APC jolts PDP in Cross River

the regular refrain
among the People's Democratic Party, PDP, leadership
in Cross River State was, "there is no opposition in
Cross River state" but the rally held by the All
Progressives Congress, APC, on the above date has
seemingly changed the political language and equation
in the state.
APC
The rally, which was organised as one of the campaign
stops of Major General Muhamadu Buhari (retd), the APC
presidential candidate, attracted an unprecedented
crowd of supporters which no opposition party has been
able to muster in the past 16years of the present
political dispensation and this marks a significant
tipping point in the political affairs of the state
From all parts of the expansive state, crowds of the
party's faithful converged on the Mayne Avenue Primary
School, venue of the rally as early as 9 am singing and
dancing while awaiting the arrival of Buhari and his
entourage whose delayed flight arrived the Margaret
Ekpo International Airport , where another large crowd of
supporters was waiting for him, at about 4pm before
proceeding to the rally centre.
Many political watchers in the state were taken aback by
the large turnout of supporters judging from the near
comatose position of the APC and other opposition
parties in the state.
Following their persistent battering by the forces of the
ruling PDP right from the days of Mr Donald Duke who
during his eight years tenure consistently wooed over
many members of the opposition parties while those
who remained adamant were decimated politically.
From being the majority with 13 out of the 25members in
the State House of Assembly in 1999, the APC then
called APP went down to zero in the 2003 elections as
all those who contested elections for the positions of
chairmen of councils, Senate, House of Representatives,
State House of Assembly and even councilors on the
party's platform lost woefully until 2011 when Ernest
Irek, a member of the PDP who lost nomination to Mr
Fabian Okpa crossed over to the then ACN and won Okpa
in the general election to become the House of
Assembly member representing Obubra 11 State
Constituency.
The cantankerous outcome of the party's state executive
council election of the party in 2014 did not help matters
as some staunch members were expelled leaving many
people disgruntled. However, like the proverbial kiwi
which rises from its ashes, the party found its foot back
in the months of November and December 2014 with the
influx of some PDP members following the acrimonious
outcome of the PDP primaries and this significantly
boosted the ranks of the party.
Effectively, with the entry of defectors from PDP, the
party which in 2011 could hardly present candidates for
elections in half of the constituencies was able to fill
every vacant position as many people, particularly the
PDP renegades fell over themselves to pick the party's
tickets to contest elections for the various positions. So
most of these candidates unlike the dead woods of the
past were able to muster resources to ferry their
supporters from across the state to the rally venue.
Elective positions
With the large turn out and the enthusiasm on the faces
of most of the candidates an d their supporters, the
state is set for a strong battle for elective positions
beginning from the House of Assembly to the
governorship and the presidential election.
The party may, however, need a miracle to win the
governorship slot owing to strong political calculations
and indices that prevail in the state.
But to say the party would lose all the positions it has
fielded candidates has always been the situation in the
past , would not be a wrong assessment of the political
situation in the state.
Courtesy: vanguardnews
Broadcast by Obele Calistus