On Friday 12, 2015 there was a two-page diatribe published on pages 62 and 63 of The Nation newspaper by a faceless group under the canopy of Akwa Ibom Rescue Forum. This advertorial bore no name of the writer(s), no signature, no address and no telephone number. It simply had by way of an address “Muhammadu Buhari Way, Central Business District, FCT.” The vitriolic and defamatory advertorial was titled: “The Akpabio Govt: A Legacy of Terror and Evil.”
The entire advertorial is a product of a blood-thirsty contortionist, a twisted mind that probably suffers from multiple phobias. Two of the phobias are easily identifiable, namely, Akpabiophobia and mythophobia.
These two phobias brewed from hell’s factory constitute a cocktail of hate, venom, falsehood and arrant nonsense. Throughout the two-page display of irreverent verbiage there is not one kind word about Chief Godswill Akpabio, the subject of their poisoned memo, a man who ruled Akwa Ibom State for eight years to the admiration of majority of its citizens as well as visitors from far and near. That is the extreme extent of their jaundiced vituperation, their lack of a sense of fairness and a sense of proportion. Most people who have visited Akwa Ibom State during the period of Chief Akpabio’s administration have expressed fulsome praise for his infrastructural achievements and his liberation doctrine as exemplified in his free and compulsory education policy.
It is clear that this faceless group never sought to be fair and never even tried. It simply set out to become the counterfeit version of Paul Joseph Goebbels. Goebbels was the Nazi propaganda minister (1933 – 45) who invented the big lie theory. His big lie never saved his boss Adolph Hitler and never saved him either because when Berlin fell, he felt he had failed. He committed suicide.
The unvarnished truth is that Chief Akpabio was, and is, loved and adored by majority of Akwa Ibomites. On May 29, 2015 he was cheered lustily by the tumultuous crowd that gathered at the Akwa Ibom Stadium to watch the change of baton ceremony as he drove in an open van into the stadium. After the ceremony, hundreds of cars, three-wheelers and motorcycles followed him in a long convoy to his home town where he was received by his people, watched by his past commissioners, permanent secretaries, friends from various parts of the state and country as well as four past governors of the state. And yet the mischievous writer(s) of the advertorial described his exit as “humiliating.”
The reference to Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala by these cowardly writers as saying that the uncommon transformation of Akwa Ibom State did not add up to even 10% of the revenue that accrued to the state is bunkum. The truth is that Dr Okonjo-Iweala has categorically denied making any such statement either by denotation or connotation, directly or indirectly, openly or privately. The statement is therefore a figment of their demented imagination.
The writer(s) of the advertorial have a right to let their imaginations run wild. That is their choice but the truth is that Akwa Ibom State never earned up to three trillion naira in eight years as mischievously alleged by them. It is also a lie to state that Akwa Ibom State was the highest income earner among the states of Nigeria for eight years. When the price of crude oil was high, Akwa Ibom was earning about N18 billion and N1 billion from internally generated revenue. There are some states, at least two of them, that currently earn not less than N18 billion from internally generated revenue in addition to what they get from the federation account. But these fiction writers have no interest in correct facts and figures because such will not serve their evil purpose.
Contrary to the statement by the truthbenders on the issue of budgets, the Akwa Ibom State budgets under Governor Akpabio were often severely scrutinised by the State House of Assembly. After the presentation of the budget, the Finance Commissioner would always disclose the implementation strategies and the budget breakdown. In addition to this, the commissioner would address the public on the performance of the budget from time to time. Without such a close monitoring, it would have been difficult to achieve the giant transformation of the state that was recorded in the last eight years.
Concerning personal properties, it is pertinent to remark that Chief Godswill Akpabio does not own the properties mentioned in the sickening hate-filled treatise. Neither did he sponsor the impeachment or the attempted impeachment of anyone as alleged. How would any governor go to another state to sponsor the citizens of that state to rise against their own governor? What would it profit him if a governor in another state is removed? In any case, the members of the State House of Assembly and indeed the indigenes of that state would be outraged while the citizens of the busy-body governor’s state would obviously frown at any attempt to waste their own resources on such a fruitless venture.
The claim that Governor Akpabio commissioned some “ten” projects which were miniature projects is clearly disingenuous. Chief Akpabio only commissioned the mega projects such as The Tropicana, The Ibom Specialist Hospital while the commissioners commissioned the rest of the projects.
The authors of the advertorial tried to make a fuss about the status of Uyo and what its status was in 2007. Uyo was known then as Uyo Local Government Council because that was its status. However, under Governor Akpabio, Uyo has undergone a serious transformation and merits being dubbed a municipality. Many of the roads allegedly paved before 2007 were impassable and had to be reworked on. The airport project was basically at site-clearing stage in 2007. The contract was awarded to a company which had never done an airport before and which did not do anything that could have met the approval of the National Aviation Authority.
The case of nepotism against Chief Akpabio is ridiculous. This was the first elected governor of the State to choose his Secretary to the State government from another ethnic group and from another senatorial district. He was also the first to choose his Commissioner for Finance from another ethnic group and another senatorial district. His personal physician is from another ethnic group and senatorial district while permanent secretaries are appointed from all the local government areas to satisfy the requirements of the state character and to give all communities a sense of belonging.
