Akpabio Explodes: I’m the Most Persecuted!
By News Editor
Two-time Governor of Akwa Ibom State and former Senate Minority leader,
now a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress party, Dr. Godswill Akpabio,
in this explosive interview takes on his critics, why they are after him and
his numerous achievements as a Governor. He dares anyone to come forward who
knows of any of his properties in Dubai, UK, or anywhere in the world. He says
I’m the most investigated Governor.
Gov. Emmanuel and Hon. Luke have severally applauded you as their
leader. If you have this magic charm on them, why were you not able to win them
over when you changed camp?
It is simply because our visions
are personal and no matter how close you are to your brother you can only do
your best to convince them. If you are a Muslim you follow the age-long
teachings of Prophet Mohammed, and of course, as a Muslim, your end will be
paradise and as a Christian, your end will be heaven. Really, political affairs
should be voluntary, there should not be a compulsion and a leader should not
force a subject to follow his own line of thought. What a leader sees in the
followers sometimes still baffles a lot of people, not just in Akwa Ibom, but
in Nigeria. I was spiritually birthed into a political family and our age-long
tradition in the South-South has always been with the North politically. If you
cast your mind back, to even the days of the recently buried Shehu Shagari, may
his soul rest in peace, you will notice that. For the first time, there was a
son of South-South in 2015, our former President Goodluck Jonathan, who
contested, but lost the opportunity to midwife the zone into the central
politics of Nigeria. So you have the South-West working together with the
North, and there was need for someone to think of how to integrate the
South-South into the mainstream politics of the nation, particularly as the
zone produces 90% of the wealth of the country. That is the thinking of a
leader. This does not mean that if you are comfortable in your current state,
say you have a state you are running, for instance, if you are a state
governor, you are a senator, you are this or that in your zone and you are
comfortable, you don’t have to follow your leader. But a leader sees further
more than you and so I don’t think there was a need for me to talk to anybody,
not even my family members, it was just an inspiration that I had, very
spiritual in nature that there was a need for me to re-ignite that age long
unity that has existed between the South-South people of Nigeria and the North,
and now particularly with the coming on board from 2015 of the South-West into
the central politics. The South-West you know predominantly used to be in the
opposition, even during the days of Action Group and the days of ACN and all
that, so now under the APC, the South Wes ist at the centre of Nigerian
politics. I don’t think it will be a good idea for the South-South to be left
in the lurch. We have been left out for four years because we had a son of the
soil contesting. So it will be foolhardy of any leader not to carry his people
into the centre of politics in Nigeria. That was the reason why I made up my
mind, for national interest, to join and stabilize the polity and that was the
reason I felt it was not necessary to attempt to make it a compulsory thing for
either of my followers, my brothers or my relations to follow me. However, in
the course of things evolving, almost 85% of those who believe in me have
joined the APC. At the outset I did not really talk to anybody. I thought I saw
up to five members of House of Assembly and four House of Reps members
declaring for APC. I turned around and saw a lot of elders, in fact, one of
them managed to climb the stage, by name Shugoto Iroro, a political titan,
somebody who has been doing politics from the days of South Eastern State and
Cross River, I saw him on the stage and he said you are a leader you can’t go
alone, we are many here, give me the microphone, give me the opportunity to let
them know that you are not alone. I started laughing and said Chief, I never
said I was alone; I only said I was moving, I did not say I had defected,
because that is when I will need other defectors to come. I have only walked
away. I am like a woman politically that has a generation behind her. So when I
said I have moved it means that a generational group of young leaders in the
North and particularly in the South-South have moved and that has created a
void.
Some people think one of the good things your movement from the PDP to
the APC will do for Akwa Ibom is that for the first time there would be a
proper election in the state. A previous elections, results were just written,
as opposition was weak, so maybe in the upcoming election in the state APC and
PDP will be equally matched. Do you agree?
As a journalist, if they say
there was no election in Akwa Ibom, that results were just written, it means
you have never voted here and you are not from here, that is the first thing.
