Tag: governor

The Director, Media and Publicity, Akwa Ibom All Progressives Congress (APC) Governorship Campaign Organisation, Iboro Otongaran, reflects on Governor Udom Emmanuel’s broadcast after the Court of Appeal verdict that nullified his victory and contends that his complaints smack of hypocritical outcry.

On Saturday, December 19, 2015 the sacked governor of Akwa Ibom State, Mr Udom Emmanuel, addressed the people of the state in a live broadcast, which was essentially a lamentation over the Court of Appeal nullification of his illegal election. In his tearful outburst, Mr Emmanuel made a lot of reckless comments, false, and even senseless claims which one was initially tempted to blame on his traumatised state of mind and move on.

But on further reflection, two grounds have compelled this response. One, given Udom Emmanuel’s erstwhile position as the former occupant of the office of governor of the state, though illegally, some members of the public could be tempted to believe the lies and distortions he presented to the public in that broadcast. The office of governor comes with a high hierarchy of credibility. There is therefore the urgent need to join issues with him and save the people his diet of lies.

The second ground is that it is a known fact in propaganda that lies that are not contested willy-nilly pass for the truth. Udom Emmanuel therefore cannot be allowed to get away with lies about today’s reality in Akwa Ibom State.

The first point to note about the sacked governor’s broadcast is that it is a misnomer that is filled with egregious ironies. What makes it a misnomer is that the governor was speaking so much grammar to the same Akwa Ibom people he had earlier described as illiterate. All of those tonnes of English grammar from ‘genius Udom Emmanuel’ can certainly not make sense to ‘illiterate people.’

More importantly, the entire speech, which was basically a warning to Akwa Ibom people that they would be sold into servitude if they vote for APC in the coming election, bristles with laughable ironies. Here was the sacked governor trying to frighten the good people of Akwa Ibom State with the spectre of enslavement should they reject him at the coming poll. To lay bare the irony of Udom’s silly propaganda, let us lift the veil off the faces of those who have turned Akwa Ibom people into serfs in their state; those who have created artificial poverty amid plenty as instrument of control and subjugation of the Akwa Ibom people.

The mastermind behind the cynical plot for the successful enslavement of Akwa Ibom people in order to turn them into pliable tools in the hand of the Ukana Dynasty is ex-governor Godswill Akpabio. Akwa Ibom people made Akpabio their governor in 2007, and God in His infinite mercy allowed naira rain during the eight-year rule of the ex-governor. The former governor budgeted an average of N500 billion per year for eight years, which added up to N4 trillion. At the end of the day, the former governor used the stupendous wealth of the state to create heaven for himself and his brothers, leaving the people with bone-crushing poverty. Today, hunger, raw hunger, is an abiding reality in Akwa Ibom State, which should actually be a land of plenty. Most people in the state literally beg to eat. Some are eating from the garbage bin. Unemployment in the state is well above the national average. Akpabio promised to build industries, at least one per local government, to create jobs for school leavers. He left office without creating even one industry, in spite of dedicating one full year’s budget of more than N500 billion in 2013 to the industrialisation of the state.

Akpabio did not only reward Akwa Ibom people with hunger, he left the state virtually broke, weighed down by a debt peonage and unpaid salary and pension arrears.

If Akpabio had left the state alone at the expiration of his tenure, the long-suffering people of Akwa Ibom State would have heaved a sigh of relief and set upon the hard task of recovery and rebuilding. But he didn’t.

In addition to the unconscionable pillage of the resources of Akwa Ibom State, Akpabio plotted and schemed to inflict a stooge named Udom Emmanuel on the people, to continue from where the godfather stopped. In a little over six months, Udom Emmanuel, in the opinion of most commentators, is doing better than his master in chicanery, mindlessness, reckless spending, general unconcern for the interest of the state, dubiousness, and overall disdain for the people.

Udom is not just faltering in the payment of workers’ salaries, he has actually slashed workers’ pay. Six months after, and with estimated federal allocations of N72 billion to the good, Udom has yet to register any achievement in the state except ground-breaking ceremonies, leading critics to say that the only ongoing projects under the current administration in the state are the sacked governor’s personal mansion under construction in Awa Iman, his village in Onna local government area and another personal mansion under construction in Lekki, Lagos State.