In their desperation to give a good man a bad name, the authors of the evil advertorial gave a list of persons who were murdered in the state and sought vainly to pin the crime on Chief Akpabio whereas nearly all the persons mentioned were Akpabio’s friends who were probably murdered by opposition politicians. In the case of Engineer Ini Udonwa who was in the 2011 governorship race, he comes from an area that had many strong candidates and his presence would obviously have divided the votes. It was actually in Chief Akpabio’s interest to encourage a man like that to run so as to split the votes, not to discourage or stop him from running. The same thing applies to Mr Sam Ewang.
It should also be noted that the killers of Udonwa’s mother and the kidnappers of Ewang’s wife were all arrested and they confessed to the crime. The late Chief Albert Ukpanah was a strong supporter of Chief Akpabio and visited him a day before his unfortunate assassination. Chief Efiong Ononokpono had a case with the Commissioner of Police and was arraigned in court. It was unfortunate that he died before the determination of the case.
Zoning the governorship position to Eket senatorial district was a product of town hall meetings held in all the ten, federal constituencies. In all the places visited the bulk of the people overwhelmingly approved the idea of picking a governor from the only remaining senatorial district after the other two, Uyo and Ikot Ekpene had produced Governor Victor Attah (1999-2007) and Godswill Akpabio (2007-2015). To any reasonable and fair-minded person, the decision to go Eketwards was the fairest decision any one could have taken.
The contortionists have viciously claimed that Governor Akpabio starved the local governments of funds. Isn’t it a piece of Freudian slip that they also said that some members of the Akpabio family were collecting patronage from the local governments, the same local governments they claim were starved of funds? It is preposterous to think that any one who was not working for a local government would be getting paid by the local government.
As governor, Chief Akpabio was on the horns of a dilemma. He had these senior citizens of the state who had a bloated sense of entitlement, who had a sharpened sense of greed and were ready to tear everything down if Akpabio did not let them grab and grab and grab. They wanted to reap where they didn’t sow. They didn’t want to plant; they merely wanted to plunder. For them every day was party time and who was to pay for the party? Governor Akpabio. If he refused to pay then he must be fought to a standstill. Of course, if he yielded to their blackmail the development of the state would have suffered.
It is puerile for the advertisers to claim that Chief Akpabio showed disrespect to Chief Olusegun Obasanjo. He never did. In fact, Akpabio often describes Obasanjo as his political father. Also, he never showed any disrespect to Muhammadu Buhari even though they were on opposite sides of the political divide. Political differences are never permanent. The attempt by these scavengers to paint a picture of ill-feeling towards Buhari is absolute mischief. There is no such thing. Governor Akpabio’s loyalty to former President Goodluck Jonathan was normal and shows the former governor as a steadfast and dependable ally and a man of unimpeachable character who could be trusted.
The claim that Senator Ita Enang persuaded the Federal Government to grant a polytechnic to his community and Chief Akpabio took it to his village is ludicrous. If Senator Enang got it how did he lose it? Chief Akpabio is not aware of any attempt by Senator Ita Enang to take any polytechnic to his people and he never discussed any such attempt with him. Chief Akpabio sought the establishment of a federal institution in Ikot Ekpene senatorial district to balance the presence of federal institutions in the three senatorial districts. Uyo senatorial district has the University of Uyo while Eket senatorial district has Maritime Academy now University of Maritime Studies.
On the issue of Chief Akpabio visiting St. Kitts and Nevis and the Republic of Ghana, he was duly invited by the governments of those countries and he obtained the permission of the Federal Government before visiting those countries. Those countries were fully aware of his official status and did not treat him like a visiting Head of State.
The mischief makers compiled a negative list for which in their twisted imagination they think Chief Akpabio will be remembered. However, the beneficiaries of the multiple projects and services that Chief Akpabio provided in the last eight years know better and no attempt to tear down his laudable legacy can succeed. Some of the projects are:
Free and compulsory education.
Free healthcare for babies, pregnant women and the aged.
Ibom International Airport.
IbomPower Plant.
Ibom E-Library.
Construction of thousands of kilometres of roads.
Ibom Specialist Hospital.
Construction of over 4,500 inter-ministerial direct labour projects.
Construction of Ibom Tropicana Entertainment Centre with a 250-room 15-storey hotel complex.
Construction of the 14-storey Sheraton Hotel.
Construction of thousands of other projects too numerous to be mentioned.
A few years ago, Professor Ayandele who was the Vice Chancellor of the University of Calabar, had described the former Cross River State (which included present day Akwa Ibom State) derisively as “an atomistic society perpetually at war with itself.” Many Cross Riverians thought that Professor Ayandele’s statement was an exercise in exaggeration. By the gift of hindsight it is apparent that the History Professor had hit the bull’s eye. Partisan politics seems to have brought out the worst in some of our people. For example, some people in Akwa Ibom State, such as the cranks who wrote the advertorial, have turned frivolous petition writing into a fine art. They have written baseless petitions to all the major police formations in the world about Chief Akpabio. These organisations have investigated him over and over again and found him to be a man without blemish. To these fellows, petition writing is an addiction that is fuelled by hatred, fuelled by the phobias earlier mentioned, and fuelled by the desire to worship at the feet of the god of nihilism.
To them facts are not sacred. They are items to be slaughtered. To them scandal is the name of the game, and no substantiation is necessary. They just pile accusations against people without any shred of evidence relying apparently on the fact that many readers are gullible and may not have the means of verifying what they read.
But if our society must receive a just dose of sanity, these warped ways must be reversed. These miscreants need narcotherapic attention. They need to be rescued from the multiple phobias that torment their wayward souls.
•Anietie is Senior Special Adviser on Media to Chief Godswill Akpabio