The throne is neither for anybody nor everybody. People who succeed to the throne (any throne at all) ought to be men and women and children of impeccable character and proven learning, all-round. This people (yes, this -not these- people) are the few chosen from the many called. Unfortunately, in Nigeria the few chosen are fewer than should be.
Fortunately for Akwaibomights -the over eight million Nigerians whose homeland is in the deep south of the country (please don’t ask me how I arrived at the figures)- it would seem we cornered the lion’s share of real leaders meant for over 200 million people. Please, don’t contest it: Akwa Ibom has been the most blessed state in Nigeria, if not in Africa, leadership-wise. Even in the military heyday (the people who left leadership nearly three decades ago but who we still shamelessly blame for our national rot) Akwa Ibom registered a fair deal. Tunde Ogbeha who led the state from a day after its creation (28th September 1987 to 30th July 1988); Godwin Abbe (from 31st July 1988 to 5th September 1990); indigenous Idongesit Nkanga (from 5th September 1990 to 2nd January 1992); Yakubu Bako (from 15th December 1993 to 21st August 1996); Joseph Adeusi (from 21st August 1996 to 9th August 1998) and the last but certainly not the least (there was no least among them) John Ebiye from 9th August 1998 to 29th May 1999) all added significant value that remains verifiable to this day.
I know that we are a people who are not known to be good at showing gratitude especially to those who are no longer in a position to favour us some more but we cannot deny the open truth that the military did us great good; in fact greater good that we have elected to never remember than the little bad we have chosen to never forget. Talking Akwa Ibom specifically, it can be said (and nobody would contest it successfully) that the military it was who one, created the state and two, laid what today is seen as its solid leadership and infrastructure foundation. As one who experienced that era firsthand because I came back to the country and lived in the state throughout those years, I can tell you that those military leaders were good people. I want this to be a good piece otherwise I would at this juncture have attempted a comparative analysis between then and now, but another day.
Civilian governors of the state have also been superb. Please give them their flowers: the inimitable Akpan Isemin of National Republican Convention (from 2nd January 1992 to 18th November 1993); the iconic Victor Attah (from 29th May 1999 to 29th May 2007); the charismatic Godswill Akpabio (from 29th May 2007 to 29th May 2015); the analytical Udom Emmanuel (from 29th May 2015 to 29th May 2023); all three of People’s Democratic Party. We must wait for the current occupant of Hilltop Mansion at Wellington Bassey Way End, Uyo, Pastor Umo Eno, Ph.D., also of PDP, to serve out his term, the first of which is almost halfway gone, before we decide how to appropriately describe him. Over all, though, the state has scored an A in leadership.
And, we can show you the workings. Apart from the military governors’ groundbreaking efforts, Akwa Ibom remembers Obong Akpan Isemin (of blessed memory) for his simple approach to governance and his fight against “etok etok” syndrome. It can be argued that he cured Akwa Ibom of inferiority complex. The visionary Arc. (Obong) Victor Attah can never be forgotten because he brought extraordinary courage and creativity and grace and humility and wisdom to politics and government even begging all Akwaibomights to “come, let’s build together.”
You cannot forget the fine architect when you remember his ambitious projects (for instance, what’s today Ibom hotel and golf resort, what’s today Victor Attah international airport, how he remodeled the state (capital) etc.) nor can you discuss the fiscal windfall the state has been enjoying from the national government post-Attah sans crediting the then governor for his onshore/offshore oil dichotomy selfless fight with then-President Olusegun Obasanjo. Then there was Gov. Godswill Akpabio who literally fought even Goliaths on his path to leaving Akwa Ibom better than he met it. He had the mega-heart that most Nigerian leaders can only cowardly salivate about: he delivered on predecessors’ uncompleted projects (such as the airport and put it to use); the lawyer also dreamt and executed his own mega-dreams (including what’s today Godswill Akpabio international stadium, the magnificent government house, Uyo -which must be the best in Nigeria- and took the state to the country and beyond). The man who turned boys to men handed over in 2015 to Mr Udom Emmanuel, an investment banker, who was underrated by opponents and the people (including this writer) at the beginning because we knew very little of him.
