Edidiong Udobia
It is crystal clear that the devil’s chef is making a very sumptuous sausage of Godswill Akpabio for his master. Whatever was left of the former governor’s commonsense, dignity and honour have been used as seasonings for the devil’s meal. His once towering personality has been severed and cut into tiny pieces; a good meat to decorate the sausage. But like a pompous cock loosely tied by a killing cone, Godswill Akpabio is unaware of what fate awaits him. Indeed, “those whom the gods wish to destroy they first make mad”.
Akpabio had a rare privilege of serving as governor of Akwa Ibom state at a very defining moment not only in the history of the state, but the country. A time of unprecedented abundance of resources, when the state was flourishing, and it is incontrovertible that it was his responsibility to make the most judicious use of the resources for the overall development of the state. While it is impossible for Akwa Ibom people to reach a consensus verdict on Akpabio’s performance as governor, the people will however agree on the fact that huge resources that came into the state under his administration were not falling from the sky like manna. In fact, bulk of the state’s earnings was the result of Obong Victor Attah’s onshore/offshore dichotomy struggle. Ostensibly, the Akpabio’ administration became a beneficiary of the struggle of Attah’s.
Also, from the first time Akpabio declared his intention to run for the office of the governor in 2007, it took the bravery of foremost elders, stakeholders, women and youths of the state to marshall through the stiff opposition that met his ambition. Left for him alone, Akpabio’s ambition would been stillborn. In 2011, his reelection was even a more daunting task with what could be described as the most formidable opposition so far in the state. Again, people rose and fought, others schemed on Akpabio’s behalf and he eventually won. In his haughty nature, Akpabio must have considered his successes in politics as a product of his personal effort as governor. Case in point was when he made the famous “what money cannot do, more money can do” brag, implying that he could do anything he wanted because the keys to the state’s vault were dangling in his hands.
Apparently, Akpabio had plugged his life to power that waking up on May 29, 2015 to realize that someone else was going to his place, he suffered a political cardiac arrest. Since leaving office, the former governor has been a very critical condition. He has been grasping for breadth. First of, for a man who spent his entire days in office maligning his predecessor, wisdom demands that he should have prepared his home and be ready to welcome karma with open arms. Less than four years out of office, it has become very clear the former governor used power, money and loud mouth to shield his fickleness. Unlike Attah, without firmly gripping power, Akpabio lacks the courage to face even the weakest adversary. Ironically, it seems the only thing that he is ashamed of now is being called a coward, and that’s quite surprising. One would have expected that a man who has hit the rock-bottom of shamelessness should not be ashamed of anything else.
Finding solace among his old foes in a bid to escape retribution is not a problem, what is however the problem and incomprehensible to sane citizens is how a man who rode on people’s goodwill, labour and sacrifice to become the governor, is now going around town boasting like he created the state and everything in it out of void. As governor, he may have successfully fooled those he could with false showmanship, but without the masquerade, the world has come to see that his is nothing but a privileged weakling. For instance, after playing a lead role for the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP in the 2015 presidential election and with all his nefarious political gimmicks against the opposition then, to now claim that “while his body was with Goodluck Jonathan, his heart was with Muhammadu Buhari” is the hallmark of cowardliness.
The impression that Godswill Akpabio still hold the aces in the state’s politics is pure delusion. For starters, gone are the days when he had the powers to coerce people into commanding his wish. Obviously, this fact eluded him when he boasted that the Akwa Ibom state government house will be deserted by December 2018. Akpabio can no longer command such loyalty even from his own kindred. He seems to be so disappointed at his failure that he has resorted to the only thing he knows how to do best; cowardice and launching attacks on people through proxies. Without power and all its attendant privileges, Akpabio’s showmanship have been displays of severe senility. But his worst days are yet to come. Somewhere in his heart, he knows that the APC is only taking advantage of his vulnerability to turn him into a pawn in their 2019 game. There is no guarantee that when this is all over, the vendettists will not shred their golden boy.
The megalomaniac should have the time of his life while he can, because it will be “pitiable disma pisma” when the devil is done with his sausage.
