Former National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) National President Comrade Danielson Akpan has declared his bid for the Ikono State Constituency seat in the Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly under the Labour Party.
Akpan made his declaration on Monday following the submission of his expression of interest and nomination forms, a move that insiders say has been months in the making, driven by deepening frustration among constituents in the Ediene Itak zone over what they describe as a systematic exclusion from the corridors of political power.
At the heart of Akpan’s candidacy is a grievance that many in Ediene Itak say has festered for years without resolution.
Ikono Local Government Area is broadly divided into three geopolitical zones: Ikono South, Ikono Middle, and Ediene Itak; yet, according to Akpan, the distribution of political offices bears little resemblance to this tripartite structure.
“My people are not only marginalized but completely abandoned,” Akpan said, his voice carrying the conviction of a man who has made a career out of advocacy.
He pointed out that Ikono South currently holds the Federal House of Representatives seat, the State House of Assembly seat, and the local government chairmanship simultaneously, a concentration of power that he and his supporters argue is both inequitable and unsustainable.
Ediene Itak, by contrast, holds none.
What makes the situation particularly charged, Akpan contends, is not merely the absence of representation, but the allegation that a rotational agreement—an informal compact long understood among stakeholders in the area has been deliberately subverted.
According to him, community leaders and political stakeholders from Ediene Itak had previously agreed to support the incumbent lawmaker for a second term in the House of Assembly on the clear understanding that the seat would subsequently rotate to their zone.
It was, he said, a gentleman’s arrangement, the kind of power-sharing understanding that often lubricates grassroots politics in Nigeria’s multi-ethnic communities.
“When it was time for the zoning arrangement to take effect, the people were told to allow the incumbent to pursue another term. That has never been the practice, and my people rejected it,” Akpan said pointedly.
He went further, making a claim that, if verified, would carry considerable political weight: that Governor Umo Eno of Akwa Ibom State, during consultations with stakeholders ahead of the recent local government elections, personally affirmed that both the House of Assembly seat and the local government chairmanship would rotate to Ediene Itak by 2026 and 2027, respectively.
Akpan is not your typical political aspirant. Born in the Owo Local Government Area of Ondo State, he holds a degree in Mass Communication from Nasarawa State University and is a registered member of the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations. But it is his track record as a student leader and rights activist that defines him most sharply.
As National President of NANS, he was a prominent voice in the anti-xenophobia campaign and championed the welfare of Nigerian students at the highest levels.
Closer to home, he was among the loudest critics of the administration of former Akwa Ibom Governor Udom Emmanuel, specifically over the prolonged non-payment of student scholarships and bursaries, a position that earned him both admirers and adversaries in the state.
His advocacy extended beyond campus gates. Akpan actively pushed for the rights of civil servants, particularly around the irregular payment of gratuities and pension issues that resonate deeply in a state where public sector workers have long battled delayed entitlements.
“I am an activist and not a politician,” he told journalists, in what appeared to be a deliberate attempt to distance himself from the transactional image that often shadows Nigerian electoral politics. “My priority will be to represent the interests of the people and ensure that whatever belongs to them is attracted to the constituency.”
The Labor Party, buoyed by its renewed national profile following the 2023 general elections, has thrown its weight behind Akpan’s candidacy. The Akwa Ibom State Chairman of the party, Mrs. Freena Akpanusong, received the aspirant warmly and offered the party’s unambiguous support.
“Ikono State Constituency needs a representative like Danielson Akpan,” she said, pledging that the party would stand behind him throughout the electoral process.
The LP’s backing is significant in a state historically dominated by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
While the Labor Party has yet to replicate at the state assembly level the kind of electoral wave it generated in certain presidential strongholds during the 2023 cycle, its adoption of credible grassroots candidates, particularly those with established activist credentials, appears to be a deliberate strategy to broaden its footprint ahead of the 2027 general elections.
Akpan’s entry into the race sets the stage for what promises to be a closely watched contest in Ikono.
The incumbent and other potential aspirants are yet to formally respond to his declaration, and the dynamics of party primaries, where godfatherism and financial muscle often outweigh popular sentiment, will be a major test of whether his activist reputation translates into electoral viability.
For the people of Ediene Itak, however, Akpan’s candidacy represents something more immediate: the arrival of a voice that, for the first time in what many describe as a long political drought, is speaking directly to their sense of exclusion and demanding, loudly and publicly, that it end.
Whether that voice will be enough to break through the entrenched political structure of Ikono remains the defining question of this emerging campaign.
WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW
Comrade Danielson Akpan, a former NANS president and seasoned activist, has entered the race for the Ikono State Constituency seat on the Labour Party platform, driven by one central cause: ending the long-standing political exclusion of the Ediene Itak zone.
His candidacy is rooted in an alleged breach of a rotational power-sharing agreement that had promised his zone a turn at representation, a promise he claims was made and broken at the highest levels.
