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For a very long time now I have stopped reading anything that is
written by or about Barrister Godswill Akpabio the governor of Akwa
Ibom State for the reason that I find most of those things sickening
and I certainly wanted to avoid being provoked into making a response.
When I was first told that there was another of those write ups in
THISDAY newspaper of Friday, January 18, 2013, I simply ignored it.
Then again in Vanguard newspaper of Monday, January 21, 2013 my
attention was drawn to what must be the same write up.
What alerted me and made me read this piece was the highlighted quote
of what Governor Akpabio claimed was my response to him when he "over
advised" me on a pending visit by the then president, Chief Olusegun
Obasanjo.
Over advising somebody is an expression that Iam not familiar with and
honestly do not know what it means but I can say quite categorically
that Barr. Godswill Akpabio was not one of the intellectuals in my
cabinet.
He was, therefore, never, at any time made a member of any of my
advisory committees. It is, therefore, quite difficult to figure out
how he could have been in a position to advise me onan impending visit
of the president.
These perceived inadequacies saw him moving from one ministry to
another. In the time that he was in my cabinet, he had served in three
different ministries. None of those ministries was the ministry of
works.
It is not possible, therefore, for him to have been the one to fix the
federal roads in my state and, with his own money for that matter.
Furthermore I cannot think of any one policy drive in my government
that can be attributed to Barr. Godswill Akpabio.
Besides, in the six years that he was my commissioner, the number of
memos brought toCouncil by Barr. Godswill Akpabio can comfortably be
counted with the fingers of one hand.
Vile and uncouth language
Be that as it may, the main point is that, even the worst of my
detractors, some of whom he has chosen to surround himself with,
cannot say that vile and uncouth language or behaviouris part of my
character.
Barrister Godswill Akpabio has been reputed to be digitally brutal or
is it brutally digital in his ability to mislead, to misinform and to
misrepresent issues. Still I would have thought that there would be
some respect for decency.
To accuse me of having behaved in such an uncivilized manner and
having uttered such abusive words in reference to my president is, to
say the least, quite despicable.
If he can allow this type of malicious misrepresentation to come out
in print, I hate to think what must be going on in circumstances and
situations where he knows I am not in a position to respond.
President Obasanjo will be the first to say that he and I have had
some serious disagreements and I would not deny it. But it can never
be said that I have been disrespectful to him.
I know better than that, and whatever I cannot say in front of a
person I will not say behind that person's back. It has always been my
belief that it takes two to quarrel.
Within my right I have commented on some unsavory as well as some very
good things that have happened in Akwa Ibom State but I have
studiously refused to be drawn into a quarrel with Godswill Akpabio.
If the governor insists that he is quarrelling with me, he should look
for a better reason than that, a long time ago, he had over advised
me. What it seems like to me is that, the governor is troubled and he
should ask himself why.
The governor says he is angry, but there is a world of difference
between anger and blind fury. Even so anger remains one of the seven
deadly sins and can never be superior to intellect as a driving force
for good governance.
If the governor is angry, has he considered that the people may also
be angry though for a different reason! The people are angry becausein
May 2009 the governor told them that he had built a dialysis centre in
Uyo to which he donated 17 dialysis machines.
The people have since been searching and to date cannot find it. The
people are angry because they remember that the first aircraft landed
at Uyo airport in September 2009. During the tour of the facilities,
Air Comdr. Idongesit Nkanga, the Chairman of the AirportDevelopment
Board, assured the audience that the Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul
(MRO) building would be completed and fully operational by the end of
that year.
Till today the building is still in construction even though the steel
for its erection had arrived since January 2008, and the country isnow
crying out desperately for such a facility.
The people are angry and resentful because thefree and compulsory
education that the governor hurriedly declared has since died with its
declaration and is now a mirage.
They are also angry and disappointed because in 2008 the governor
promised them 10,000 housing units to be built in 2009. In 2009 the
number had reduced to 2,000 units. In the same year, 2009, the
governor announced that money had been appropriated for the
development of housing estates.
In year 2010 the people were told that contracts had been awarded in
the sum of N26.9bn to party stalwarts for the construction of those
houses. The people are resentful because till today they are still
homeless.
In September 2009, by a full page newspaper advert the governor told
the people that his much vaunted flagship project, the Tropicana,
would open and provide jobs for 5,000 people in the first quarter of
2010.
In case he has forgotten, Tropicana was to have a sky scrapper hotel
of 25 storeys, the first in the country if not in Africa. It was to
have a 10,000 seat auditorium in which the governor said he would
stage world heavy weight boxing fights for Samuel Peters. Today all
the people have is a cinema which the people are being told compares
favourably with Silverbird in Lagos.
Today the people are unhappy because right now they would be watching
the soccer matchesof the African Cup of Nations on the giant screen at
their favourite Ibom plaza. But they cannot because, in anger the
government of Godswill Akpabio had closed down the people's favourite
leisure spot.
The people cannot forget that instead of an ICT park, all they have is
an E-library that is yet to start to function; the specialist
hospitalthat they were promised is yet to receive its first patient;
the Certificate of Occupancy forIbaka deep sea port has since been
handed over to the Nigerian Ports Authority by the government of
Godswill Akpabio; the Ibom Power Plant which was fully completed and
commissioned in 2007 is yet to be put into use.
Your Excellency, you should know that the people too are angry. They
have a thousand and one reasons to be angry, resentful and unhappy.
They are angry because they are tired of beingdeceived. They are so
angry and resentful that in December 2009, at the Niger Delta rock
concert, damning the consequences and throwing all caution to the
wind, they pelted you with missiles in Uyo township stadium.
This anger was carried into the way the people voted in the elections
of 2011, particularly the gubernatorial elections. The people have
become even more angry since the announcement of the results of those
elections.
My governor cannot forget that quite early in his first tenure, I had,
as an elder statesman and one who had occupied that lofty position,
written a letter cautioning him against carelesstalk and unguarded
speech.
I had in that letter suggested that a statement by a high office
holder, such as a governor is, can be treated in much the same way as
the Catholic Pope speaking excathedra.
Pronouncements that are taken as articles of faith. Unfortunately, I
must say that by your utterances and indeed your actions too, you have
portrayed yourself as a confused young man with a large burden of
inferiority complex.
Six years ago you came into office with a determination to practice
the well worn pull-him-down tactic by either repudiating or claiming
the work of your predecessor.
Despite what success you may think you have gained in the media, to
the extent of considering yourself as the messiah that has come to
revive a failed state in Akwa Ibom, the fact remains that the people
know the truth.
Permit me therefore to remind you of something that Albert Einstein
had said which, at some time, you had quoted: that it is only a mad
man that will keep repeating the same act and expect a different
result.
If after six years, the technique that you had adopted at the
beginning has failed you, wisdom would suggest that you consider a
different course of action. I wish you well.
————————-
Obong Victor Attah was governor of Akwa Ibom state from 1999-2007
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