Udom’s ‘Only God’ Epithet, Laughable
By UbongAbasi Ise
“When
a man is at peace with his gods and ancestors, his harvest will be good or bad
according to the strength of his arm” – Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart
Parties’ primary elections
have come to conclusion, and the next lap of campaigns will definitely land us
at next year’s general elections. Contestants are now aware of their real foes;
they could now assess their strength, their popularity and weaknesses.
Politicians can now formulate the combination of strategies and stratagem to
bolster their own popularity while seeking to de-market their opponents and then
rubbish their political parties altogether. In all, it is time too for the political
office seekers to give account of all their good deeds, deconstruct their bad
history, and raise a new hope for the future. We are in the season of thrilling
epithets, incredible manifestoes, and perhaps Quixotic promises.
I have come across one sympathetic catchphrase on
both the mainstream and social media which reads ‘Only God.’ This Only God
theme happens to come out from the camp of Mr. Udom Emmanuel of the Peoples’
Democratic Party, PDP, who is the incumbent Governor of Akwa Ibom State, and who
is seeking reelection. Before
I am unfairly linked to atheism, agnosticism, deism or whatever, I am not willing
to distract the purpose of this piece by provoking ontological argument on the
existence of God, rather, I prefer to look at the issue of faith and reasons as
they impact our political system in the heat of the campaigns towards 2019
elections. I know political office seekers are desperate, and are bent on
resorting to any ploy to gain advantage over their rivals. That is why greater
percentage of them would invent catch-phrase to arouse public emotion. When
some politicians discover they have nothing to offer and lack concrete reasons
that could excite electorates to vote for them, they fall back on faith. They
bring in religion because this would take away the sense of reasoning from man and
replace it with faith because “faith is the substance of things hoped for, the
evidence of things not seen,” according to Hebrew 11: 1. A lot of shrewd politicians know how to master
the manipulation of faith and religion in order to create hope out of empty
promises for the people, and make them fall head over for their gimmickries. Of course, a German sociologist, Emile
Durkheim, had posited that religion was created by society to hold grip on the
ignorant masses. Also a 19th century thinker, Karl Marx, was with
the belief that religion is nothing but the opium of the masses created by the
rich capitalists to opiate the poor. A
positivist philosopher, Auguste Comte, at a point in his life, believed that religion
was set up by primeval thinkers just to provide succour and calm to humans in
the face of rising difficulties. So when Mr. Udom Emmanuel started to be using
‘Only God’ epithet, which is faith-based, it arouses suspicion that the
Governor might have since realized that he is unable to provide Akwa Ibom
people with adequate reasons that could have influenced their decision in
reelecting him for another term, hence he decided to opiate them with faith,
Only God.
Akwa Ibom, a predominant Christian
State, has majority of very religious population, which invariably means that
smart individuals can easily have their way once they appeal to Christian faith
instead of reasons. No wonder dupers and pulpit thieves use the name of God
freely to rip-off unsuspecting citizens of their hard earned resources. It is,
however, not surprising that a State Governor, after wasting the people’s
mandate for more than three years, would use religious term as premise that
unfortunately turn out to become a kind of fallacy called argumentum ad populum,
which emphasizes emotion instead of facts on ground. Udom’s Only God motto, which also come on
social media with harshtag, is probably aimed at washing away every bit of
rationality off the people’s thinking and then cause them to overlook the
actual facts of underperformance.
Instead
of industrialization model that could have been designed to revolve around Ibom
Deep Seaport project, we are seeing ecumenicalism as reflected in the proposal
of International Worship Centre. Instead of granting entrepreneurs credit
facilities to strengthen the state’s informal economic sector for
industrialization to find its footing, monies are allegedly distributed in Qua
Iboe Churches to be used for no good reasons. The systemic excuse of Udom’s
government used to be hinging on paucity of funds. We were never told that
money was stashed away somewhere with deductions and cuts in expenditures
becoming the order of the day while businesses were begging for
recapitalization. But today, money flows in leaps and bounds for the
single-minded selfish purpose of reelection. Mr. Udom Emmanuel, a Qua Iboe
Church deacon, the self-acclaimed spiritual leader of Akwa Ibom State, and the
master of the modern day scholasticism, should know that it is written in the
Holy Bible that those that hoards grains and starve the people, deserves curse,
for Proverbs 11:26 (KJV) says he that withholdeth corn, the people shall
curse him.
