Ekpoudom On Akpabio’s Birthday: God Will Reward Udom, Others For Insulting Akpabio
... Senator Lives For Others
...He Has No Opponent In 2019 Senate Race
Retired Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG) Udom Udo Ekpoudom is one name that was associated with tact and excellence in the management of Nigeria's security architecture when he served the Police force.
The mention of his name as Commissioner of Police in the States where he served made criminals to relocate because he was deliberate in the way he tackled crime.
As one who has actively participated in the politics and development of Akwa Ibom State, he took the opportunity of the birthday of Senator representing Akwa Ibom North-West, Senator Godswill Obot Akpabio to bare his mind on the person, character and politics of Senator Akpabio.
Excerpts:
His Excellency, the former Governor of Akwa Ibom State, Senator Godswill Obot Akpabio is celebrating his birthday on December 9th, as a retired Public Servant what can you say about his politics and the contributions he made to the development of Akwa Ibom State as Governor?
Senator Godswill Obot Akpabio is a wonderful man. I can't describe how God created him. When I witnessed his developmental strides in Akwa Ibom State as a Governor, I was forced to address a press conference in my office in 2014. I used that press conference to beg my people in Abak Federal constituency, where the next Senator was to come from to leave that ambition and rather support Godswill Akpabio, so that we may attempt to compensate him for his good works. There is no gain-saying that there is no previous Governor of Akwa Ibom State that came close to achieving what Godswill Akpabio achieved. Before Godswill became Governor, people used to refer to Akwa Ibom State as a “village” state. But Senator Akpabio came and transformed the State to where a lot of people will like to live. So, he is a great man. I thank God that when I pleaded with my people to support him to go to the Senate they agreed and cooperated with me and we were able to make him Senator of Akwa Ibom North West Senatorial District. A lot of people in Akwa Ibom will testify to the patriotic zeal and sacrificial life style of Senator Godswill Akpabio and my feeling when he wanted to go to Senate was that we would not allow such a bundle of talents, administrator par excellence to come back home after he left the seat of Governor. I believed it will be a waste of our highly sort after, rare human resources. I believe my people would now see clearly that we did not make a mistake in supporting Senator Akpabio.
My people will agree with me that Senator Godswill Akpabio will go down in history as the first Senator from our Senatorial District that empowered people so much during his constituency briefing. Therefore, we never made any mistake in sending him to the Senate.
This is why we have decided that in 2019 he has to go back to the Senate because we know what he can do in that Senate. If anyone wants to know the capacity and ability of Senator Godswill Akpabio, we should just do a little comparism between his time as Governor and what Governor Udom Gabriel Emmanuel has been able to achieve. There is a big difference that shows clearly the superiority of Senator Godswill Akpabio's performance. In the first term of Godswill Obot Akpabio, he was able to build several dual carriage roads. Akpabio within his first term constructed Idoro road, Itam, Abak-Ikot Ekpene-Etim Ekpo dual carriage roads, and so on. There were too many roads he did and with the best engineering technology available. Today, ten years after, those roads are as solid as they were when they were constructed. He completed the Airport, Le Meridien Ibom Hotel, and Sheraton by four points, the Tropicana Entertainment Centre. Unfortunately, since he left office, those money spinning ventures like the hotels and Tropicana have been left to rot. Those things that used to bring tourists to the state and blue chip companies which come to host conferences have been allowed to become a shadow of themselves by Governor Udom's administration.
We have now seen the difference between two Governors. Since Udom Emmanuel came, he has not done 1% of what Chief Akpabio did in his first term.
There isn't one project with which we can remember Udom Emmanuel. Nobody can point out one thing that the present Governor has achieved since he came to power. He is my friend, I like him but I don't like incompetent people.
What about the industries they have been advertising as his achievements?
Which industry? Is it tooth-pick industry that anyone can establish that Government should say it is achievement? How many persons does the tooth-pick industry employ? When Godswill Akpabio brought him, we thought he was going to continue with the legacies of the former Governor but he did not.
Let's talk a little more about the philanthropic life of Godswill Akpabio, what are your comments on this?