Secondly, you mean there was dereliction of duty and you never reported it,
that elections did not hold, names are just written or results written? You can
see the fallacy of that. Of course, go back and look at the results of the
elections, you will see some instances results were so close. We did primaries
at a time in Eket, the man that defeated the incumbent, a sitting member of
House of Assembly, Ayan O Ayan, the incumbent sitting member of House of
Assembly defeated him with only one vote and when I undertook local government
election, the first local government election I did, a local government fell
into the hands of ANPP. So you can’t say elections in Akwa Ibom are always
written. There was another altercation and parties in the state struggled.
Other parties even went to the tribunal. So that assertion that election
results are always written is wrong. Ome thing you need to know is that if you
are in a good politician you will know that you cannot rig election where you
are not popular. Such results cannot stand. If the people are in agreement that
the NPN was the party they wanted and there was rigging because no election, it
is perfect, you will see that it will pass smoothly, but if for instance, if
the results are always written, how come somebody cannot come from APGA and
come and write results and take it and go and announce APGA in a place like
Akwa Ibom? Do you understand what I am saying? If a political party like APGA
is very popular in Anambra State, PDP cannot go and write results and announce
and I will say that is why if you noticed, the governorship election in Anambra
state has never really been won by PDP, are you saying PDP does not have the
power, even when we have the incumbency? The presidential incumbency and
Anambra that was in opposition was still winning an election. How come in
Lagos, when President Obasanjo was struggling to see whether he could take
South West and turn them to PDP, he could not take Lagos State under our
leader, Ahmed Bola Tinubu. It is not true that election results in Nigeria are
always written, there is no proper election. Anyone who is saying that is
saying that because the person wants to underrate the prowess and political
sagacity of Senator Godswill Akpabio, his ability to annex and work closely
with the people in 2002 as chairman of mobilization to ensure the re-election
of Obong Victor Attah as the second governor of Akwa Ibom State. You want to
underrate that effort, if you want to underrate that effort, it is when you
will say there was no election, but it was through mobilization of youths and
women through strategic campaigns to ensure the re-election of Obong Victor
Attah in 2003 and in 2007. Fifty nine people contested and the exercise lasted
five good days, some people slept on the streets. So if there was no election
in Akwa Ibom, why would there be such a very prolonged primary to the point
that even the governor preferred another candidate, Dr Mike, who despite all
the intrigues still lost. The Secretary to the Government of the Federation at
that time preferred another candidate but lost, even when he was at the federal
level; and the governor of the state came in person to lobby delegates to
ensure election of his anointed candidate and he lost, then I emerged as the
governorship candidate of PDP out of 57 aspirants. By that time in 2007,
between December and January, it became so hot that I ended up in the hospital
many times. I could not go home because I was afraid those powerful people who
lost the election may attack me, but the populace was on the street sitting on
the floor. I appreciated the people of Akwa Ibom across the state and my
acceptability across the state. So if I won that election. How come you now
tell me that election result was written, because even the incumbent did not
support my election in 2007 and yet I won the election in 2011. Didn’t you hear
about the struggle between the PzDP and the then ACN, when there was a lot of
tension in the state? At the end of the election we won, we only lost in one LG
and even in the LG we had almost 48 to 49%; we won in 30 of the 31 LGs. Who
told you there was no election in Akwa Ibom? In 2015, PDP lost the presidential
election 11 days before governorship election, it was not an easy task for PDP
at state level. I can tell you that many states failed like Jigawa and many
other PDP states; they could not withstand the tornado of President Buhari in
2015 but Akwa Ibom PDP won, we stood our ground and we voted for the current
governor of the state, Udom Gabriel Emmanuel and I was also restored the
senator against my brother, Chief Chekwas Okorie, I pollled 472,000 votes
because of card reader and he had 14,000 votes or there about. I would have had
more than that because normally we had over 700,000 registered voters in my
senatorial district, which has the highest number of polling units in terms of
population, even more than Eket and Uyo senatorial districts and Uyo has about
900 polling units, we have about one thousand two hundred and twenty-four and
Eket has about 800. I know these statistics as a politician. The reason I am
mentioning this to you, under normal circumstances as a former governor and
someone that is looked at as the son of the soil, there is no way my people
