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The Nigerian Housing Man of the Year 2014, Ezekiel Nyaetok is now shooting hard for the position of Governor of Akwa Ibom State, come 2023.
Architect Nyaetok who is also called Mr Social Housing because of his famous housing projects, has now clinched the ticket of the African Democratic Congress, ADC to contest the governorship race in the next election.
Nyaetok, the Director General of Nigeria First Project, which is founded on the principle of citizen- centred governance says that he is the only threat to the PDP, in his state .
Coming from Akwa Ibom, which is traditionally a PDP stronghold, this is a tall order, but Architect Nyaetok maintains that he remains the sole threat to the PDP , and its plans to retain power in 2023.
And the odds appear to all be in his favour.
On the 25th of May 2022, the PDP’ s governorship primaries were boycotted by a number of aspirants. The preferred aspirant of the state Governor was declared winner in an election in which only ad-hoc delegates were allowed to vote.
The impasse in the PDP was further exacerbated when one of the governorship hopefuls not only decamped to the APC, but also contested the APC governorship primaries; days back.
Then, against all odds, the man, Akan Udofia won the APC ticket, in a stunning victory that left his closest rival miles behind.
Expectedly there are now internal rumblings in the ranks of the APC, with long standing members feeling side lined-creating an atmosphere that is ripe for a popular candidate from a lesser known party to go on and win the elections.
Ezekiel Nyaetok has had several notable social interventions in infrastructural development in Akwa Ibom State, and all at personal level.
He got the government buy-in for the popular Shelter Afrique estate which remains a landmark housing project in the Akwa Ibom State capital, Uyo.
Nyaetok has served on many housing committees at the federal level, and he is currently a consultant to many Nigerian state governments, on housing.
Nyaetok has been very active on the political scene for some years now, and his mantra is that – “politics must be seen as a divine call to serve the people”.
In 2016, he was deeply involved in the founding of the Young Democratic Party YDP, a party that was at the forefront of promoting the Not Too Young To Run movement.
Notwithstanding being a founder, Nyaetok promised he would shortly hand over the leadership of the party to the youths.
True to his words, Nyaetok who also served as the pioneer National Chairman of the YDP, later handed over the leadership of the party to the youths, to carry on from where he had stopped.
Incidentally, Arc Nyaetuk is running against the popular zoning arrangement of the state, as he pursues his ambition.
Nyaetok maintains that as a state, Akwa Ibom people have never at any time, sat down to talk about zoning. He maintains that zoning is an entirely PDP arrangement, and does not apply to any other candidate of other parties who so desire to contest for the governorship seat.
In the meantime, Nyaetok has effectively been mentoring youths in leadership and politics, and it is this section of the society, which in any case forms the highest part of the population, that Nyaetok is banking on, when he commences his governorship campaign; as soon as the electoral umpires give the go- ahead.