The way to sum up the philanthropic life of Senator Godswill Akpabio is that he never thinks about himself; he worries day and night about the wellbeing of others.
As soon as he became Governor of Akwa Ibom state in 2007, he enlarged his bag of philanthropy. As Commissioner for Petroleum and then Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, he began to wipe tears from people's eyes, as Governor he did much more. We cannot count how many people in this State he raised from the dust to where they have become empowered mentally and financially. This is why I am not happy that some people Godswill Akpabio made millionaires and multi-millionaires are the ones fighting him right now. We cannot count the number of people, rich and poor that have acquired quality education through the efforts of Godswill Akpabio. The day he landed at my school, Tower of Ivory Schools he was happy with the quality of personnel and facilities and declared that children from poor homes, one per local government deserved to enjoy the benefit of the education available here. So we got 31 students on government scholarship but the present government has reduced that number to eleven. To tell you how much he wants to raise up the poor and needy, now that he is in the Senate he has gone out of his way to attract life-touching projects to poor communities. There are testimonies that through Senator Godswill Akpabio roads are being constructed in some communities. He is giving out scholarships to a large number of people.
A few weeks ago, hundreds of people received N250,000 each to help them set up their businesses. This has never happened before and I can say here that there are so many things Senator Godswill Obot Akpabio has done either as Governor or Senator, that no one before him has attempted to do. And my believe is that nobody can reward him for all these acts of kindness, except God. I am fully convinced that because of his unprecedented acts of kindness that people cannot harm him. Some people who are jealous of him have been fighting him but because of what he does for people, they cannot hurt him. Most of the children he gave scholarship in my school are from poor families and the prayers the children and their families have been praying for him have been protecting him. Honestly, if I want to speak of the kindness of Senator Godswill Akpabio, we are not going to close today.
A lot of Akwa Ibomites will remember the wife of Senator Godswill Akpabio, Her Excellency, Ekaette Unoma Akpabio as Mother Theresa of the state, on this birthday of the Senator, do you have any words and felicitations for her?
Her Excellency, Unoma Akpabio is another wonderful woman. I know that it would have been impossible for her husband to achieve all he did without her support. This is why in my school we found a way to appreciate her by naming the Assembly Hall in the Elementary Section after her. She was tireless in empowering the widows, orphans and less privileged persons. She built countless houses for widows and their children.
She is the pillar behind Senator Godswill Akpabio. She is a wonderful woman also. If she was a bad woman, she will not have allowed the Senator to affect as many lives as he did and is still doing positively. So we will continue to pray for her and ask God to bless her forever.
Can you say that Godswill Akpabio style of leadership is what youths should emulate?
I can tell you that Senator Godswill Akpabio has openly mentored a lot of young people and some are following him even without his knowledge. Godswill Akpabio is a philosophy of its own in terms of patriotism, philanthropy, development, administration and management. In one word, Godswill Akpabio is a go-getter. When I was in war College in 2003, we came to Akwa Ibom on educational tour, my classmates were from the rank of Colonel and above in the Army; I tell you that those of us from Akwa Ibom State got a lot of abuses from our colleagues, by that time there were no roads in Akwa Ibom. We were put somewhere at Ewet Housing to spend a night and there was no light in the place.
But such things never happened in Godswill Akpabio's era. So the young people in this State are going to emulate him. He is not a tribalist. Many of the people he made multi-millionaires in Akwa Ibom State are not of Annang stock, they are Ibibio's, Oro and so on. I believe a lot of young people are already hooked to his school of thought. You just have to hear the way young people talk about him, you will agree with me that the children are taking him as a role model.
When Senator Godswill Akpabio defected to the APC, he said he did it in the interest of Nigerians and his people. According to him, he wants to take Akwa Ibom to the federal government. What do you foresee as the benefits of his action?
Senator Godswill Akpabio is always proactive. He sees the future better than a lot of the other politicians. When we went to dump ourselves in an opposition party known as PDP, we didn't know the implication. But Senator Akpabio knows that no matter what we do, as long as we continue to be in opposition, we cannot have anything tangible in this State.
This is what he saw and decided to sacrifice personal benefits in order to lead our people to APC.