would have given me lesser votes than they gave my predecessor who had a lot of
votes when he was going for the Senate. Former President Jonathan had a little
over one million votes in 2015, the total registered number of voters is about
1.7million. So if you are writing why can you say let me give the president
1.6million or 1.7million votes? There is no system that is perfect, even in
America, you can’t have a perfect election, there will be slight issues here
and there, even in any operation you try to give room to 5 to 10% mistake, but
on the whole, you will be insulting INEC, FEDECO or NEC, insulting the current
INEC Chairman and Professor Attahiru Jega if you say elections in Akwa Ibom
were not fair enough. What kind of propaganda is that? It is the defeatist
tendencies of those who say they will make an impact when the whole state has
moved you did not hear what I said? I did not say I had defected, politicians
use the word defect, I only moved in the national interest to join the current
President to stabilize the party. When I say I moved, it is pregnant with
meaning. It means that the entirety of those you might call the political
class, those who vote, not the elite who enjoy the government because
government gives them monthly allocation and the masses who know what it means
for their lives to be touched when a good government is in place have moved
with me. If you thought I was alone, then why did you have such man with the
crowd that you have never seen in the history of defection in Nigeria? So are
you saying those thousands of people that turned up are not with me. It took 17
minutes to get to the venue because of the sea of heads.If you are saying those
who are holding positions in government, you talk about the Speaker the
Senator, like I will always say salvation is personal, they are in a position
to access what may be their interest that will be best served by staying with
the current government of the state. Therefore there is no need for me to tell
the people to leave the government. Stay in the government, so that we will
still have a government in place between now and May 28, when they are going to
hand over to the APC governor on May 2019. So don’t leave.
Did you leave any debt in Akwa Ibom as governor?
There is no government without
debt, even the current administration of President Buhari inherited debt, the
colonial masters left debt for Tafawa Balewa but when it comes to what they are
speculating is balderdash and I am happy you asked that question. Some people
said Akpabio left behind a whopping N500bn indebtedness, which is not true.
What happened was that the total amount I collected as a loan from banks was
N80bn. It was the first N50bn and later N30bn and the reasons were very simple.
We were struggling to get Paris Club money of over $100bn and $365m or so, if
we had received that, we would have offset the N80bn loan. During my first
term, I did not borrow one naira. It was when we started having dwindling revenue
from oil; we were having zero allocation from NNPC. So when you hear Akpabio
promised 31 industries but did not build any, it was because the money was no
longer there and I was not going to build those sites, I was going to make
available N20bn through the investment arm of the state every year for those
four years so that people can access the money with conditions and then set up
the industries, so that we can ensure that at least one person per local
government was able to set up one industry, that was the way we wanted to do it
and so we budgeted M20bn, but we never touched N20bn because the money was not
there and part of what confuses people is that they don’t know that budget is
even an estimate, it is not realistic, it when the incomes come, whether
through IGR or FAAC, that you have the right to budget and project, it does not
mean you have spent the money. Lack of funds also slowed us down in completing
few of the projects we initiated, we had over 3,000 projects completed at a
time in one year. We commissioned about a thousand six hundred, when people
started arguing, we put it out on the internet for people to see and name the
communities. We laid underground pipes to bring the menacing issue of flooding
in some part of the state to an end, we built flyovers, the kind of project we
had was to turn Uyo to a small Dubai. We were even planning to work with masses
energy to have a fuel depot in Uyo at the airport so that we can start flying
with Emirate, that was why I started the Taxi way so that when the plane,
because of the large wing the 777 could have a free ride, that was why I
expanded the runway from 3.6KM to 4.2KM and brought in the best lighting system
and we made sure it was in the same categories with airports in London and
other advanced countries. We did underground pipe drainage system, 10.8
kilometres from the stadium; it is this available for everyone to see in order
for the road to last and that is the secret why some of the roads we
commissioned in 2009, nine years after you will not see a single porthole, that
is the secret of the survival of Itame junction that was flooded for 39 years
and vehicles could not pass, that is the secret to make sure that area by the
mega filling station that used to be permanently flooded during rainy season.
