By Patrick Odey
A former spokesperson for the House of Representatives and All Progressives Congress candidate for Eket Federal Constituency in Akwa Ibom State, Mr Eseme Eyiboh, tells PATRICK ODEY his views on the quality of legislative engagements at the National Assembly
You represented the Eket federal constituency at the House of Representatives between 2007 and 2011, why do you want to return to the Green Chamber?
I was there for one term and my efforts to go for a second term then met with a lot of political issues associated with the party primaries. But while I was there, I had robust legislative engagements that culminated in a series of positive developments for my constituency. Today, everybody is talking about Information and Communications Technology, I built and equipped two ICT centres and brought in experts to train our young people. One of the centres is in Akpautong village in Esit Eket and the other one is at Afai Atai in Eket. I built a library in Ibeno and equipped it, and it’s there till date. The ICT centres were furnished with computer sets and the trainees were receiving allowances. The trainers were also paid allowances to encourage them. But today, the centres have been vandalised. You can imagine the benefits that would have accrued to the people if those centres were still available. So, I want to return to the National Assembly to use my networks and capacity to bring to bear in my federal constituency the possibilities that abound in this federation. For example, the Petroleum Industry Act is the creation of parliament, you need somebody with high-level awareness, capacity and understanding to represent the constituency in this regard and understand the interplay in the implementation of the PIA. The responsibilities of the National Assembly are lawmaking, oversight and appropriation. You need someone who understands the gamut of legislative politics and political character to leverage and bring the benefits to their people. Of all the people contesting, I am the most qualified.
You earlier mentioned that your plan to return to the chamber was hampered by some political issues. What were those issues?
They were issues that have to do with the party. The primary was conducted in Eket, and it was in compliance with the extant Electoral Act then (in 2011). Politicians for who they are went and produced another list and my name was not there. I went to court and I won at the trial court. They went on appeal and a lot of intrigues happened along the line and the matter got to the Supreme Court, in the case of Eyiboh vs Abia. The Supreme Court decided that the political party has the responsibility to choose who becomes a candidate and my political party then was the Peoples Democratic Party, which of course became a behemoth of all kinds of people. That was how I lost the matter. Thank God I didn’t complete the second term because that gave other people the opportunity to be there and people have been able to compare and contrast the entire representation.
Was that experience the reason you dumped the party?
The PDP as at the time I joined was a party that was recruiting future leaders of the country but the founding fathers of the PDP gradually became influenced by the government. These people are silent attackers. The individuals became larger than the party. I saw APC as a party made of people that are very resistant to the atrocities and the negative dispositions of the PDP, so I saw APC as an emergence of a vehicle that will be ready to drive the process of social justice. So far so good I have no regrets.
