12 POLITICAL TRICKS SENATOR UDOEDEHE HAS USED SINCE 2011

𝑩𝒚 𝑪𝒍𝒆𝒎𝒆𝒏𝒕 𝑾𝒂𝒓𝒓𝒊𝒆

Senator John James Akpan Udoedeghe, Akwa Ibom’s African Democratic Congress (ADC) gubernatorial candidate is fairly well known, although not for the reasons he would prefer.

Since 2011, the controversial political entrepreneur has surfaced in every election year, mobilized substantial party and campaign funds, suffered defeat at the polls, and withdrawn from public view entirely until the next election season.

Analysts may describe this sort of political behavior as political rent-seeking or ballot harvesting. But what demands moral interrogation is the ritual Senator Udoedeghe deploys to sustain the circus.

Equally urgent is the need to expose his modus operandi and forewarn unsuspecting voters who may fall victim to his shenanigans.

The following are 12 features of Senator Udoedeghe “Campaign-and-Vanish” playbook

1. Senator Udoedeghe Runs an Election Ponzi Scheme

One reason Senator Udoedeghe runs every election cycle is that he runs an electoral Ponzi scheme. Each campaign draws in a fresh pool of donors, volunteers, and hopeful supporters; their money, loyalty, and expectations are recycled to keep the political machinery alive and to reward just a few members of the inner circle. The scheme survives only as long as new believers keep buying in, which is why he must resurface, campaign, lose, and return again.

2. Party Parasitism: A New Party Every Season, Zero Investment in Structures

Udoedeghe does not care about his host parties. He feeds off them. His pattern is to identify a relatively new or marginal party, and use it as a personal vehicle for his governorship ambition. He becomes both the party leader and its gubernatorial candidate — a position that allows him to control national allocations to the state without answering to any internal democratic structure. The record speaks clearly here: he was the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) governorship candidate in 2011. He later became the National Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and brought the party to Akwa Ibom. When the APC family expanded, the structure resisted his dominance, he defected to the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) and secured its governorship ticket. When that failed, he moved again — this time to the African Democratic Congress (ADC), where he emerged as the gubernatorial candidate for 2027 elections.

Not one single party structure is funded by Udoedeghe. He does not invest in ward offices, does not pay party officials, and does not build the institutional capacity of any party he joins. After elections, he runs away and awaits the next season. No accountability to the structures he hijacked.

3. Ethnic Grievance as a Campaign Weapon

Udoedeghe’s most sinister weapon usually is to activate ethnic fault lines. He positions himself as the champion of the Ibibio against the Annang, Oro, or vice versa, depending on which narrative best serves his current ambition. He capitalises on the perceived marginalisation of one group and the empowerment of another to stoke resentment. In 2011, Governor Godswill Akpabio explicitly accused the Udoedeghe of bringing an ethnic dimension into the political crisis in order to “create animosity among different tribes in the State.”

The pattern continues. This time, he will likely exploit the empowerment of the Annang by Annang’s politicians and the Ibibio perception of marginalisation, as well as the ongoing controversy surrounding the Ibom Deep Seaport.

4. The Itu Ceramic and Oku Iboku Allegations

Deep in his playbook is the Itu Ceramic and Oku Iboku allegations which he uses always without fail.
Udoedeghe will accuse previous leaders of owing him billion of Naira during the sale of the Itu Ceramic Company and the Oku Iboku Paper Mill. This is a familiar script.
The Oku Iboku Paper Mill has been a subject of controversy for years, with allegations of asset-stripping and flawed privatisation involving front companies. Udoedeghe will present himself as a victim of a fraudulent transaction, when in fact his own involvement in these deals is a matter of public record. He will use this narrative to position himself as the defender of government assets, while quietly seeking to short-change the government and assume ownership of the businesses.

5. The “True Ibibio Warrior” Narrative

He does this subtly and methodically by feasting on the psychology of his foot soldiers. Usually, a group of unruly and sometimes violent individuals. He will then accuse the Ibibio elites of being subservient to other ethnic groups. And then he will attempt to rouse the dormant Ibibio population by presenting himself as the only true champion of the Ibibio cause. He will seek to make friends with the leadership of the Mboho Mkparawa Ibibio, the apex socio-cultural organisation of the Ibibio people. This is where the organisation should be vigilant. Alignment with a man who has no ideological consistency is a risk to its own credibility.

6. The Press Conference and the Media Pay-Off

He plays the press like a game of chess. Udoedeghe will call a press conference — but only after the party’s national body has agreed on and dispatched state campaign funds, not to present campaign blueprints, but appeal for sympathy. His press conferences are usually timed to coincide with the arrival of money. He will pay a few media houses generously and perhaps tell them he will put them on his pay roll when he wins elections.

This is a documented pattern. He has a history of using press conferences to declare his candidacy, attack opponents, and project an image of momentum — all while the real purpose is to manage the narrative through financial inducement.

7. Attacks on the Governor’s Private Life

Udoedeghe has a history of going after the private lives of sitting governors. In an interview with Inspiration FM in 2018, Udoedeghe claimed Akpabio and his family alone stole trillions. In previous engagements, he has made allegations about the personal conduct of Governor Umo Eno, including claims related to the EFCC and a Lagos property. These are character assassination antics designed to distract from his own lack of a coherent platform and policy framework. When he cannot compete on ideas, he invades the private life of his opponent.

8. The Tricks of Violence at Government Facilities

In 2011, Udoedeghe’s mob was alleged to have burned down vehicles at the Idongesit Nkanga Secretariat. Governor Akpabio stated that “many government assets were destroyed including buildings, over 500 brand new tricycles and over 200 brand new cars which were parked at the Idongesit Nkanga secretariat.” Other reports confirmed that the clash consumed 1,300 brand new cars and tricycles at the secretariat. While this happened in the past, there is a present risk. Any large gathering of government vehicles — including the newly acquired 50 CNG buses — is at risk if Udoedeghe’s campaign follows its historical pattern.

9. Clandestine Agitation for Settlement

Overnight, Udoedeghe will agitate for settlement from the government — in cash and contracts. This was his pattern during the Akpabio administration, and it will be his pattern again. He will use the threat of a disruptive campaign as leverage to extract concessions. If he cannot win, he will seek to be bought off. The people of Akwa Ibom should know that his campaigns are not crusades; they are negotiations.

10. Silence After Defeat

After losing the election, Udoedeghe will go quiet. He will concede gracefully. He will not continue to build his party. He will simply disappear — until the next election season, when he will resurface with a new party, a new set of ethnic grievances, insults and the same script.

11. Ego And Compulsive Attention-seeking.

Stacked against the illogic of running constantly in the face of perpetual defeat is another reason Senator Udoedeghe runs every election cycle: the psychological reward of the spotlight itself. Some candidates run primarily for that fix; as one analysis notes, “Some would-be politicians are looking for an ego fix. The attention, the cameras, the title. Defeats are just a small price to pay for such things.

12. Cheaper to Attack Opponents instead of presenting policy direction.

Udoedeghe has never presented a coherent policy agenda. No economic blueprint. No education plan. No healthcare plan. No infrastructure strategy. His campaigns are built entirely on attacking opponents and exploiting ethnic grievances. He cannot point to a single bill he sponsored as senator that transformed lives, or a single policy he championed that moved the state forward. Ask him what he will do differently, and he will deflect to what others have done wrong. A man who has been in politics since 1999 but has no record of legislative impact has no business asking for the people’s mandate.