So the debt you are talking about, I was privileged to see a paper from the
Debt Management Office, (DMO) in 2016. The current administration when that bit
of economic rush came in, when the current government started insisting that
the states should comply with the government because it had just been in office
for one and half years, they had also incurred their own debt. So they added
that to contractual indebtedness and outstanding obligation of my government
and they brought it out and what they submitted to the debt management office
was about N147bn in December 2016, one and half years into Governor Udom
Emmanuel’s administration. The total debt profile of the state contractual and
otherwise was submitted as N157bn. That is not what they said I left behind.
But what did you leave behind?
I don’t think the debt profile
that we left behind was anything up to N60bn and don’t forget that except
payment for contractors, you know you pay them on milestones as they work, so
there must have been some outstanding IPCs also but what happens is that as
money comes in you settle contractors and the state used to sometimes receive
up to N15 to 30bn, so it is not as if these things can cripple a state. Even if
you don’t do any other thing at all you can pay all the debts in four months.
Government is about being able to move the people forward not as if government
cannot owe and whatever was owed by the governor was taken and brought over by
the Federal Government and spread over 25 years by the Federal Government
including Akwa-Ibom, so that whatever the government will pay on a monthly
basis will be reduced so that the government can move forward. So that is what
they did and the state government was not paying anything above N500m a month.
So, the N147bn was brought over by the Federal Government. You can get the
record from the debt management office; they will give you the real details.
Because of all these stories people were saying he left behind N500bn debt,
that was why I went to find out what was submitted as total indebtedness of
Akwa-Ibom state by Udom Emmanuel government in December 2016 to DMO and I have
the record for all the states in the federation. What I saw there I can’t
remember off hand was M143 or 147bn that is all. We were even among the least
indebted states. Some states are owing as much as 600,300,400 billion nairs and
for Akwa Ibom, with the level of economic income, we should be saluted. I also
left behind economic enablers, that if you were able to take one of them and
then privatize or sell off 50% you will pay off the entire debt. For instance,
I built Obon Power Plant, I completed Obon Power Plant people were offering me
as much as $190m to sell sixty per cent or 70% but I refused. I said if we
expand it, it will bring in a lot of revenue to the state. I also built a gas
plant in conjunction with a company from the United Kingdom, I brought in a gas
processing plant built it in Isereke and this is 69km of gas pipeline and I
made sure the state holds significant stake that will by the gas by 2 dollars
by the time they completed the plant. It was going for 2.8 so that is also
another income to the state and then we did fifty kilometres of gas pipeline
from Eserege all the way to NNPP in Calabar, we are the one supplying NNPP in
Calabar. I left behind economic enablers like hospitals, I built hospitals in
Obolo and other places and these places are generating revenue, I built state
of the art international hospital in Utame Junction. We invested over N250bn on
federal roads but the government told us they are going to pay in one way and
all that and what the Federal Government accepted to pay at my time was N145bn
and before I left office, President Jonathan said part of it should be paid, I
told the government after I handed over to pursue it. A month ago, they brought
it to parliament because they wanted to use part of the borrowed money from
China to offset some of the domestic debts. What was put in for Akwa Ibom was
N178bn and now from the N175bn to be refunded to Akwa Ibom and the Paris club
money that I did not collect. So you can see that from the Paris Club refund
alone whatever I might have left as debt has been wiped off. We left a lot of
economic enablers. So when they talk about debt, I laugh. When a government of
that nature, for a government that completed over 3,000 projects, and was able
to carry out such quantum of developments that were applauded even by the
United States conference, talking about N145bn debt, when the state is
expecting N175bn from the Federal road refund, talk about the international
prison that we built, over N3.7bn is going to be refunded to the state. The
airport itself is an economic enabler. We were able to carry out free and
compulsory education not to talk of N100 to 300bn Paris club refund left behind.