Like most bankers, he quietly settled down to work and two years since he’s been gone, Akwaibomights and his political opponents and outsiders can look back and look away nodding, satisfied that his best is good enough. Mr Udom Emmanuel did well (he built on foundation left by predecessors; completed the beautiful Ikot Ekpene Road started by Gov. Akpabio as he then was; started and completed great roads and projects of his eg. Ikot Oku Ikono flyover and road all the way to ONNA through Etinan; gave the state a befitting worship centre, etc. For me personally, two achievements of his I shall forever treasure are Ibom Air and the way he handled political quarrels. I thought he was mature and proved that his parents offered him the right upbringing many, many, many years ago.
Which brings the discourse back to where I always wanted it. Penultimate Friday, Senate President Godswill Akpabio and Gov. Umo Eno, Ph.D. led a 104-man powerful delegation of Akwa Ibom state to see my man, President Bola Tinubu. The best lowest hanging fruit of that epochal visit for our state was to hear that Senate President Godswill Akpabio and immediate past Gov. Udom Emmanuel had reconciled. Well, many people may not jubilate over this since both men displayed uncanny restraint over the last nine years when their cold war lasted.
It is to their credit how they both managed those better-forgotten years, tearing no mat (as we say in Akwa Ibom) and causing the people no loss or open inconvenience whatsoever, as we see elsewhere. This writer, who was a member of then-Gov. Emmanuel’s second term 10-man media team, remembers vividly the briefing he gave the team in person a day or two after their political disagreement had become public knowledge. He wanted no unnecessary fight back or bad press for his predecessor whom he still fondly called his boss. In fact, he told us to hands off; that if there would ever be need to launch an attack or a response he would handle it by himself.
On the part of the senate president who during Mr Udom Emmanuel’s first term as governor was Senator (minority leader of PDP before the surprise crosstitution to APC in August 2018) and Minister of Niger Delta Affairs (during Mr Emmanuel’s second term as governor) one can say authoritatively that for a man who takes no prisoners and who never sits on the fence -in words and actions- Sen. Akpabio was quite senatorial. He displayed class and tact. Yes, there were occasional fires and crossfires here and there especially during the 2019 general ballot but those were child’s play compared to how the grass suffered monumentally in other states that found themselves in similar situations. Therefore, the state and indeed the country must celebrate both men for their worthy exemplariness.
On Facebook the other week when I alluded to the need for Akwaibomights to line up behind both men in order to generate an army that Gov. Umo Eno, Ph.D. needs to win something in Nigeria for our state, an alarming majority of our young people, who clearly don’t understand the politics of Nigeria, jumped in and started swimming amiss. They left me no other choice than to come to this national marketplace and offer us what at best is a local reminder. The north never fights for the south. It’s true that one hardly sees what the years of northerners’ stranglehold on national political power has fetched talakawas but there is no gainsaying that smart northern political players have always succeeded in dividing and ruling the south and in the process kept southerners at bay.
Let us together look at the roll call of Nigeria’s senate presidents since 1999 and let me show you something troubling. Between 1999 and 2007, when it fell to southerners (from the east) to produce senate president, powerful forces outside the region (I can bet) made sure its five states took turns. Look at it: from 3rd June 1999 to 18th November 1999, Peoples Democratic Party’s Evan Enwerem of Imo; from 18th November 1999 to 8th August 2000, PDP’s Chuba Okadigbo of Anambra; from 8th August 2000 to 3rd June 2003, PDP’s Anyim Pius Anyim of Ebonyi, rounding off PDP’s Chief Olusegun Obasanjo’s first term as president. During his second and final term, the four years were split down the middle between Abia’s Adolphus Wabara (3rd June 2003 to 5th April 2005) who was still of PDP and Enugu’s Ken Nnamani (5th April 2005 to 5th June 2007) who of course was then still of PDP.