The next thing going on in the Udom Emmanuel administration is the direct transfer of cash from the state’s monthly allocations to a few PDP fat cats, led by Godswill Akpabio, for their comfort, while the majority of the people wallow in absolute poverty. Udom is indeed the tool for the enslavement of my people.

That is why his hypocritical outcry about servitude is such a biting irony.  The irony runs through the entire speech, and everything the sacked governor said is the exact opposite of reality. Take this sampler: “It was their [our forefathers] belief that this land holds the promise of justice for everyone. It was their belief that this land holds the promise of equality for everyone. It was their belief that this land holds the promise of prosperity for everyone.” In all aspects, Udom’s intrusive injection into Akwa Ibom politics negates the sacred values of justice, equality, equity and prosperity for all, values the sacked governor so flippantly mouthed in his lamentation speech as being threatened by the landmark judgment of the Court of Appeal. Udom was injected into Akwa Ibom politics for the sole purpose of denying all others their right to seek the mandate of the people for leadership. So how would Udom’s stolen mandate have represented equity, equality, justice and fairness for all? The sacked governor even talked about prosperity for all. Haba! Since Udom was imposed on Akwa Ibom people, the misery index in the state has doubled because of the deliberate policy of the sacked governor. He has failed to pay salaries as and when due. Instead he shares state allocations with a small clique of PDP cronies, leaving the rest of the state in absolute want. How does such policy promote prosperity for all? His legacy from Akpabio, which he is carrying forward in the policy of continuity, was marked by similar lopsidedness in the allocation of state resources. Udom’s jeremiad on a phantom threat to prosperity, fairness, equity and equality for all by the Court of Appeal judgment sounds pretty much like Boko Haram’s exhortation for religious tolerance. He fools no one. Udom was brought in to protect the Akpabio family interest and Zenith Bank’s stake in the Akwa Ibom estate. Talking of mortgaging the future of Akwa Ibom to outside interests, is Zenith Bank owned by Akwa Ibom people?

Throughout the speech, Udom moved from one incongruous imputation to another. He said the Court of Appeal has annulled the right of Akwa Ibom people to elect a leader of their choice. That is not true. In fact, the opposite is the case. The court on December 18, 2015 restored the right of Akwa Ibom people to freely elect who governs them, after Godswill Akpabio had so brazenly taken that right away at gunpoint with the connivance of INEC and the Akwa Ibom State police command under the leadership of then police commissioner Gabriel Achong.

Udom made another absurd statement when he said that he represents the hopes and aspirations of Akwa Ibom people. Far from it! If Akwa Ibom youth, men and women see their future in Udom, why did they spontaneously celebrate his fall from power throughout the state?

Udom committed sacrilege when he compared the efforts to keep his stolen mandate to the sacred struggle for Resource Control under the great leader and former governor, Obong Victor Attah. Udom’s futile struggle to preserve his stolen mandate, compared to the world famous campaign for Resource Control, is like comparing day and night—the twain can never meet. Udom represents darkness, night.

The sacked governor’s bromide about houseboys and gatemen as erstwhile career aspirations of Akwa Ibom youth before Akpabio came along is meant to slip in some credit for the Akpabio administration on the touted improvement in the lives of people of the state. This is obviously a slap in the face of Akwa Ibom people who know full well that their lot has not improved, even though their state has become a lot richer by virtue of the success of the Resource Control struggle. Akwa Ibom people are in dire straits while Udom and those who control him live in criminal luxury, building mansions for themselves everywhere while workers go without salaries and children write exams on bare floor. Yet the architect of the Resource Control, HE Obong Attah, together with all those who fought alongside him, has been left out of the good times. Now I ask Udom, what was your contribution to the struggle to abolish the onshore-offshore dichotomy? Udom is a man reaping where he did not show; yet he is here talking about equity and justice and fairness. What is fair and just about Udom’s place in Akwa Ibom today?

Udom’s hubris has reached overflowing. The sacked governor represents a pain in the ass for my people. They have a duty to totally repudiate him and what he stands for in the next election.