I left the state far richer than I met it.
What was really the issue then
with the EFCC trying to get the state government to open its books to
investigate you?
Those were baseless and unfounded
stories. The job of EFCC was to investigate petition, so there was a young boy,
a lawyer, who had a personal disagreement with me then, I met him and I
assisted them in the law school, I paid his law school fees. Somehow, he had a
personal disagreement with some of my staff and he has also come up to say he
was also used by people I relieved of their appointment. He said so in an
affidavit in the court of appeal voluntarily. So the EFCC has the right to look
at that petition. But when I came back, I had an accident in 2015 I still said
I must go because I was not around when I was invited. So I went to the EFCC
personally to ensure that I answered to the petition and I answered them. I am
the most investigated former governor in Nigeria. Go to anywhere in the world;
I don’t have a single house that I could sell, whether in the United Kingdom or
Dubai. So, forget about the contrived negative story that you heard about
Godswill Akpabio.
Many of these people may not have this privilege that I have to speak
with you, so how do they know your position on these issues?
That is the job of you
journalists and the media in general. It is about the investigation; you think
the world is stupid that one person will receive over 13 PhDs across from the
University of Nigeria, Nnamdi Azikiwe University to University of Calabar to
Uyo everywhere one individual could be so honoured. I am the only governor,
past or present ever honoured with a PhD by the Nigerian Defence Academy, NDA,
whether military or civilian. I am the only governor in my tenure, 2007–2015,
who received commendation from the United State Congress for infrastructural
development. Some people are fugitives from reality. You cannot take all these
away out of either envy or petty jealousy. You will try to give the wrong
impression about me in my time. There were kidnapping and a lot of killings all
over the Niger Delta. If one person was kidnapped in Akwa Ibom, 10 were
kidnapped in Bayelsa, 15 were kidnapped in Abia, 20 or 50 were kidnapped in
Rivers. In my own case, people use whatever happened as a weapon of campaign
for them to unseat the governor. I understand what was going on and so would
you believe stories that a sitting governor will kidnap a teacher or his
brother. They even brought an ethnic angle to it. When someone is kidnapped
they will write a petition and indicate that a person is an Ibibio man, but I
thank God for the Police nay RRS, there is no single case of kidnapping that
was not resolved, not only that, all the people that were killed, the people
that killed them were all brought to book. They are well documented. They
documented their efforts very clearly and the people they arrested, many of
them are at various stages of prosecution. So when people are talking, my works
speak for me. When you come to Akwa Ibom, you see the works of Godswill Akpabio,
once you land in the airport, you see my work, you enter into the hotel, you
see my work, you walk to the stadium and you see my work, you go to the banquet
hall, you see my work, you go to Government House, you see my work. You go to
the streets of Lagos or you read newspapers that a house girl that had been
brutalized during my tenure and then the person is no longer Akwa Ibom because
we handed that industry to other Nigerians and West African countries because I
introduced free and compulsory education. I brought my children from
everywhere, the ones that are orphans, we set up a home in Uyo and called it
the Divine Children Home and put them there, over 1,400 of them, and made sure
that they went to school. Those children are still meeting me till today at the
airport, at everywhere. When I am travelling to Kaduna by rail from Abuja, they
still come and hug me and say, Sir I am what I am today courtesy of your forced
and compulsory education programme, I never thought I could go to school. That
is the joy I derive. Meanwhile, I used to send at least 500 Akwa Ibom people on
compassionate ground to different places in India for training, for medical
treatments. One of them solved a mathematics problem in India and got the first
class and he came back and solved a 62-year-old mathematical problem. It is
only that if you are a fugitive from reality, you can never acknowledge all
these feats. You cannot run away from my transformation of Akwa Ibom, you can
run away from the fact that yes indeed, there was a governor and if you’re
trying to run away from it you are running away from your shadow which will
continue to follow you. We are talking about the issue of debt, we had the
least debt in the state but don’t talk about debt in government alone, also talk
about the economic enablers and the income, the expected income to pay off
those debst, the Paris club money, the refunds on federal roads, even the
refund on the prison we built, the international prison that we built and
donated to the Nigeria Prison Service.
