Akanimo Udofia: Learning Politics the Hard Way

Somebody needs to write a comprehensive book about politics in Nigeria, explaining in great detail that there is a way politics is done here than what is obtainable in other civilised nations of the world. Then a copy should be sent to the governorship candidate for the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Akwa Ibom State, Akanimo Udofia. Otherwise, the man will continue to fall into the gap between what is obtainable in Nigeria’s politics and what should be.

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has released the list of qualified candidates and parties for the Akwa Ibom election slated for 2023. Curiously, Udofia’s name was not included. But it is not a personal swing at him, no. The INEC list appears to indicate that the APC does not have a candidate yet, so they may not be allowed to participate in the forthcoming election.

A few weeks ago, Udofia was announced as the winner of the APC governorship primary in Akwa Ibom. According to the election committee’s report, Udofia got 1,227 votes out of 1,313 accredited delegates, which is approximately 93% of all the recognised votes. The remaining 7% of the accredited votes were shared among eight other aspirants, which just shows the fierceness of Udofia’s momentum. Then came the report from INEC that the primary did not hold at all.

INEC’s report came after Akwa Ibom APC released news that Udofia had won. What went wrong? It has now been confirmed that the difference in reports came because INEC did not monitor the APC primary. INEC officials explained that the party conducted the primary in a different location than initially agreed upon. Thus, INEC does not recognise the primary since it did not monitor it.

The battle is still ongoing, so there is still hope for Udofia’s name to be included in INEC’s list. In the meantime, someone needs to get Udofia that book and help him reconcile the APC in Akwa Ibom.