By Dapo Akinrefon

MR John Owan Enoh is a member of the House of Representatives representing Ikom Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives and also the chairman House Committee on Appropriation. He in this interview explains reasons for his quest for the Cross River Central Senate seat. Excerpts:

What happened recently during a yam festival where it was reported that your group and that of the Senate Leader, Ndoma-Egba were involved in a fracas?

The seat that I want is occupied by the Senate Leader, Senator Victor Ndoma-Egba. I am not just a rookie in politics. In 1999, I got elected into the Cross River State House of Assembly and in 2003, I was elected into the House of Representatives and so, I am actually serving my third term. I believe that more than 90 per cent of the people in my district want me in the Senate.

I live in Ikom and Ikom is the headquarters of the Senatorial district. The current occupant of the Senate seat comes from Ikom local government area. Normally, we celebrate yam festivals every September and because of the positive work I do in my constituency, there is a positive perception across.

This particular yam festival, I got a lot of invitation from many people especially from three different wards, who were celebrating the new yam festival and it included the Senate Leader’s ward.

Ordinarily, if I did not go to the ward, it would look like a letdown. It was supposed to be on a Saturday and I arrived Ikom on Friday.

One of my aides had come to inform me that the DPO of Ikom had come to warn me not to go to Akparabo because the security indications were negative. It turned out that the first strategy was to scare me security wise. I told the DPO that I was going to the town.

And so, I went to bed but the first thing I was told in the morning was that the road leading to the town had been blocked. If the road leading to the town gets blocked by aides of the senator, who had boasted that I cannot enter the place, it meant too much to the Senator’s aides that I was going there.

Eventually I got in anyway because we used the military and when I got in, it became apparent to me why they did not want me to get in because the jubilation in the community was like a triumphant entry.

We have a good relationship. For the past several years, Ndoma-Egba has been the chairman of the Cross River State National Assembly caucus and I the secretary. In 2011, I resisted to the end, the pressure to run for Senate. My governor comes from our senatorial district. In 2011, when my governor lifted his hand in his (governor’s) village, to run for a third term, my governor was booed.

Why?

Because people did not want him (Ndoma-Egba). So, for the three times he has gone to the Senate, it is the governor who has actually insisted that people should support him.

Is the governor disposed to your aspiration?

Well the governor is not running and I am sure it is unusual. In a system where every second term governor wants to return to the Senate, Liyel Imoke decided not to, perhaps, it is also the measure of the character of the person.

He said he has gone to the Senate before but even that is not enough. He has been a governor for two terms and also a senator. He is concerned with the candidate who can win because he believes that is going to make his work less. He is concerned about the re-election of President Goodluck Jonathan and therefore, won’t want a situation whereby somebody who runs, is not able to excite the electorate.

He wants someone who the electorate is enthusiastic about. With such enthusiasm, everybody will come out and don’t forget that the presidential election is the same day with the National Assembly elections.

So, the governor has said there is going to be a level playing field for who can win to win because he is leaving office, he is not running for any office and so, he needs to give the opportunity to those who can win. The governor appears to be very concerned about his experience in 2011 and he is also concerned about the electability, that is why he is saying so. So, if saying that the governor is insisting that there must be a level playing field, if that amounts to supporting me, I don’t know, but that is what it is.