One of the things you have been severally criticized for was when you
had an accident, a lot of people complained that you did not go to the hospital
that you built. How come?
At that time, we had not received
the expatriate quota for the expatriates that were supposed to man the
hospital. Though that hospital has been commissioned, we have not fully
commenced operation of the hospital. Even the current governor of the state, when
he had a medical problem, he was at the hospital and the result that he was
given at the hospital was amazing. The hospital was meant to cater for all
medical problems of West Africa but we need experts who can handle the
hospital. That was the reason I signed an agreement with Arabian management
group who are also working with the Swiss management group at that time. Don’t
forget that it was barely three months after I left the office, and they have
not yet received the expatriate quota to finance the hospital. Some of them
came for the commissioning of the hospital edifice but they have to wait for
the funds to come in before they can start operating the hospital. If not, by
the time I had the accident, why should I go abroad when I had a very good hospital
of that magnitude. Don’t forget also that I was first taken to that National
hospital first after that accident, and when I was discharged, I went for
further medical observation to escape sympathizers who were trooping into the
hospital every day, I couldn’t have rested. I also went to London hospital to
do some further checks, even when Mr. President phoned to find out how I was
doing, I spoke to him myself and I give glory to God that I did not die. I was
in a coma when I was taken away from the accident site because the car
somersaulted about five times. Don’t also believe the rumour that the driver
was trying to escape traffic gridlock. That morning there was a federal road
traffic officer who stopped us, and we were standing in one location on top of
the bridge, I even took off my safety seat belt and I bent down to take my
drugs from the bag, it was at that stage that somebody bang the car and said
move, and I replied, what is it. It was after that I saw a car coming towards
us and I said God ‘take care of my children’. It was after that I noticed that
I have a swollen chest and fuel was pouring by the side of my car. The car that
hit me was a bulletproof American car. Eventually, when they brought me out,
they all thought I was dead. Even the way I was dragged out the car affected my
neck because they use my jacket to drag me out, thinking that I was already
dead. I thank God because he saved me when I was taken to the National
Hospital. It was an experience that I will not wish for my enemy. All the
stories you hear that the hospital is not okay were not true because the only
problem we had after the commissioning of the hospital is just the expatriate
quota that will keep the hospital staffs on.
When we were talking earlier, you mentioned the current governor in
Akwa Ibom state; you said he is not experience?
How can I say that? He has been
in government for three and a half years, how can I say that he is not
experience.
Okay, do you really think he is doing well?
History will judge him, not me
What I am trying to get is that you are the person that gave this
governor to Akwa Ibom?
No, the Akwa Ibom people voted
for him
Yes, they voted for him, but you facilitated his emergence?
There is something that you need
to know, I met the governor in a church in Surulere, Qua Ibom Church and I was
told that he is a deacon in the church and also a Deputy Director in Zenith
Bank. For me, I believe in getting the best person for my people, there were
almost 28 people who wanted to be governor of the state, but later 23 of them
bought the governorship forms. One left to APC and 22 aspirants were left. We
have some of my commissioners and lots of people who have worked with me. It
was not an easy task for me then, but I concluded that I will see my people if
they will accept a peacemaker in form of a neutral person that they don’t know,
that was how His Excellency Governor Emmanuel name was chosen. When he came,
the people love him, and I love him too but the other 22 candidates formed an
association against him. Even some elders went to court to testify against him
then. I thank him because later he reconciles with all of them, he invited them
one after the other, and he also honored those elders that testify against him
before in the court of law. I think in my own way that it is Godly for him to
have forgiven them.
What is the disagreement you have with the governor now?
I don’t have any disagreement
with him, just that we are in the different parties now. The only disagreement
I had with him is that he said I came in a night bus to become a commissioner
in 2001/2002 which is not true. I actually came in through Port Harcourt before
my cousin took me up. Then again he said I came with a chartered plane to
become the governor but he has forgotten that it is the state governor plane
that he is still using that brought him. I carried him with state plane he
mentioned, which is Gulf Stream 450 and that was what he is still using till
now. The disagreement is on the mode of transport and not on his performance.
