Will Udom Teach His Great Teacher Lessons?
By UbongAbasi Ise
“… and it was everyone’s opinion that the tensions of the elections
would bring them to the dangerous crisis point” – David English (Divided
They Stand, 1968)
Let me not fall
into temptation of downplaying whatever degree of tension building around the
Governor and the Senate Minority Leader. The 2015 political wrestlemania tag
team champions, may in no time come down to demonstrate their position to the
public that their avowed alliance still stands, and that they would still stick
together to vanquish any gladiator that would dare challenge their respective
titles come 2019. I can say that this would only succeed in silencing the
rumblings but would neither resolve the suspicion nor the dissolve the dark
atmosphere hanging over 2019 race. Akpabio’s all is not well complaint in Abak has generated heaps of political
discourses that would further condition the political permutations as the days
of reckoning draws nearer.
Whether there is
feud or not between Governor Udom Emmanuel and his Godfather, Senator Godswill
Akpabio, central to this piece is to assess major themes carefully
conceptualized from the conundrum surrounding these political gladiators.
There is a
school of thought advanced by some pundits which claims that if Udom ditches
Akpabio, then the Senator’s political career is dead than alive.
The second group
has it that should the Senate Minority Leader withdraw his supporting pillars
from Udom’s tent, then the remaining structures would collapse and kill the
Governor’s political career once and for all.
Interestingly,
there is this school of thought that holds that both men needs each other more
than ever, especially, as their mutual enemies at the center of Nigerian federation
are waxing stronger by the day.
Considering the
first line of thi nking, a lot of people are suspecting that Akpabio brought
Udom to the power so that the Governor should cover his tracks and protect him
from the law. indeed, Most people are more convinced about this position
through the legal clash between Udom’s government and the Economic and
Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) from 2016 where state government in its
reaction to the anti-graft agency’s letters to banks requesting documents on
the suspicious financial transactions undertaken by the state government under
Akpabio, directed its Attorney-General and Commissioner of Justice, Barr.
Uwemedimo Nwoko, to file an ex-parte motion at the High Court of Akwa Ibom
State, Ikot Ekpene Judicial Division seeking an order of interim injunction on
restraining the federal government or any of its agencies, including the
Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC); Independent Corrupt Practices
and Other related Offences Commission (ICPC), and the Inspector General of
Police from arresting, detaining or investigating any official of the state
government past or present, without any report of indictment by the Akwa Ibom
State House of Assembly. Justice NFN Ntong of the state High Court was to wash
off his hands from the matter while referring the state government to the Court
of Appeal in Calabar where it could appeal against the anti-graft agencies with
the prayer that the appellate court put a stop on the investigations into the
finances of the state government under Akpabio leadership. Given the foregoing,
it is not out of place for commentators to hold that if Udom decides to
back-off, or outrightly expose his godfather’s misdeeds to the world, then
Akpabio would kiss the dust.
But one should
not forget that if Senator Akpabio had committed multiple sins worth covering
up, then it would also take many sins to cover up each of his sin. This
invariably means that for Udom to cover one pit dug by Akpabio, he must have been
digging more pits, and source for more laterites this season where things are dry
to cover up the ones done by his predecessor. This therefore implies that if
Udom turns out Akpabio, then he may not be free from culpability, and this
would be an advantage to their rivals on the other side of the political
divide.
Antithetic to
the foregoing is the second position that Akpabio, given his political
pedigree, astuteness, generosity, charisma and gregarious nature; can
effortlessly end Udom’s political ambition should he decide to severe the
relationship with him. This school believes that the party’s structures are
still in Akpabio’s hand, starting from Obong Paul Ekpo, the PDP State Chairman,
to the party leadership at the ward level, and whoever Akpabio stands behind
during the primaries would carry the day. Therefore Udom would have to face ruinous
consequences of showing ultimate ingratitude to a benefactor that brought him
out of the blues to give him political relevance and prominence should he continue
with insubordination.
In all, it can
backfire for PDP, should Akwa Ibom divide according to Udom-Akpabio fault line,
and it would be to the blessing of the main opposition party, APC, that is
preparing for a fierce battle to wrestle Akwa Ibom State out of PDP’s grip come
2019.
To complete the
dialectical cycle in the analysis of the alleged face-off between Udom and
Akpabio, the third school of thought are making more sense by averring that
Udom needs Akpabio just the way Akpabio needs Udom. Both men, probably, know
that for them to face the mutual threat pose against them by APC at the centre,
they need to tag-team together. If peradventure, Udom says he is no longer
interested in the guber race and throws in the towel, then it can be another
headache for Akpabio as the flank would be opened and expose the Senator to the
vagaries of bad political weather.
Now we can go
back to the genesis of the whole ado. Irrespective of any justification, one
cannot be totally be wrong to say that there was, in the first place, a
scurrilous intention by Udom against Akpabio by abandoning the Uyo-Ikot Ekpene
Road and the Four-Star Sheraton Hotel. Nothing could have stopped the Governor from
addressing the basic challenges facing those signature projects on time before
his Godfather run out of patience. Was he planning to disparage the image of
the very one that brought him out of oblivion to the pinnacle of power in the
state? Or did the governor intend to cut his predecessor to size because he was
being apotheosized into god by Akwa Ibom people? Was Udom trying to teach his
Great Teacher a lesson?
A man who pays
respect to the great, paves way for his own greatness, writes Chinua Achebe in
Things Fall Apart.
To those that
lashed out at Akpabio, since he is representing Ikot Ekpene Senatorial
District, he has every right to draw the attention of the governor to the
uncompleted projects of the district. The senator did not point at all the
unfinished projects he commenced in other senatorial districts but those in his
domain. In addition, he has the right to spot the imbalance in the 2018
proposed budget which has not augured well for his Senatorial District. Whether
his outpourings are dismissed as fatuous and preposterous, the Senator has made
his point clear.
Akpabio’s all is not well
commentary reminds me of Chinua Achebe writing in Things Fall Apart where he puts down a song played when a woman
dies. It goes:
For whom is it well, for whom is it well
There is no one for whom it is well.
Yes! I am UbongAbasi Ise. For
comment send SMS to 08189914609 | ubongabasiise@gmail.com
Source: The Sensor Newspaper
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