Elder statesman, Dr. Matthias Oko Offoboche, served as Cross River State deputy governor in the second Republic between October 1979 and December 1983. In this interview with journalists including Correspondent Bassey Inyang in Calabar, Offoboche speaks on the position of Cross River North Senatorial District with regards to the governorship race in 2015. Excerpts:
What have you been doing to keep yourself and your family moving since you left office in the Second Republic?
People should not forget that I am a specialist gynaecologist. I studied medicine in Dublin and did postgraduate course in the Royal College of Physicians, London. I am first and foremost a Specialist Obstetrician Gynaecologist and that is what I live by. I am also a politician and an Officer of the Order of the Niger (OON).
Some people are now using the old Calabar-Ogoja Accord to scuttle the possibility of the North to take the next slot in the governorship of Cross River State in 2015. What is your take on that?
Thank you for that question. Some of them are talking out of ignorance and do not want to learn. The so-called Calabar-Ogoja Accord was reality, but the Calabar-Ogoja Accord was premised on the provisions of the 1979 Constitution of Nigeria.
In 1979 we had two senatorial district structures, for instance Calabar-Ogoja district of Cross River as was enshrined in the 1979 Constitution. Ogoja was used because it was Ogoja Senatorial District and vice versa.
The 1979 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria is dead. We are now operating the 1999 Constitution as amended.
The 1999 Constitution talks of three senatorial districts North, South and Central. This is different from what obtained in 1979. Those who are lawyers should look that up.
What is the point you are making?
It is unconstitutional to begin to talk about Ogoja-Calabar Accord in 2013, 2014 or 2015 for purposes of who should take the governorship slot of Cross River State in the next political dispensation.
If the 1979 Constitution comes to life and displaces that of 1999, then we will be working by that constitution. But the 1979 constitution is dead. All the provisions made in the Accord were based on the provisions of the 1979 constd itution.
Now that we are operating a new system, the Accord can have as much relevance as the 1979 constitution in 2013. It is as simple as that. If people want to compete for power, they do not need to import things that are not relevant.
People are free to contest elections; that is what makes us a democracy. But to go and import arguments that are not relevant is just looking for unnecessary problem.
Calabar-Ogoja Accord was relevant at the time it was done because it was guided by the provisions of the 1979 Constitution; once that constitution is irrelevant, the Accord becomes irrelevant.
Do you think that politicians from the north can brace up to provide an acceptable governorship material in 2015?
Again, the 1999 constitution provides for federal character which also applies to states and local governments. That is, things should be done in rotation; that every part of the entity should have relevance.
So, our brothers in the South provided the governor in Mr Donald Duke, the Central has provided the governor in Senator Liyel Imoke, the sitting governor. It is only logical, commonsensical and democratic for the people of the northern senatorial district to now provide the next governor.
How then would the south continue to provide the governor when the north has not provided one in Cross River State? It is undemocratic.
Perhaps, that would have been feasible if it were in the state where there was so much disparity in population. But, the ethnic composition in the three senatorial districts of Cross River State does not allow for that kind of dominance.tomorrow
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