Senator Anietie Okon's Twilight Activism Exposed
In a surprise dramatic twist to glibly relaunch his
evidently deadened literary skills, Senator Anietie Okon treated Akwa Ibom
people to some stage performance as he belaboured to garb his former benefactor
and Leader Senator Godswill Akpabio, in a shade of bad light. His twilight
stage-play disingenuously captioned, " Historical Distortion of Political
Reality" was no doubt a literary
disaster. His lines were utterly disjointed, his grammar more obfuscating than
revealing, his narrative tortuous and evidently misleading. On the whole, one
could take the script for nothing but the gibberish misadventure of an
ill-educated and overly disgruntled political predator. Indeed, Senator Anietie
Okon's diatribe against former Governor Godswill Obot Akpabio apparently
reveals the level of frustration some political scavengers within the PDP fold
have suffered and will continue to suffer and brood over for a long time.
Whereas the fun-loving
Senator Okon has the right to his opinion, you can't help but empathize
with him when you come to terms with the
fact that it is all over for the PDP in Akwa Ibom State particularly with the
uncommon movement of Senator Godswill Akpabio to the APC. Since August 8, 2018
when distinguished Senator Godswill Obot Akpabio made that historic move, all
had ceased to be well with the PDP and like Chinue Achebe would say,
"things fall apart and the centre cannot hold". From all indications,
you can see that it is end of road for PDP in the State, hence the cacophony of
cries we are hearing from all quarters within their fold. In this season of
lamentation, no one is spared. If it is not the God forsaken King bemoaning his
sore predicament, it is his rabble-rousing band of court jesters humming their
blame acapella. The latest among these noisome clan of political dramatists is
a supposed elder Statesman whose political trajectory is anything but
statemanly. Call him the veteran Casanova, he is indeed a queer character who
could have matched the late Hugh Marston Hefner of the popular Playboy Mansion
reality show in the philandering exploit.
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| Senator Okon |
If there is one man that is devoid of enterprise except
philandering and deflowering the This is a man who has been in government for
only God knows how long, yet he does not own a single bungalow home or abroad.
He is fanatically in love with the penthouse apartment of luxury hotels often paid
for by government. He has no career history except scavenging around government
houses. He is a political parasite whose proclivity for loosed living knows no
bound. Sometimes, one may be tempted to ask, does this man have a family?
young, it is Senator Anietie Okon. With due to
respect to Senator Anietie Okon, apart from deflowering the young, can you
boast of one single young Akwa Ibom child you have changed from boy to man just
like Senator Godswill Akpabio did? All your appeals assistance from government
were geared towards all young girls in Akwa Ibom.
Inspite of all the
monies he has made from past and successive governments, he still cannot point
at one focal investment he has established to help grow either himself or his
community yet he chronically prides himself as the political leader of his
people. Now you can see the reason for his paranoid outburst against
distinguished Senator Godswill Akpabio.
He talked about abandoned projects as if Godswill Akpabio's
administration was the only government that started projects that were not
completed at the end of the lifespan of such administration. For the avoidance
of doubt, we may have to recall that under Obong Victor Attah, so many laudable
projects were conceptualized but never actualized. For instance, as at the time
Attah left office, the Airport project was still at the teething stage of site
clearing and ground preparation; yet Obong Attah had already sent people abroad
who were to come back and man the Airport after their studies. If Godswill
Akpabio had the mind of Udom and chose not to carry on with the Airport
project, what do you think would have been the fate of hundreds of Akwa
Ibomites who were hastily ferried abroad and have since returned to work in the
present Airport built and commissioned by Governor Godswill Akpabio?
If Attah did the ground breaking and site clearing and
Godswill Akpabio came in to fix the requisite infrastructure for the airport to
take off, would it not be right for Udom to grow the airport to a level it can
boast of a word class terminal building the type Godswill Akpabio had envisaged but couldn't
finish? How about the abandoned MRO facility that is being left to atrophy? Is
this one also a monument that the present government has seen no virtue in
turning into a booming enterprise?
Apart from the airport project, it is also instructive to
note that the State University project was conceived by Obong Victor Attah
since the year 2000. Even when no tangible infrastructure was put in place for
the institution to take off, Obong Attah had began sending would-be personnel
abroad for further studies. The institution had curiously remained a port folio
University with office along Wellington Bassey Way in Uyo, until September 15,
2009 two years after Attah had left office, when a law establishing the State
University was enacted. The following year, Akwa Ibom State University got its
first set of students. Then followed the accreditation of sundry programmes and
courses. All these happened under the first term of Governor Godswill Akpabio.
