The Oro maverick politician called Larry Esin is making his usual controversial news again. This time, the news is generated by his meeting with the leadership of the Akpabio-Udom cartel and his endorsement of and support for the candidacy of Udom Gabriel Emmanuel, the PDP governorship candidate for the April 11, 2015, governorship elections.

Many Oro people feel deeply hurt and shocked that one of their sons whom they were led to presume was a genuine and committed champion of the Oro Renaissance could so cheaply backtrack into endorsing Udom Emmanuel from Onna LGA in Eket Senatorial District, knowing full well that, if the Akpabio imposition plot succeeds, Udom’s governorship means that an Oro person wouldn’t tenant the Hilltop Mansion as the governor of Akwa Ibom State for at least 40 years, counting from 1999.

In truth, I wasn’t altogether surprised at Larry’s latest action. For me, the lad was simply behaving true to his chameleonic character. After all, did Larry Esin not shock the world when he gave an interview a few years back disclosing that his entrance into the 2007 governorship race was to help his “friend”, GodswillAkpabio, win the PDP primary by making sure that the Oro delegates vote did not go to one of Akpabio’s opponents that was perceived as having the sympathy of a larger segment of the Oro delegates? While I cannot be taken aback and do expect mixtures of inconstancy and unprincipled behaviour in the manner Larry chooses to conduct his politics, what I find appalling is the pitiful gullibility and naivety of the otherwise intelligent people who costume and provide him with the platform which he uses to con and negotiate himself into some kind of relevance.

The very first time I got directly hit by the nauseating and effluvial stench of Larry Esin’s political harlotry and inconstancy was at the critical stage in our epic political struggle to Reintegrate Oro Nation into the economic and political leadership of AkwaIbom State. When it became clear to us that GodswillObotAkpabio’s pathological hatred of our ethnic group wouldn’t let him support or allow an Oro person take over from him in 2015, we immediately went into forging a strategic political partnership with the Ibibios of Uyo Senatorial District. Our objective was very clear – our bonding together with the Ibibios of Uyo automatically meant Oro producing a Deputy Governor; and thus ensuring that an Oro person is in the very core of governance of our state, a position that GodswillAkpabio has wickedly excluded us from since he came to power in 2007.

Larry Esin

When the national leadership of the PDP eventually capitulated to the Akpabio spell, we migrated out of the PDP and went into the All Progressives Congress, APC, where we found solace, accommodation and a level playing field. It is under this platform that we realised our dream of having an Oro man, in the person of Engr. Benedict Ukpong, as a Deputy Governorship candidate for the April 11, 2015, governorship election. Very interestingly, it was just about this time that all the PDP gubernatorial aspirants that were shortchanged in the December 8, 2014, fraudulent and controversial PDP governorship primary grouped themselves into a body they called “G-22.” Larry Esin was one of the 22 outmaneuvered and duped PDP gubernatorial aspirants.

It was at this stage that Larry Esin’s trickery, self-centeredness and political harlotry came to its disgusting bloom. While all his mates in the G-22 were holed up in Abuja for 40 days desperately trying to get an audience with the PDP national leadership and President Goodluck Jonathan to lodge their complains and get a redress, Larry started an ingenious plan behind their back to move into APC. He got some of his contacts to mount immoral pressure for Engr. Benedict Ukpongto be dropped as UmanaOkonUmana’s running mate so that he, Larry, may be picked as substitute. A few Oro intellectuals and politicians of their same machiavellian plumage were conscripted to do this dirty job. Some high-profile and influential Ibibio and Annang politicians, whose names I withhold for now, were also harangued by Larry’s lobbyists to agree to the dubious scheme.

I am NOT surprised that when all his tricks to reap where he did not sow abysmally failed, that is how and why Larry ran back to his “friend,” GodswillObotAkpabio, agreeing to endorse and promote the Udom Emmanuel candidacy that Akpabio has forced on PDP.I wonder how long it will take the Oro gullibles to discover what an unprincipled political trickster Larry Esin truly is.