By Bassey inyang
“We grew up learning to cheer on the underdogs because we see ourselves in them”- Shane Koyczan.
The above quote mirrors the exhilarating victory of Asuquo Ekpenyong (Suki), in the just concluded Cross River South Senatorial election.
In that election, he was the underdog who refused to be dwarfed by the giants. Cheered on by the people whose language he speaks- language of deprivation, of lack, of abandonment, compassion and of hope for a better future-Suki dared the elephants, leaving them bloodied.
Indeed, 2023 will go down in the annals of Cross River South as a year a David defeated Goliaths, armed only with the people’s love.
It is a year the unusual happened and over three decades old firmly erected political status quo in the district toppled by an upstart.
Ekpenyong, 37, has sprang an uncanny upset that has left his opponents convulsing in utter confusion.
The outcome of the election is emblematic of the epic Bible story of David’s surprised decimation of Goliath. In this case, the Senator-elect was the prized David of the battle.
However, unlike the Biblical David, he trounced not one Goliath but two. The Goliaths- Rt Hon. Daniel Asuquo of the Labour Party, LP and Ntufam Ekpo Okon of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP – got a beating they never bargained for.
That Ekpenyong shrugged off the odds to vanquish his opponents who are older and whose political tap roots, before now, seemed unuprootable speaks volumes about the fruits of doggedness and people- centred political campaign.
Who would have imagined that a starry-eyed Ekpenyong who became Cross River state Commissioner of Finance at 29, will send into political oblivion, Rt Hon Daniel Asuquo who first won elections in 1998 and has been a mainstay over the last 25 years in Cross River politics, for the last 12 years he bestrode Akamkpa/ Biase Federal Constituency as member representing them in the Federal House of Reps?
Who would also have imagined that Suki will cause the over 32 year old political career of Ntufam Ekpo Okon, a National Assembly member in 1991, a former State commissioner, a former NDDC Commissioner, a former PDP State Chairman, a former Deputy Governorship candidate, to suffer excruciating eviscration?
That the Senator- elect caused Ntufam Okon and Rt Hon Asuquo’s political careers to suffer shipwreck speaks to a paradigm shift in how the electorate now perceive, assimilate and digest political messages.
The people of Southern Cross River understood that a Servant-Leader is one who wears their shoes and knows where it pinches them, one who is not only doing the talkings but doing the doings or what the Igbo term “Ekwueme” (one who does what he says)! In Suki, they found that leader.
Empathy and compassion for people are natural to Suki. It was not therefore, much of a surprise to many that in the face of the cash crunch and fuel scarcity, he provided the much needed palliatives to the people.
His free transport and free fuel schemes lifted many from pains of lack; the gestures symbolized elegant commentaries about a leader who, at all times, is ready to take bullets for his people.
The Senator- elect represents a new dawn, a fascinating new vista in political leadership.
Here is a humble, well educated, accessible and listening young man who is not magisterial. He dines with the old and young; pays tuition fees for indigent students and hospitals bills for the sick and vulnerable.
Suki ran a completely data driven and technologically innovative campaign with a very small team of young men and women. Infact, apart from his Campaign DG, Hon Oqua, there was no seasoned political name on his immediate team. He deployed a strategy of directly interfacing with the people and without the encumbrance of major politicians, he went directly to the people in the hinterlands and across the must rugged terrains.
In the cause of his campaigns for the Senate, Suki hitched on bikes, canoes and rafters to access hard to reach areas to speak to his constituents, listen to them and give them messages of hope.
And indeed, the people listened to him, especially the youths who see in him hope for tomorrow.
Infact, the Senator- elect’s Senatorial district-wide acceptance by the youths was the the killer punch that buried Rt Hon Asuquo’s ambition.
Rt Hon Asuquo had planned and hoped to waltz into victory riding on the overwhelming goodwill of LP party’s presidential candidate, Peter Obi (especially as the southern district houses the state capital, Calabar and is an urban district) but in an ironic twist, while Peter Obi scored the highest presidential votes in the district with over 80,000 votes, Suki turned out to be the beneficiary of the goodwill as thousands of Cross River South youths rooting for Obi saw Suki as one of their own whose message of a new dawn resonated loudly.
And the result was massive LP votes for him. In a truly remarkable and unprecedented political feat, as they voted Obi for president, they reversed themselves and voted Suki for Senate. Such was the depth of love and acceptance the Senator-elect enjoys among his constituents.
Notedly, Suki and thousands of Southern Cross Riverians who rooted for him and voted him into the Senate last Saturday embody the American Author, Warren Bennis’ timeless treatise on leadership and followership: “Followers who tell the truth, and leaders who listen to it, are an unbeatable combination”
Suave, soft-spoken and cerebral, Ekpenyong and his constituents are perfect combination and a symbiotic relationship that exist between employees and the employed.
He possesses a calm mien and has a lovable personality with an electrifying presence which enabled him to rises above the fray to stamp love and affection on the hearts of his constituents hence his reciprocal employment, last Saturday, as their eyes and eyes in Abuja for the next four years.
Of course, when a man’s way is just and pleases God, his hour comes seamlessly and nothing abbreviates his ascendency, indeed, Senator Asuquo Ekpenyong’s hour, the vanquiser of Goliaths, is here.
*Bassey inyang Writes from Calabar.