As my spiritual father, Dr Abel Damina (Global Ba’aba) would say, “please pay attention. If you miss this, then there was no need for you” to have read this. From 2007 when the zoning of senate presidency went up north up until 2023, look at how they did it: Benue’s David Mark of PDP stayed put from 5th June 2007 to 6th June 2015. Look at that again: one man from the north had eight years, in full.
After APC had displaced and replaced PDP in Aso Rock in May 2015, Bukola Saraki who had served Kwara as PDP governor for all of eight years emerged APC senate president and held that office from 9th June 2015 to 9th June 2019 (four full years). Yobe’s Ahmed Lawan of APC became senate president on 11th June 2019 and only left on 11th June 2023 after APC’s Muhammadu Buhari presidency had come full cycle. Both men from the north enjoyed their full four years apiece as senate president. Why is that of the south always different?
Because of time or space or the lack of both, I cannot and don’t want to go any deeper. Or we would readily see the region of the senator(s) who instigated the crises which eventually aborted each of the southerners’ senate presidency. Let’s leave the past and come to the present because there is something I need you to see before we go. Since Kogi’s Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan of PDP started her shameful immoral hide and seek against APC’s Senate President Godswill Akpabio, GCON, you may cast your mind back to see which part of the country is fingering things.
At least one of the north’s political top strikers, Dr Bukola Saraki, former governor, former senate president, has asked the current senate president to step down until the Natasha fart blows over. I used to like that man. But, now, I know he’s part of the few powerful northerners who, unlike a majority of his fellow northerners who are good people, want nothing good for the south. I know that Senate President Akpabio knows what Dr Saraki and company know and so won’t fall to such pedestrian bait.
We die here. Senate President Godswill Akpabio who took office on 13th June 2023 has six more years in that office. What is sauce for the north should be sauce for the south. Nigeria is one country, Nigerians are one people; equal and free.
As for southerners who are shooting themselves in the foot and joining others to want to scatter their house, I can only remind them of a senate president southerner, Chuba Okadigbo, who was tricked to step aside momentarily over nonsense. That stepping aside became a permanent stepping down. What about Mrs. Patricia Olubunmi Foluke Etteh of Osun State who found herself as 10th speaker of House of Representatives on 6th June 2007? In September, that same year, just like that, a handful of her colleagues alleged that she had squandered 628 million Naira (about US$5 million at the time) on renovating her official residence and that of her deputy, and purchasing 12 official cars for house officers.
With chants of “thief, thief” renting the air as the innocent mother of two tried to address the house, her security team had to smuggle her to safety. Her party, PDP, and even then immediate past president, Chief Obasanjo, continued to back her because they knew the truth. Alas, powerful PDP northerners like Isyaku Ibrahim of Kano state (today he is on the party’s board of trustees), and even Prof. Wole Soyinka, of the south, were shouting themselves hoarse for her to resign; the same history they are recasting today. On 30th October that same 2007, just months in office, she quit.
Sadly, at the last seating of that House of Representatives, it was unanimously agreed that no record or proceedings of the House exist to show that Patricia Etteh was ever indicted. Meaning, as happened with Okadigbo and all the other senate president southerners, it was all a lie fabricated by those who always want the south dislocated and disorganised. This has to stop. The south must stand up and stand together, going forward.
From all of the foregoing, the Godswill Akpabio/Udom Emmanuel reconciliation that now exists and one hopes is forever, like salvation, is a win-win for Akwa Ibom no matter how one looks at it. Akwa Ibom must henceforth present one common front nationally, as Gov. Umo Eno, Ph.D. has continued to drum into every ear. The primitive resort to political party has already hurt our state in ways it might take decades to fix. Akwa Ibom should liaise with the south south region and the macro south to be able to extract meaningful gains from Nigeria.
Finally, the resolution of the Akpabio/Udom chasm throws up the senate president as able to make piece even when he holds he holds the yam and knife. Nigerians want him to replicate that capacity in the senate and ensure the south no longer records cut and joint senate presidency. If there is any anti-south evil force in the national assembly, we have enough and to spare capable reverend father’s and pastors who can in minutes exorcise the rubbish. The south must be free, and for eternity.
God bless Nigeria!