Cross River 2023: Zoning Rumble in PDP, APC

By Stanley Ekpenyong, Calabar

The two main political parties – Peoples Democratic Party, PDP and All Progressives Congress, APC, are currently caught in a rotational Governorship debacle in Cross River state.

Chieftains of both parties from the Southern Senatorial District of the State, citing an unwritten charter of equity by the three Senatorial Districts –  North, Central and South- insist its the zone’s turn to produce the next Governor when the incumbent, Professor Ben Ayade’s two-term elapses on May 29, 2023.

However, some interests in both parties hold a different view. According to them, going by the rotational principle, the three zones have had their turns with the election of South’s Governor Donald Duke in 1999, Governor Imoke (Central) in 2007 and Ayade (North) in 2015.

In their view, the next Governor could come from any of the zones the Governorship having gone round the three zones.

In the PDP for instance, it is increasingly becoming clear that zoning is not on the party’s 2023 menu list.

Already, the Senator representing Cross River Central in the Senate, Professor Sandy Onor, has declared his Guber ambition and from the look of things, it appears he has the backing of the State’s chapter of the party, the reason perhaps, Cross River Chairman of the opposition party, Barrister Vena Ikem was present at the declaration.

Senator Onor’s Guber ambition, watchers of Cross River politics say, is a frontal assault on Senator Gershom Bassey’s ambition to succeed Ayade.

Senator Bassey, who represents Cross River South in the Senate has long hoped to fly the PDP flag in the 2023 governorship election in the state.

A former Chairman of Etung Local Government Area of the State, Senator Onor is allegedly being bankrolled and egged on by Governor Nyesom Wike of River state who was also a former Local Government Chairman.

Both men were said to have struck friendship in the course of their activities at the Association of Local Governments of Nigeria (ALGON) where they held important positions.

Senator Onor’s Guber insistence on the PDP ticket may, however, be the party’s greatest undoing as reliable sources told this magazine that several PDP eggheads from the Southern senatorial district, including Senator Bassey, will decamp to the APC should the PDP deny the zone the ticket.

Multiple APC and PDP sources swore that the APC is already dangling its guber ticket before Senator Bassey. “He is under pressure from the APC to cross over and effortlessly grab its ticket. Senator Bassey is, however, still weighing his options”, one of the sources informed.

Another PDP stalwart from the Senatorial District who pleaded anonymity told The Source:  “Watch out, the PDP will bleed if its Guber ticket does not come South. Many of us are waiting to see how things pan out but one thing is clear, any party that short- changes the South will be buried in the South”

The “burying” may have started in earnest. Last week, three PDP bigwigs from Cross River South- Architect Bassey Ndem Eyo, an industrialist and a former Commissioner for Lands in the state, Barrister Edem Ekong, a former Commissioner for Lands under former Governor Liyel Imoke and a former member of the State House of Assembly, Orok Duke- renounced their membership of the party and joined the APC.

The three ex PDP members emphatically declared at the defection rally attended by Governor Ayade that they left their former party because it was not ready to cede its 2023 guber ticket to their Senatorial zone.

However, Cross River South may be in for a shocker if it thinks the APC ticket is for its own for the asking.

Governor Ayade’s pro-zoning speech at the defection rally will not likely dissuade APC’s governorship candidate in the 2019 election, Senator Owan Eno, from reactivating his ambition.

Senator Eno who represented Cross River Central in the Senate between 2015 and 2019, this magazine reliably gathered, will formally declare interest in the 2023 contest in January or February next year.

Ayade at the defection rally: “I will keep to my words. 2023 is a harbinger of peace, equity and justice so that every one of us will have a sense of equity and a sense of balance to maintain and sustain our politics. This will enable everybody to know his turn at every given time”

Though the Governor spoke in response to defectors who unambiguously said they were defecting to work for rotation of the Governorship seat to Cross South, some APC chieftains from Cross River Central insist there was nothing in the speech that indicated Governor Ayade endorsed power shift to Southern Cross River.

“Our Governor made a general comment about zoning or rotation. He didn’t say A or B will produce the next governor. Of course, rotation is starting afresh in 2023 and it can start from any of the three senatorial districts. It was in that sense that Governor Ayade spoke”, he said.