Senator Akpabio also saw that although we did not support the President well enough in the 2015 election, yet in terms of appointments and allocation of infrastructure, no PDP government we supported in the past has given us anything close to what we have received from President Muhammadu Buhari.
Buhari did not just give Akwa Ibom people appointments but he gave us very good ones. So the believe of Senator Akpabio is that if we didn't support Buhari in 2015 and he did so much for Akwa Ibom; if we support him in 2019, Akwa Ibom will benefit a lot more. A road that has been abandoned by several other governments – Calabar-Itu road has been awarded to Julius Berger by Buhari and they are working on it now. The Ikot Ekpene-Umuahia road, Ikot-Ekpene-Aba road, Abak-Ekparakwa-Ikot Abasi roads are all going to be constructed by the Buhari administration. Senator Godswill Akpabio believes that if we put ourselves at the centre of Nigerian politics, we are going to get more. So, I thank him for taking us to the centre. But for the few pessimistic, selfish people, I want to advise them to come back and join this patriotic man, so that Akwa Ibom would grow from what it is today, to something greater.
Since the Senator defected, we have witnessed a lot of persons, even some of his brothers he made betraying him. What is your advice to them?
Anybody, either in Annang land or Akwa Ibom that insults Godswill Akpabio has insulted God that created him. God created him and sent him to Akwa Ibom State. so if anyone attacks Godswill Akpabio, he has attacked God directly.
Unfortunately, most of the people insulting him today are people he made multi-millionaires. I can tell you that Godswill Akpabio single-handedly made Udom Emmanuel Governor. Udom was not a member of PDP. He was not a politician. He did not even register in his ward. But by chance he met Senator Akpabio in Lagos and the Senator brought him to us as the one to succeed him. Most of us did not like it; we advised him to pick one of the contestants that has been around Akwa Ibom and knows the problems of our State but he persuaded us to go with Udom and we supported Godswill Akpabio to make him Governor. If I were Udom, I will be the last person to insult Godswill Akpabio. But now Udom insults Senator Akpabio everywhere. He sends his people to insult him. I am very disappointed at this action of the Governor. We were told that the Governor is very godly but the way he insults Senator Akpabio everywhere now does not show that he still remembers the instruction in his bible. It is written in the Bible that the worst sin you can commit is the sin of ingratitude. So, I will not have expected the Governor who I respect to be at the forefront of insulting Senator Godswill Akpabio. But let me say that anybody insulting Godswill Akpabio is doing so at his or her own detriment; such people will surely be rewarded by God for their actions. Senator Godswill Akpabio has done so much for this State that he deserves to be respected.
There are some persons in Ikot Ekpene Senatorial District who are saying they will do everything possible to make sure Senator Akpabio does not return to the Senate in 2019. Do you think he has a chance?
Anyone who says he wants to stop Senator Godswill Akpabio from going to Senate in 2019 is day-dreaming. Godswill Akpabio has no opponent as far as the contest for the Senatorial Seat is concerned. If you go to the grassroots everyone is talking about Godswill. If you go to the market, everyone is talking about Godswill. Godswill is not appreciated only in Ikot Ekpene Senatorial District but in the whole State; so how can anyone stop such a person from winning election. We have only two months to go for the election and everyone will see that Godswill Akpabio is indispensible in Akwa Ibom and Nigerian politics and anyone talking about stopping him from returning to Senate in 2019 is joking. I want to say that Godswill Akpabio going back to the Senate will bring more benefits to us.
As Senator Godswill Akpabio celebrates his birthday in 2018, what are your wishes for him?
The wishes for my Senator is not for him alone. Anything good for him is good for Akwa Ibom State, our senatorial district and the whole country. So, I am begging God to continue to give him good health, so that he can continue to do the good things that he is doing for us in Akwa Ibom and Nigeria.
I am begging God to give him the wisdom to plan on how to develop Akwa Ibom and Nigeria, I am begging God to protect him, so that all the plans of the enemy will not work. I want his family to be in peace, so that he continues to work for Nigeria without distraction.
God has never disappointed me before and He will give our Senator long life and every grace he needs not only to be Senator but to become Senate President, so that he can develop Akwa Ibom State and the whole country.
To be continued
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