A Former minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Senator John James Akpan Udoedeghe says he will once again aspire to Hilltop Mansion in 2023.
Udoedeghe who represented Uyo Senatorial District in the Senate from 1999 to 2003 disclosed this in an exclusive interview with Crystal Express over the weekend in his Uyo country home.
He explained that his plans for 2023 will not be fully disclosed for public consumption owing to the pending legal matter at the Supreme Court involving Governor Udom Emmanuel and Obong Nsima Ekere of the APC.
According to him,” The truth of the matter is that there is a vision imbedded in me. I do understand what other people don’t understand. When you talk about 2023, of course, I am interested but will not be elaborate for now. But we are very much interested in the 2023 governorship”.
Speaking on his recent ordination as a pastor which elicited mixed feelings among the populace owing to his deep involvement in politics, Senator udoedeghe made it clear that he gave his life to Christ as a senator in the year 2000. Earlier according to him, he was ordained an elder by late Bishop Umondak in 1982 at Christ Sanctified Church of God.
He further explained,” The priesthood has always been in my family because my forefathers and ancestors were priests to idols. So there was priesthood in my family though not of Almighty God. The mantle of priesthood is on me and most of us are priests. I gave my life to Christ as a senator in 2000 though I had a revelation for priesthood and have to answer it to avoid having problem with God. My assignment is simple which is just to preach Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior to the world. I don’t own a church but I assemble people here every month to preach the gospel.’
On why he left PDP which he co-founded with others in the State to then opposition party Action Cogress Nigeria, (CAN), Udoedeghe traced his defection to serious altercations with the then Governor Godswill Akpabio, stressing that his efforts to seek the intervention of then President Jonathan was rebuffed.
In his words, “I don’t like answering these questions because I don’t want to make Godswill Akpabio uncomfortable after our reconciliation recently. You know what happened. PDP was not accommodating our interest and we needed our then president from the South-South to show leadership. Two brothers were having fisticuffs and somebody ought to intervene but the doors were shut against every opposing views and we had to run to another platform notwithstanding that I am one of the founders and conveners PDP in Akwa Ibom State”.
The former minister described himself as a man who loves the people and had sacrificed his comfort to ensure that they get a better deal from their state. However he regretted that he was sometimes misunderstood while the people he fights for collude with the system to fight him back.
According to him,” I am not a rebel; the system wants you to believe so. Let’s go back to the so called trouble that I have made and show me one. When all of you are being cowed and brutalized, and unable to come out of your houses because of kidnappings, you were threatened to your marrow without courage to speak. Except Senator Udoedehe no man or woman had the courage to come out and speak against the evil and is that why I am called a troublesome? It is the people that are ungrateful. I did what I did because of the people. If you say I am troublesome, have you ever seen me fight on the street or beaten anybody. The people were in trouble and I came to their rescue’