It was the ever pragmatic Governor Akpabio who as fate would have it, witnessed
the graduation of the pioneer set of students of the University shortly before
he left office in 2015. Our take, if Governor Akpabio did not breathe life into
this apparent pipe-dream project of his predecessor, would it not have turned
into an 18 year old monument by now?
Shall we remind our dear Senator Anietie Okon of how his
hero and former Governor Attah left office without constructing the access road
that leads to his village - one of the key projects he had promised his people
as a seating Governor. Hope he has not forgotten so soon that it was Godswill
Akpabio who paid handsome compensation to Attah's kinsmen to make way for the
smooth execution of the once abandoned project and also ensured that before the
expiration of his first term in office, a well-lit dual carriage way was
delivered to the people of Ibesikpo Asutan Local Government area where the
former Governor hails from.
Truth be told, government is not about buck-passing or
seating on a cosy swivel armed chair of the government House to complain. It's
about taking responsibility and setting priorities. Indeed no Governor has been
elected by his people to spew excuses, all they want is for the Governor to
work and bring about tangible results, not to engage in petty blame-game as we
are witnessing today in Akwa Ibom. We have heard enough of all this cacophony
about monuments that former Governor Akpabio left behind and one may wish to
ask; is the abandoned MRO facility a monument? Is the Ibom Specialist Clinic a
monument? Is the State e-Library a monument? What of the cosy state-of-the-art
Government House which houses the Governor's office, Deputy Governor's Lodge
and the Governor's Lodge that the present Governor is luxuriously ensconced in,
does that one too count as a monument? Shall we mention the Federal road
network constructed by former Governor Akpabio to help ease movement within and
around the State. Are these what we refer to as monuments? How about the
international stadium that exposes Akwa Ibom indigenes to world class football.
If building a monument is what a Governor needs to secure a second term, can
the current Governor show us his own monuments? We have it on good authority
that the Governor has had a copious refund of the monies Governor Akpabio
expended in building some federal infrastructures in the State, can the present
administration show us the monuments it has built from that huge revenue that
was refunded?
Before now, Ibom Le Meridian Golf Resort used to be a
favorite destination of Nigerian professionals for conferences and retreats,
but under the current administration, the 5 Star Hotel enterprise has been
reduced to a mere local Motel. Similarly, the Ibom Specialist Clinic that had
since been opened for business is now under lock and keys. These are some of
the legacy projects built by former Governor Akpabio which as rightly captured
by the seating Governor has been turned into monuments. No thanks to a Governor
who appears to either be propelled by sheer ill-will or plagued by
administrative ineptitude.
It is not enough to accuse Senator Akpabio of official
larceny and abuse of State funds at a time the State tend to have witnessed
economic boom but comparative check should be made on a State like Rivers which
drew more revenue than Akwa Ibom yet had virtually nothing to show for at that
time. In essence, one would readily agree that it is not all about how much you
get as a Governor, but how willing a Governor is disposed to applying the funds
available on projects and programmes that will turn around the fortunes of his
people. Akpabio may not have been a Saint, but at present, there is no Governor
dead or alive who has out-classed him in project delivery and overall
performance. Like lawyers are, I want to say " res ipsa loquitur".
Government is no doubt a continuum where successive
administrations build on the foundation of their predecessors. If Godswill
Akpabio did not complete and expand Le Meridian Golf Resort and further give it
a 5 Star status, does it not logically follow that this laudable initiative of
his predecessor would have become a monument? Senator Anietie Okon would do
well to have asked Obong Attah how much he expended on the hotel enterprise yet
it still remained a dream project as at the time he left office. Senator
Anietie Okon should also ask Attah how much was sunk into the hyped airport
project pre 2007 yet it still remained at the foundational stage of site
clearing and ground levelling by the time he left office in 2007.
We do not believe that Senator Anietie Okon's grouse with
Senator Godswill Akpabio is the distortion of historical fact as he so claims
instead we believe it is the first time in history since he got baptized into
politics, that he has found himself on the loosing end - a costly misadventure
he can hardly endure. For him, it is the uncommon defection of the uncommon
Transformer which has brought about the imminent failure of PDP in the State.
So Akpabio must be abused, cajoled, vilified, blackmailed and insulted.
Now that we know the truth, it is high time we told the
Playboy Senator to sheath his dingy sword of anger. Instead of engaging in
twilight activism, he should rather redirect his apparently waning energies
towards making a better person out of himself. He should first remove the spec
in his eyes so that he can see well to have the log in another removed.
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