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By Billy Paulson
It was David Jeremiah, an American evangelical Christian cleric, author and founder of Turning Point Radio and Television Ministries, who wrote that: “When you follow God’s will for your life, you can see how yesterday’s events prepared you for today’s challenges and tomorrow’s opportunities.” As the senior pastor of Shadow Mountain Community Church, a Southern Baptist megachurch in El Cajon, California, United States, David may have spoken those words to his congregation out of his personal experience but at that inspirational moment he revealed an unassailable universal truth, which is that every human being is a unique creature on a special assignment on earth.
Like a computer, each man was designed with a program divinely encrypted to achieve a goal. In the human society, the ultimate goal of the program is for one to pass through specific routes that prepare one for specific tasks that would enable one influence one’s society positively. It, therefore, means that at every point you must press the right buttons and enter the right codes for you to transit to the next stage successfully.
One man whose life’s journey appears to have followed this divine programme is Dr. Godswill Obot Akpabio, the incumbent president of the Senate and chairman of the National Assembly in Nigeria.
Akpabio was born on December 9, 1962, into the family of Chief Obot Akpabio and Madam Lucy Obot Akpabio (née Inyangetor) of Ukana, Ikot Ntuen, in Essien Udim Local Government Area (LGA) of Akwa Ibom State. The young Akpabio lost his father early in life and was raised by his mother, who inculcated in him the values of hard work, discipline and honesty.
He was educated at Methodist Primary School, Ukana, Essien Udim LGA, Akwa Ibom State; the prestigious Federal Government College, Port Harcourt, Rivers State; and the University of Calabar, Cross River State, where he obtained a degree in Law.
While at the Federal Government College, Port Harcourt, he was appointed the senior prefect or headboy as it is called in most Unity Schools. Similarly, at the University of Calabar, his charismatic personality endeared him to his fellow students and they elected him the Speaker of the Students’ Union Parliament. These were the early signs that he had leadership in his DNA, which needed to be groomed and nurtured to maturity.
Akpabio had a brief stint as a school teacher and as an associate partner with Paul Usoro and Co., a leading law firm in Nigeria. He also worked with EMIS Telecoms Limited, a pioneer fixed wireless telecommunications company in Lagos, Nigeria. In 2002, he rose to the position of the managing director/chief executive officer of the company. In this position, he helped in shaping the future of the then emerging telecoms industry. He had earlier served as the national publicity secretary of the Association of Telecommunication Companies in Nigeria.
It seems that all these little beginnings were meant to prepare him for a brilliant career in political leadership because, by 2002, he was appointed Commissioner for Petroleum and Natural Resources in Akwa Ibom State. Sibsequently, he held three other key cabinet positions in the same administration.
In 2006, he made the big move, which brought him to national linelight. He clinched the governorship ticket of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in Akwa Ibom State. In spite of all the obstacles on his path, his novel campaign slogan, “Let God’s Will Be Done,” received mass support and he was elected governor in 2007.
In appreciation of his superlative performance in his first term, he got re-elected for a second term in office as governor of Akwa Ibom State in 2011.
By the time he completed his second and final term as governor, he had become unarguably the poster boy of the PDP and was again rewarded with the ticket to represent the good people of Akwa Ibom North West (Ikot Ekpene) Senatorial District in the National Assembly of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
Like a goldfish, he had no hiding place in the Red Chamber and was elevated the position of the Senate Minority Leader, a quantum leap for a freshman in Parliament.
In August 2018, Akpabio announced his defection from the PDP to the All Progressives Congress (APC) and promptly resigned as the Senate Minority Leader. The decisions were as uncommon as the man who took them but they were well-thought-out moves that portrayed Akpabio as a visionary and a strategist, going by the latter-day events in his political trajectory.
One year into his sojourn in the APC, he was appointed Minister for Delta Affairs and became a member of the Executive Council of the Federation.
In June 2022, Akpabio resigned his appointment as the Minister for Niger Delta Affairs to contest in the presidential primary of the APC, but stepped down for Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, the man who clinched the ticket and eventually won the 2023 presidential election.
Apparently working in tandem with the principle of reciprocity and maintenance of political equilibrium, Akpabio sought for and reclaimed the senatorial ticket for Akwa Ibom North West District from where he was elected the president of the Senate and number three in the political hierarchy of the country.
From the foregoing, it is clear that Apkabio is not just an uncommon personality but among the rare breed of Nigerians whose political journeys sound like a fairy tale. From the beginning, he was destined for the top and has so far demonstrated that a lot could be achieved in the space of six decades.
As he clocks 61 years of age in a few days’ time, his family, friends, political associates, mentors and mentees would be gathering in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, and Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory, to celebrate him for his wonderful achievements in the politics of the country.
It is an appropriate moment for young Nigerians to reflect on the story of the uncommon transformer who got to the top by dint of hard work, humility, self-confidence and belief in divine providence. Here is a man who has fought some of the toughest battles of life, still wearing a broad smile on his face. Like he would always say/sing while looking up to heaven in moments of triumph and praise, he didn’t know that the Lord would honour him in this way.
Although he marked his diamond jubilee last year without fanfare, the walk through the Diamond Avenue would be fully activated now and would continue to reverberate even until the platinum years.
•Paulson a public affairs analyst writes from Abuja