Today,
we have more churches in Akwa Ibom than any era in the past. Businesses that
used to be using large office spaces to operate are now closing shops
apparently because they are struggling in the environment where cash are not
flowing. Therefore, those office spaces are to be converted to churches where
people will sing halleluiah and forget about their sorrows. Perhaps Udom Emmanuel never knows or let’s
say, he fails to remember that there is something about government expenditure,
because it can serve as a lifeblood for the societal growth and development.
When government spends, it is not intended for profit but to impact people’s
general welfare and to stimulate the growth of economy of the entire society.
Full payment of promotion arrears, gratuities, pensions and all other worker’s
entitlements could boost their purchasing power. They can build houses which
involve seeking the services of professionals like architects, engineers, carpenters,
plumbers, tilers, horticulturists, and those that offer unskilled labour. These
professionals, in their own turn, would buy from shops and from market women
and their businesses would grow and become sustainable; they can comfortably
feed many mouths that are depending on them for survival. In a situation where
a sitting governor withholds money with the lame excuse that the flow of income
is low, informal sector of the economy becomes suffocated and businesses die
miserably. Proverbs 11:24 says “there is
that scattereth; and there is that witholdeth more than is meet, but it tendeth
to poverty.”Only God!
I don’t know if the civil servants and pensioners are
told to close their eyes on the issues bordering their entitlements because
their reward would be waiting for them in heaven. Whatever it is, will the
civil servants wish for the continuation of a government that oversees frivolous
deductions of their salaries since 2015? Will they vote for the return of a
governor that withholds their promotion letter along with promotional
entitlements since he assumed office? Will those in the higher echelon of the
civil service sincerely support the
return of a governor that practically starve them of imprests that could have been
used in running ministries, directorates and units effectively? What about the
retirees? Will they advise their children to vote for a governor whose
administration treats them as beggars of their own entitled pensions? Only God!
To the present crop of Akwa Ibom students, payment of
bursaries is history. Will members of National Association of Akwa Ibom State
Students, NAAKISS, support the continuation of a regime that doesn’t care about
their welfare package? What about medical and law school students who have not
seen the state government largesse after the days of Godswill Akpabio at
Hilltop Mansion? Will they want Mr. Udom Emmanuel to continue to withhold their
allowances? Only God!
Senator Godswill Akpabio was a man that brought Mr.
Udom Emmanuel from obscurity against the popular wishes to give him political
relevance. Today, Udom is urinating on his head. To humiliate Akpabio, he has practically
punished the constituents of Ikot Ekpene Senatorial District by not siting
meaningful projects in the area. Some projects have been abandoned in the area,
some of which include Uyo-Ikot Ekpene Road, and Four-Point by Sheraton in Ikot
Ekpene. Even in Essien Udim local government area where Akpabio comes from,
Udom has not done any consequential project to show appreciation to the man
that brought him to political limelight. In Akpabio’s first term, he carried
out over 75 projects in Onna local government area which include electrification
projects in Okom and Ikot Abasi Oniong that were hitherto cut off from modern civilization.
Nagging water problem was solved for the people of Abak Ishiet, Okat, Ntan Ideh
Ekpe, Ikot Akpan Ntebom, Ikot Ntuen, Ikwe, Nung Oku Ekanem and several other
communities; and dilapidated educational facilities in Ikot Eko Ibon/Mkpaeto,
Ikot Ebidang, Nung Oku Itina, Ikot Abasi Oniong, Okat, Ikot Akpatek, Nnung Oku
Ekanem and others, all received the state government’s attention through inter-ministerial
and direct labour. That was why the good people of Onna local government found
reason to vote for the reelection of Chief Godswill Akpabio in 2011. In 2019,
what reason would the people of Essien Udim and other forgotten local
governments in Ikot Ekpene Senatorial District find in reelecting Governor Udom
Emmanuel? Only God!
And only God is the ultimate
judge who allows a man’s harvest to be good or bad according to the strength of
his arm, that is, to paraphrase Chinua Achebe’s quote in Things Fall Apart. If God is a Perfect Being, then It is associated
with positive attributes such as good governance, employment, prompt payment of
remuneration and entitlements, good roads, quality education, sound economy and
therefore it is on these variables that Providence could decide who leads Akwa
Ibom people in 2019.
We are in the digital age, not in
the medieval period of over 700 years ago that was characterized by faith and
religious interpretations in the area of economy, politics, government, law,
science, arts, and literature. We are in the age of advanced reasoning and
enlightenment that altogether coalesced into digitalization of all fields of
human endeavours. So dear Akwa Ibom
people, as you are going to the polling booths next year, I would love to plead
with you to “have courage to use your
reason” as a German philosopher, Immanuel
Kant, would say.
©
The Sensor Newspaper
Comments
Post a Comment