Akpabio And Fights That May Never Finish

By UbongAbasi Ise

Since the evening of Sunday 24th February, 2019 when it became quite clear that Igini’s system would not let Senator Godswill Akpabio’s senatorial ambition off the tethers, I have seen both social and mainstream media being inundated with combinations of weird and nondescript headlines frantically engineered to eclipse the lasts of whatever honour was left for Senator Akpabio. This vendetta reminds me of the myths of Heracles. In the story, a demigod, Alcides, who was later came to be known as Heracles, was son of Zeus, the king of the gods on Mount Olympus. Alcides had exceptional qualities of courage and extraordinary bravery but was detested by his stepmother, Hera, the queen of Olympus, who saw him as the illegitimate son of Zeus. Alcides remained a target of Hera’s jealousy, and because of this, situations were manipulated against him by the goddess to suffer all his life. In order to appease Hera’s anger, Alcides’s name was changed to Heracles, meaning, the glory of Hera, but did the hatred end there? No, it did not, and it seems too that the cruel hatred for Akpabio will never cease as far as he remains the demigod of the modern politics in this clime.

        Anytime I go through some anti-Akpabio narratives generated by the thingmummies of Akwa Ibom media, I had the conviction that they are piteously reflecting the political culture of the state that is notoriously lacking in focus and direction. In the undying heat of the multiethnic, sectional competitive struggles for supremacy that forms the hallmark of Nigeria’s politics, there is no influential voice at the national front at the moment that bargains for the extras where the interests of Akwa Ibom matters. Since the new national assembly was inaugurated, yours truly is yet to see a sign that the present crop of lawmakers would fetch the state extra benefits outside anything statutory. Beginning with the Senate, the state has lost grip of principal offices, and at the lower chamber, the speaker, Femi Gbajabiamila, is very religious about protecting the interest of his political party, APC. For instance, when he made 33 appointments of aides recently, none of the appointees came from Akwa Ibom, the PDP state, and the only one appointment he made outside the APC fetched him criticisms. APC in Anambra state, the Conference of Southeast APC Publicity Secretaries, and the Southeast APC Young Progressives Forum (SAPCYPF) slammed the speaker for picking Anayo Nnebe as special assistant on political matters. So it appears that parallel political position of Akwa Ibom with the centre would be placing the state at the weak position of dialogue. Unfortunately, our people could not observe this ominous sign, all they were interested about was to retire Akpabio to Ukana, and sweep him into political oblivion.

        How could our political orientation become so warped and parochial? How could our vision as a people become so blurred in a political setting that require farsightedness to stay on in the game?  Akwa Ibom could be likened to crabs kept in a container. All of them want to get out but they would prevent anyone making progress from approaching the exit. At the end of the day, none of them get out. While other ethnic nationalities are guided by their leaders to exert influence on the polity and to attract themselves quality political and socioeconomic dividends, Akwa Ibom case seems far different from that. Here, a visionary leader is sacrificed on the altar of parochialism. To portray Senator Godswill Akpabio in the bad light so that he would not be considered by the presidency for the ministerial nomination, petitions were cooked up and served the ICPC. These empty vessels possessed by the spirit of Hera alleged that Akpabio diverted constituency projects such as dialysis machine and other hospital equipments to private use. At the end of it all, ashes of shame flied back to the faces of those that threw them as the ICPC findings absolved the great man.

   On Wednesday 24th July, 2019, Senator Akpabio, a man of dignified presence and sterling worth was at the Red Chambers and he took a bow with uncommon honour while protocols were breaking here and there. After that, the idol worshippers of Hera were once again possessed by their goddess's spirit of wicked envy and vindictiveness. They pilloried Akpabio once again in the media. Now these faceless lots are alleging in their newly invented story that Akpabio paid about N2.5 billion to gain ministerial appointment ahead of Ita Enang, Udoedehe and Don Etiebet. But why didn't they raise this alarm on time before the ministerial list came into the public view? It is like closing a stable door after the horse has bolted. This is a defeatist mentality of a feeble, malevolent assailant. This kind of attack is not new to Akpabio. Of course, it is the reincarnation of several fights the uncommon leader overcame in the past just the way Heracles pulled through 12 labours manipulated against him by goddess Hera. The chief concern is if these fights would ever cease for Akpabio as he continue to serve, but if it doesn’t cease, it then explains who he is: Heracle, a fighter that would always fight to win. The Senator should expect more tough fights ahead because it is like a computer game, the higher the level, the tougher the fights and once you win all of them, you become the champ – no more fights.

   But is it that the state is under the spell of Hera, in that whatever Akpabio is achieving for his people becomes an invitation to fusillade of attacks on him? A.J.A Essen in his mini-bible of proverbs, Ibibio Profile, published in 1982, observed that because of disunity and domestic jealousies, the people of what is now called Akwa Ibom, had lost initiative. According to him, the political clout had slipped through their fingers. It is so unfortunately that this contention has crept into the description of the state of affairs in the modern day Akwa Ibom. Today, cruel jealousy could not allow the state to forge ahead with one voice and unanimous purpose,  all the state could do is swimming in the sea of uncertain fate. Do we, as a people, ever think of producing a Nigerian president, vice president, Senate president, and speaker of the federal House of Representatives? No political clout for such pursuits, except to hang Akpabio. Apart from Senator Godswill Akpabio today, Akwa Ibom State pathetically lacks that individual voice at the national front that could dialogue on the position of strength with the likes of President Buhari, Bola Tinubu, Abba Kyari, Rotimi Amaechi, Theophilus Danjuma and several other power-brokers. Instead of being backed for ministerial role by the government of his own state to help fight Akwa Ibom cause at the federal  front, all Akpabio could gain from the power that be is political ostracism. To state unequivocally and with no fear of contradiction, Akwa Ibom does not have any other voice apart from Akpabio in Abuja. As reminded by the current Senate minority leader, Senator Eyinnanya Abaribe when the uncommon nominee was on the floors of the Senate for the ministerial screening, his story has it that Akpabio, few months at the red chamber, led other senators to stage a walk-out on the screening of Rotimi Amaechi for the position of a minister in 2015. Besides the negative interpretation that might be alluded to such move, it remains a rare act that could be initiated by any politician of Akwa Ibom extraction. It shows audacity. It entails that whoever wields Akwa Ibom mandate and ready to secure the state's interest at the national front ought to be audacious. And this describes Senator Godswill Akpabio.

So bad that Akwa Ibom does not cherish a genius they have, so to speak. The "Ours-is-bad" syndrome as propounded by A.J.A. Esen has found a worthy justification here. Because he is from us, he is bad, dangerous, and incompetent, while we worship leaders from other climes with no recourse to their inherent weaknesses. Even Mohatma Gandhi, as peaceful as we are made to believe of him in our history books, was persecuting opposition elements in India. He stalled Sardar Patel's nomination and would keep mute on the execution of Bhagat Singh. In Singapore, Lee Kuan Yew remains the country's legend of economic miracle as well as a perfect reference point to world's leaders today, but his people are not magnifying the ugly side of his leadership style where he was detaining and executing several opposition elements under the accusations of being communists. But here, the case is different. Akpabio is our own; he may have his shortcomings, but he could become a national pride if attention is paid more on his unparallel records of achievements. He deserves our love and respect as our former commissioner, former governor, senator, and now a minister.

Yes! I am UbongAbasi Ise, for comment please send SMS to 08189914609 | ubongabasiise@gmail.com

©The Sensor Newspaper

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