from Germany, was still speaking the Ejagham language very fluently and had an oyibo wife. So we thought he had no political ambition. Unfortunately, as soon as he assumed the headship, he now saw the power of the movement and thought he could deploy it for politics. This is not the first time we are trying to use Ejagham identity for politics. The first time was by Dr. Okey, and it failed. It will fail again.”
Dr. Okey had contested for the governorship of Cross River State in 1991, with Ndoma-Egba, Wilfred Inah, John Egbe, Linus Bisong and Clement Ebri, who eventually emerged the governor then.
The former Senate Leader further said, “Looking at this array of Ejagham people, I don’t remember when we met to say we should produce the governor. I have not attended any such meeting. I know nobody here attended any such meeting. Even if an Ejaghjam person must be governor, it should be an Ejagham person from the South. It cannot be anything less than that. Now, I hear one of our brothers is using that for his politics. He has written extensively on Ejagham culture and history. If we had started the process of this renaissance long before now, not on the eve of elections in which he is a candidate, the motive may have been more honourable and less self-serving.”
In a communique of the meeting of the delegates of Ejagham Federation, signed and read by the convener of the conference, Mr. Hilliard Etta, it was observed that “all the ethnic groups in Cross River State have before now witnessed peaceful and harmonious co-existence before, during and after every electioneering cycle; such harmony has come about through unwritten but widely consensual agreements on a three-zone structure of the state; the three-zone structure naturally presented a fluid process of power rotation among the zones, providing as it has always done, the very foundation for common understanding, peace and cohesion; following the principle of rotation of the position of state governor, and taking into consideration the completion of the first cycle of rotation in which all the three zones o the state have produced a governor each in Mr. Donald Duke (South, 1999 – 2007), Senator Liyel Imoke (Central, 2007- 2015 ), and Senator Ben Ayade (North, 2015 – 2023), it is only just, fair and proper to give the South an unchallenged opportunity to produce the next governor of the state.”
Following the various observations of members at the conference, the group declared “THAT the Ejagham Federation fully supports the principle of zoning and the rotation of positions at all levels, as well as the BACK-TO-SOUTH Movement in the election of a candidate for governor, which is an expression of it; THAT because it is unreasonable and ultimately self-destructive for Ejagham people to go against the tide and lose out in the distribution of democratic dividends in the coming dispensation, we support totally the legitimate BACK-TO-SOUTH clamour by Governor Ayade, as well as the generality of Cross Riverians and the candidacy of Ntufam Senator Prince Bassey Otu for election as governor of Cross River State; THAT all Ejagham sons and daughters should purge themselves of the sentiments of injustice in our desire to produce a governor in the state, as no ethnic group is capable of that. Rather, we urge ourselves to begin by building viable bridges across the length and breadth of Ejagham Federation, awaken consciousness and enter into genuine negotiations with other ethnic groups, as a way of life, rather than invoking Ejagham sentiments on the eve of every gubernatorial election.”
