Ndoma-Egba: I am Being Pressurised to Decamp

Victor Ndoma-Egba 

Bassey Inyang in Calabar

Senate Leader, Victor Ndoma-Egba (SAN), has stated that he is being pressurised from different quarters to decamp from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC).

Ndoma-Egba, who stated this Sunday night while having a session with journalists in his Calabar residence, however, said he was yet to take a decision as to whether to decamp from the PDP or not.

The senate leader did not mention where the pressures were coming from, even though some politicians from his constituency in Cross River State, including his known political supporters last week decamped to the APC.

Responding to a question as to whether he intends to decamp from the PDP to the APC, Ndoma-Egba said: “If I want to take any major political step, I will tell you directly. One thing I found amusing is that anybody who leaves PDP today to any other party in Cross River State is an Ndoma-Egba supporter. Meanwhile, the story before now was that I had no supporters. So, where are the supporters coming from? The pressure for me to move also is from every quarter, but it is for me to reflect on it. For now I would say I am managing it and I have survived it so far.”

The senate leader, who is the representative of the central senatorial district of the state,  spoke on the politics in the state, saying the PDP in the state promoted impunity, just as the party at the national level did.

“I think that there is an oversimplification of the dynamics in our politics in Cross River today. We are no longer thinking deeply. We are no longer analysing issues. We have become mentally lazy. When mental laziness comes in, it breeds impunity and impunity breeds arrogance.

“So, that is where we are and we are paying a very high price for the impunity that has become a culture in our party. Our concern should be, how do we ensure that the will of the people is what is reflected?

“If the will of the people reflect one party, so be it. But if the will of the people reflect something else, my appeal is that the powers that be should let the will of the people prevail.”

Ndoma-Egba, who also dwelt on the performance of the PDP at the general election, blamed the defeat of his party on its inherent culture of impunity.
He said: “One big lesson that we have learnt from this election is that impunity is not sustainable. It can only hold for a while, but in the long run it is not sustainable. It is going to be costly and we are seeing the price we are paying.

“Look at Cross River, we have almost 1.2 million registered voters. How many could we deliver for the president? Just over 400, 000. That is about 30 per cent of the votes. And people still boast that the party won. You won with 30 per cent? The impunity is costing us a lot and it is going to cost us much more.”

Speaking on the lessons that should be learned from the defeat of the PDP, Ndoma-Egba said: “So, the PDP as far as I am concerned, needed this shock treatment. We needed to be shocked back into reality and this is an opportunity. Rather than be boastful and arrogant, we should go back and do proper introspection and look at what has happened. If we think that what is going on can endure for much longer, then we are living in self-denial.

“Impunity is not sustainable. It is not sustainable in PDP and I believe that the APC would have learnt a lesson too that it is not. It cannot be sustainable anywhere.

“I would advise that moving forward; parties should be owned by members of the party and not individuals no matter how powerful they are. The way I see it now, the people, especially at the state levels, are personal property of certain people. It depreciates to the point where it has become personal property of some people.

A party is supposed to be vehicle for a contest of ideas, but it is not so. So, it is now an avenue for us to perfect sycophancy and hear who shouts the highest yes sir.”

He said the lesson is “an opportunity for the PDP to reinvent itself and for other parties to learn that a situation where parties are donated to individuals cannot endure.”