After A’ibom PDP Tramadol Rallies, Wailings
By UbongAbasi Ise
“All these are the beginning of
sorrows” – Matthew 24:8
When about 35 containers of
Tramadol were seized out of sheer luck by Nigeria Custom Service at various
ports in the country as reported in June 2018 by the NAFDAC boss, Prof. Moji
Adedeye, there was the need for a rethink. It becomes pertinent, given the wave
of unfolding events in Nigeria, to interrogate and to find out if tramadol, an
opioid analgestic, is not one forbidden fruit that causes frenzied
socio-political atmosphere in recent times. In Nigeria, every activity seems to
go above normal tempo and rhythm, and there is growing suspicion that tramadol
must have been at work. Besides
relieving moderate and moderately severe pain, I’ve heard that it is tramadol
that Aboki man takes in order to stimulate him to trek from Gwadabawa in the
North to Ibiono Ibom in the South. I also heard that it is tramadol that our
men abuse just to prove their virility to their women without minding that they
are adversely killing their body system. Because of the fact that tramadol
stimulates, yours truly is beginning to suspect that the PDP stage-managed political
endorsement functions and rallies that are in full spate in Akwa Ibom today are
probably influenced by tramadol hydrochloride, 225 milligrams.
When Senator Godswill Akpabio was disrobing himself
of the garment of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, to carry the broom of All
Progressives Party, APC, we saw how Governor Udom Emmanuel blenched and looked
back at the grassroot he used to view with disdain. He had to go about
sponsoring political rallies at the ward level in quite a maniacal manner; some
attention the grassroot had not receive since his coming to power in 2015. This
is the Governor that was killing the state’s democracy at its most basic level
for over two years by not allowing the grassroot people to have their say and
to vote in their local government executives of choice. Top excuse was lack of
money to conduct local government election even when the state was enjoying the
highest share of monthly allocation from the federation account. Local
government workers were denied their basic entitlements and they were left to
starve under the pretext of paucity of funds. When local government council
members were eventually elected or selected in December 2017, their case was
even more pathetic. They almost beg for primordial necessities to survive. It
was either they take the peanut offered to them, or they leave it, after all, they didn’t
know how they got to the local government councils. Surprisingly today, something
forced generosity and magnanimity out of our dear governor. Even the past
councilors are said to be smiling to the bank.
All thanks to the uncommon defector, Senator Godswill Akpabio.
It is unbelievable that a mere local government
political rally under this tight-fisted dispensation could fetch so much money
to the pockets of the participants. This has unmasked the wicked, selfish and
hypocritical face of Udom Emmanuel’s administration towards human welfare and
wellbeing. Thank God that Akwa Ibom people are wiser now. The probable
tramadol-induced rallies were just the open secret and stratagem calculated to
put hooks in the noses of the people so as to drag them backward for another
four years. One thing to know is that Mr. Udom Emmanuel is just a mindless
capitalist that cherish profit above human wellbeing, and so all these monies
splashed on the prospective electorates are coming out of sheer desperation to
win their hearts and sympathy for undeserving reelection. If the incumbent
Governor is given a chance to govern the state again in 2019, first thing Udom
Emmanuel is likely to do is to recoup his investment, gather profit, and then
allow human development to continue to pale in a bad way. Let us not be
deceived that a leopard can ever change its spots; no matter the weather, it
can’t. As 2019 is fast approaching, let us know that it is precarious to allow
ourselves to be charmed by the gallantry of a profit worshipper because his
vapidity toward human growth can be the worst in the second coming.
As it stands,
Mr. Udom Emmanuel seems ready to spend a lot of money on electioneering. The
advice for Akwa Ibom people is: get close to your Governor; attend his
political rallies; collect as much money as you could because it is your money;
tell him how much you want him to stay if that is what he wants to hear; make
sure you don’t decamp late; find time to collect your PVC and be ready to
forcefully vote out the inept, clueless, mindless propagandist, evil, and
backward administration next year.
The PDP in
Akwa Ibom State today knows it is a sinking boat. But its handlers are smarter.
That is why they floated nauseated rallies the same day Akpabio was received
into the APC family. PDP uses money incentive to preclude massive defection
that day. It is still a matter of doubt if the PDP in the State would still survive
a wave of defection that would rock it when some smart members in the state
cabinet as well as the lawmakers both at the State House of Assembly and the
Federal House of Representatives finally decide to save their political career
in a last-ditch.
Besides, Mr.
Udom Emmanuel’s political appointees are not even helping him. I heard that
some of them are too selfish and ineffective in a way that they might not be
able to win over their polling units. If the Governor is to act on such
information by going ahead to reshuffle his cabinet, then such move would also
be cataclysmic to his reelection bid. The evicted elements would still look for
a platform to fight back. So, is it not better to let them stay and sink with
him? What a dilemma!
Those that
are still keeping faith with the dying PDP in Akwa Ibom should know that
degenerating political systems hardly endure without end. When people are
dissatisfied with the political leadership and system, the motivating ideology
remains ‘change at all cost.’ History is replete with revolutionary waves that
saw old rotten systems being replaced by new order. Tsarism, which was
established in Russia in 1547 by Ivan IV, was deflated by Bolshevik Revolution
in 1917 after many centuries of existence. It was the 1848-1849 revolutions
that abolished centuries of Serfdom in Austria and Hungary. In 2015, the Broom
Revolution swept away PDP at the helm of power after 16 years of control. In
Malaysia the hegemonic coalition party called Barisan Nasional, BN, that ruled
without interruption for six decades starting from 1957 when the country had
independence, was ousted in May 2018 by a powerfully constituted opposition
party, Pakatan Harapan, PH, in Malaysia’s 14th general elections. In
Akwa Ibom, the Broom Revolution looks real, and it set to sweep down 20-years
of PDP rule by 2019.
Yes! This is
history. Those that are still sticking with Udom Emmanuel at this moment when
the handwriting on the wall shows that the revolution is imminent are taking
the foolhardy decision. They look like the kind of people that would wail, and
wail to the high heavens on the wrong side of Change history. This time, Akwa
Ibom is ready to end higgledy-piggledy government of Udom Emmanuel which is
nothing but a mutant of the previous PDP administrations. Of course, a government
that goes about vainglorious with the propaganda of industrialization, while
unemployment rate skyrockets, does not deserve reelection. All these small factories
put up under the government of Udom Emmanuel may not produce a record that altogether
shows they have employed 1000 Akwa Ibomites out of tens of thousands unemployed
persons in the state, and so there is no need for PDP to waste their energy
begging for votes that would help them maintain the cancerous status quo. It is
time for Akwa Ibom people to boot out Udom Emmanuel and his PDP for good.
On Saturday
11th August, 2018, the PDP was desperately facilitating Uyo
Senatorial District Stakeholders meeting at Ibom Hall just for the aim of
wiping ethnic sentiments. In reference to history, it is only the evil and narcissistic
politicians like Adolf Hitler that ride to power on the back of ethnic
chauvinism and racial discrimination because they don’t have anything good to
offer humanity. If ethnic politics is to be considered, the stakeholders should
have to bear in mind that APC has its roots in Ibibio proper firmer than any
other sub-groups in the state. That is why gubernatorial flag-bearers, since
the time Action Congress, AC, to Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, and now, All
Progressives Congress, APC, all came from Ibibio proper. Therefore playing
ethnic card won’t stop the gale of broom revolution that is coming in 2019.
Yes!
I am UbongAbasi Ise. For comment, please send your SMS to 08189914609 |
ubongabasiise@gmail.com
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