Is it true that you heard that the governor was going to move to APC,
and you told him to wait for a while before you now made your own move?
It is not true; there is still
room for defection, even till today.
Many people think that Akwa Ibom state will bill a battleground because
of your defection to APC. Are you comfortable with the insinuation?
The APC have taken over Akwa Ibom
even before I join them. Do you know why a leader should move with his people?
A leader should always look back and see if his people are following him. Even
if they are running away from him, he will still hear footsteps, and if they
are not following, you will definitely hear footsteps too. By the time I
decided that I was going to APC, by the time I landed at the airport, the whole
airport was APC. The whole of the airport to the town was APC. The whole of the
plaza in Uyo was APC, the jubilation was too much. Women and men were bringing
their brooms from under their bed, which means they have been hiding them
because of me and they were sweeping the roads. A distance of twenty minutes
took us over two hours to cover because of the jubilation of Akwa Ibom people
that came for the jubilation. I was now saying that so all these people belong
to APC. When I asked them they said sir, after you left office, it wasn’t the
same again. We have moved to APC, and I asked them when, and they said since
2015. Normally, every family has a civil servant, and in Akwa Ibom, the head of
civil service command about sixty-four thousand workforces not to talk about
the local government service in the thirty-one local government of the state.
In some local government, we have up to six hundred or seven hundred staffs, so
you should be looking at twenty-four thousand people in the local government workforce.
When you add that to the state civil service workforce, you will be looking at
close to one hundred thousand people. Because you will also add the state
assembly staffs, the NUT etc. Those people too have adult children who live on
them. What really plays a major role in Akwa Ibom is that when the civil
servants are happy, it reflects in their homes, in the churches. When a civil
servant says there have never been a pay slip to even show what he collects on
a monthly bases. Many people have died without collecting their gratuities.
Eighty per cent of the people in the civil service are now in APC. By the time
they got to know that the leader who kept them together have decided to share
their own view, the result was amazing. A woman while struggling to get
registered had her hand cut off. She brought out hand in a coaster bus, and her
hand was chopped up by the gate, and the hand fell on the floor. Up till today
my wife and I have been taking good care of the woman. It was an incident that
makes me weep. If you ask the APC headquarters, they will tell you that we have
over three hundred thousand card-carrying members within six weeks. When I hear
that Akwa Ibom is going to be a battleground, I laugh because there is no
battleground in a state that has already shown direction. The Akwa Ibom PDP
members in the state know that they will not be given money at the headquarters
in Abuja to share if they are not talking as they are doing now. I can
confidently confirm to you that the first state President Buhari will win
within three hours of voting is Akwa Ibom. It is not because of me but because
of the change that the federal government has started. The reason I am being
attacked is just because I am a leader here and a lot of people came out to
boldly associate with APC when I joined, but people have rejected PDP before I
declared for APC.
Who is the leader then in Akwa Ibom?
We have a leader in the person of
Don Etiebet but they don’t probably know the numbers of followers they had then
until when I joined. I was in London on Monday, and I joined on Wednesday. I
couldn’t even move with my car and I have to trek. Even when I was coming from
Enugu from the burial of my wife grandmother I was called on the phone that the
youths from my senatorial constituency want to hear from me directly about my
defection to APC, and the reason I move to APC. They actually applied to the
local government chairman to get a hall for the reception, but they were
refused to use the hall by the chairman. The forcefully find their way into the
hall but the chairman did not on the generating set for them. I was shocked
when I saw the crowd because it was raining on that day, and there were about
45,000 youths. You need to do your independent investigation about what I am
telling you in Akwa Ibom. They said they will go anywhere I move to and I
promise to take my people to the centre.
Can you throw more light on the statement credited to you that what
money cannot do, more money will do it?
