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… No Third Term, No Betrayal As Power Brokers Close Ranks
…We Can’t Wait For 28 Years – IBESIKPO ASUTAN Cries Out Loud
What was billed as a birthday celebration in Ifa, Etoi Clan, Uyo on Wednesday quickly transformed into something far weightier, a political congress in all but name. At the residence of Obong Usen Edet Matthew (Ikemba), the air thickened not with festivity alone, but with a sharpened, unmistakable message: the fragile architecture of zoning in Uyo Federal Constituency is under threat, and any attempt to sidestep Ibesikpo Asutan in 2027 could detonate consequences far beyond electoral arithmetic.
Leaders, political operators, businessmen, and power brokers from the four local government areas – Uyo, Ibesikpo Asutan, Nsit Uruan and Nsit Atai, did not mince words. In a rare show of unanimity that cut across factional and personal interests, speaker after speaker warned that the constituency stands at a delicate crossroads. Their message was blunt: justice deferred any longer may become peace denied.
At the centre of the agitation lies the long-standing zoning arrangement, an unwritten but deeply respected covenant that has, for decades, served as the glue binding together competing interests within the constituency. That arrangement, stakeholders insist, is neither ornamental nor negotiable. It is the very mechanism that has prevented political domination, fostered inclusion, and sustained relative calm.
Hon. (Pastor) Joshua Basil, a two-time Supervisor from Uruan LGA, spoke with the urgency of a man who believes history is watching. Stripping away political niceties, he appealed directly to the conscience of the political class. “I am speaking to your heart and spirit,” he declared. “Let your dream be Ibesikpo Asutan in 2027.”
But his appeal quickly hardened into warning. To Basil, denying Ibesikpo Asutan its turn is not merely a political miscalculation, it is an affront to history itself. He invoked the legacy of the late Obong Effiong Okon Eyo (Eyo Uyo), a towering figure in the struggle for Akwa Ibom’s creation and a former Deputy Speaker of the Eastern Regional House of Assembly, as evidence that the area has long paid its dues in the state’s political evolution.
More critically, Basil challenged the legitimacy of any third-term ambition from the current occupant of the seat, who hails from Nsit Atai. According to him, such a move would amount to a direct violation of the zoning ethos that brought the office within reach in the first place. “Nsit Atai has had its turn, twice,” he stressed. “Equity demands restraint. Anything else is political overreach dressed up as entitlement.”
His argument carried an additional layer of warning: disrupting the sequence does not only marginalize Ibesikpo Asutan, it also distorts the expectations of Uruan, which stands next in line. In essence, tampering with the arrangement risks triggering a chain reaction of grievances across the constituency.
Hon. Nazareth Udoh, Dean of Ward Personal Assistants to the Governor, reinforced the point with institutional clarity. According to him, the peace Uyo Federal Constituency currently enjoys is not accidental, it is engineered through mutual respect for zoning. “No individual ambition,” he cautioned, “should be allowed to override a system that has delivered stability.”
From Uyo LGA came a more pointed critique. Hon. Okon Joshua, popularly known as Atiku and a former PDP Chapter Chairman, questioned the moral standing of any attempt to upend the rotation principle. His intervention cut to the heart of what many see as political hypocrisy. “The same arrangement that produced the current representative cannot suddenly become inconvenient,” he argued.
To Atiku, denying Ibesikpo Asutan in 2027 would not just be unfair, it would be a betrayal of the very logic that has governed representation in the constituency. He outlined what many present appeared to accept as the natural progression: Nsit Atai completes its tenure, and a new cycle begins with Ibesikpo Asutan completing their second term cycle from 2027.
From the aggrieved axis itself, Obong Anietie Udoeyop spoke with a mix of restraint and resolve. His message was less combative but no less potent: Ibesikpo Asutan has waited patiently, quietly, and for over two decades.
Udoeyop, widely known as Ntufam, did not cloak his message in diplomacy; he delivered it with the precision of a man convinced that patience has been overstretched and justice dangerously delayed. While appreciating leaders across the constituency for, in his words, “standing on the side of truth,” he made it clear that Ibesikpo Asutan’s restraint over the past two decades should not be misread as political docility.
According to him, the narrative of entitlement being subtly advanced by some quarters collapses under the weight of electoral reality. Drawing from the 2023 general elections, Udoeyop pointedly revealed that Nsit Atai, the home base of the incumbent who has reportedly nursed ambitions of stretching his stay to three terms before entertaining any zoning conversation, could only muster a paltry 9,938 votes. In stark contrast, Ibesikpo Asutan delivered a commanding 15,334 votes, a margin he argued speaks volumes about both political strength and moral legitimacy.
For Udoeyop, the implication is unavoidable: it defies logic, equity, and even basic political reasoning for a bloc that has demonstrated greater electoral investment to remain perpetually sidelined. He dismissed, almost incredulously, any suggestion that Ibesikpo Asutan should be consigned to wait nearly three decades. 28 years by projection, before accessing representation at the National Assembly. “That,” he implied, “is not zoning; it is structured exclusion.”
Ntufam carefully redirected the burden of resolution to the state’s highest political office. He called on Governor Umo Eno to rise above local intrigues and intervene decisively, expressing measured confidence in the governor’s oft-touted commitment to fairness and justice. “We have waited for 24 years,” he reiterated, his tone firm but deliberate. “We believe the Governor will listen to the cry for justice and ensure that what is right is done.”
Behind the appeal, however, lies a subtle warning: the patience of Ibesikpo Asutan, long praised as a virtue, may not remain inexhaustible if justice continues to be postponed under the guise of political convenience. The governor’s name hovered throughout the gathering, unspoken at times, directly invoked at others, reflecting the widely held belief that the final arbitration may well rest with him.
Even the host, Obong Usen Edet Matthew, could not avoid the political gravity of the moment. While appreciative of the goodwill that marked his celebration, he acknowledged the inevitability of politics intruding into the day’s proceedings. “What we are saying is simple,” he noted. “Let what others preserved be sustained.”
But beneath the simplicity of that statement lies a complex and combustible reality: zoning in Uyo Federal Constituency is not codified in law, yet it commands a loyalty stronger than statute. It survives on trust, and trust, once broken, is notoriously difficult to rebuild.
The event itself featured the usual ceremonies of prayers, goodwill messages, and the cutting of the birthday cake, but these were largely overshadowed by what many observers described as a “defining political signal.”
Dr. Emmanuel Abasiekong, a university don in attendance, captured the mood succinctly: the gathering may well be remembered not for its celebration, but as an early line drawn ahead of 2027.
In the final analysis, the message from Ifa was neither subtle nor fragmented. It was coordinated, emphatic, and politically charged: the zoning arrangement must hold, or the constituency risks opening a Pandora’s box of agitation, resentment, and instability.
Whether those who hold the levers of power will heed that warning remains to be seen. But if the voices from Wednesday’s gathering are anything to go by, denying Ibesikpo Asutan in 2027 may not just rewrite political equations, it may also rewrite the story of unity in Uyo Federal Constituency, with consequences history will not easily forgive.
