The immediate past Senate Minority Leader, Senator Godswill Akpabio, has declared that elections are not usually won by engaging in image-tarnishing venture of other persons who have a track record of impressive performance.
In recent times, Akwa Ibom Government has allegedly paid agents using mass media, social media and persons to denigrate the image of Akpabio as a villain and label his administration with unprintable names.
Consequently, the government has forgotten to tell the people its achievements over the past three years and to sell its programmes to the electorate as 2019 general elections are fast approaching.
Akpabio who is representing Akwa Ibom North West in the Nigerian Senate described the actions of the government as pettiness of the mind.
The Senator, who spoke Thursday on a privately owned radio station, Comfort 95.1 FM, Uyo on preparations for President Muhammadu Buhari’s campaign flag-off on Friday, December 28, 2018, in Uyo, accused the Akwa Ibom State government of engaging in activities aimed at obliterating his name from the minds of the people in the state.
While stating that giving honour to people who deserve it is one of the ways one can go far politically, the immediate past governor of the state said “It is your attitude that determines your altitude.”
“Very recently, there was a boy who broke a mathematical equation that had lasted for over 52 years or so in China. I was there when the boy was presented to the public by the current government but they failed to say that I was the one who sent the boy abroad for training.
“I sent over 500 of them. I stood there when the boy was presented as the pride of Akwa Ibom but nobody recognised the fact that here was the person who made this happen.
“The same thing happened in Uruan when they commissioned the hatchery. I was not even invited. Uyo-Ikot Ekpene Road was in three segments and I completed and commissioned the first segment. Go there now, they have removed the commissioning plaque and used cement to cover it. I did a crescent that passes through Senator James Akpan Udoedehe’s house. They have also removed the commissioning plaque and cement it just to obliterate my name,” he regretted.
Reacting to claims that his tenure was marred by insecurity, Akpabio said that every government has peculiar challenges which must be surmounted. He regretted that the opposition took advantage of the cases of kidnappings in the state at the time to accuse him of being involved.
He wondered why people would assume the Governor Udom led administration as the safest in the history of the state when over 500 persons have been murdered while over 2,000 others are Internally Displaced Persons in Etim Ekpo, Ika and Ukanafun local government areas of the state.
“There is no church in Ukanafun in the last two years. Schools are closed, people have packed out, houses are empty. Grasses have grown all over schools. How can someone say that Akwa Ibom is the safest state in Nigeria with over 2,000 IDPs and over 500 people dead?
“Take a trip to Ukanafun and walk around without security. Because Akwa Ibom is very safe, go there alone with your children. Take your children to go and school in Ukanafun since you are saying that the state is safe. All the Reverend Fathers and teachers have abandoned the place,” he stated.