I don’t know where you got that
from. There was a youth corper who work with me as a personal assistant who now
works with the present governor of Akwa Ibom. He has been writing all sorts of
things about me. He even calls me a comedian for moving into APC. He formed a
team of writers online to be writing all sorts of things about me. He has been
going around churches telling people that I want to form a cattle colony in
Akwa Ibom state. There is no government that will like to kill his people that
he is ruling. That was what people said during President Jonathan time to when
people were saying different things about him. Don’t let us mix religion with
politics. I never said what money cannot do; more money can do it, because for
example; money cannot buy life. Money cannot cure cancer right now. So if it
your time to die, you will use the money to escape it. Please help me to inform
Nigerians that I didn’t say that.
It was alleged that at your first appearance at the National Assembly,
you gave so much money to members to become a principal officer of the Senate?
People don’t like to give credit
to who it is due. There are people who shy away from the truth. The people of
the South-South are very proud of me because I changed the story of the
South-South. A lot of people say that lots of money goes to the South-South,
but there is little to show for it but for the first time I became a governor,
that insult vanished because of what I achieved. Because if come to Akwa Ibom;
you will see some of my achievements. There is nowhere you come from this world
and you come into the Godswill Akpabio stadium in Akwa Ibom and you walk into
the VIP stand with two hundred and fifty bulletproof seats that you will not
commend me. When you walk into the Governor office constructed under my regime
that you will not marvel. It was constructed with ICT compliance. When the
position was zone to the South-South, the people from the South-South in the
house said as their leader I should be the best person for the post. When they
approached me, I refused and told them that I have never been on leave for
eight years, and I need to rest. They insisted, and I have to honour them by
taking the post. Don’t forget that I have been the chairman of PDP governors
forum in Nigeria. I also owe the South-South senators an apology for going to
APC without informing them, because, after my meeting with the president, the
story was already everywhere in the world, so I believe that even if I call
them then, they will be looking at me as an APC person. I owe them an apology
for not informing them. Some people were saying that I left without any
followers but what about the forty-five thousand people at the stadium. When
the president came and you saw over seventy thousand people at the stadium,
some people don’t even have seats to seat in the stadium in a South-South
state. It is only God that can enthrone kings so I don’t want to brag. I have
done over seventy-eight jobs in the states in Akwa Ibom. I have been a governor
of the state for eight years, and I will always serve them till I die. I am
collecting the pension as a former governor of the state.
Some of you in the Senate are receiving pensions as former governors
and also receiving your salaries as senators, people are saying that you should
leave one of those allowances?
Nothing like two salaries,
because we are collecting pensions as former governors and as a serving
senator, we must be paid our allowance when due. At least we must maintain our
office and as a former governor, we must get the pension for working as a
former governor of a state. People don’t understand because you can only
receive only one pension as a former governor, and a serving senator, you must
get your allowance.
The issue of security vote to
governors, people believes that the security funds should be given to the
police force to make them more effective in their operations.
Whether you like it or not,
security vote should always be available for governors uto keep the state crime
free. There are things that you must make provision for; welfare of the people
and secondly the security of the people. We are operating a democracy and the
constitution says in section two, subsection 2b that the primary duty of
government is to provide security for life and property, and the welfare of the
people. If anybody tells you that security vote should be stopped, that means
the person doesn’t know what he is saying except if there is a misuse of the
funds by the state governor.
So if there is a vote, you will vote for state police?
I have always voted for the state
police, and I am always an advocate of state police. If a security man is from
another state, he may not know the terrain like a person who have lived all his
life in that particular environment. During the time of our fathers, they know
the bad guys in the village, so if a goat gets missing in the village they know
where to check it and who to hold responsible for it. There is a need to
compliment the efforts of the federal government by providing for the state
police. Any governors who misuse it also should be held responsible for the
action. During my growing up days, you cannot just acquire wealth without doing
anything. In the United Kingdom, you see police without a gun because they are
the metropolitan police. There can also be National state police commission
that will be recruited by the state but will be trained at the national level
but they will be deployed to the state where you are from and they can also
advance to federal police level if needed.
©thestreetjournal.org
Go Home to read more
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