By Moffat Ekoriko
In his native Annang land in Akwa Ibom State, there is a philosophical idiom which best fits the ascendance of Godwsill Obot Akpabio, former governor, former Minority leader of the Senate and former Minister, to the position of Senate President. It is mkpo ama odot agwo, ejak eno. The translation is deeper than the literal meaning of ‘when a man deserves a position, give it to him’. It also means ‘any position should be given to the man who merits it and will make good use of it’. This trumps the English equivalent of ‘who the cap fits’.
Indeed, Akpabio, one of the few poster boys of the political class and an avowed nationalist has been elected by his colleagues into an office for which he possesses the aptitude and the attitude.
Akpabio first shot into national limelight in 2007 when he defeated the candidate of the incumbent governor to grab the governorship ticket of the then ruling Peoples Democratic Party for Akwa Ibom State. He easily won the general election on the strength of his popularity and the faith of the electorate that he would take Akwa Ibom State to the next level. And this, he did. Akpabio in eight years transformed Akwa Ibom state, hitherto a backwater of development, to Nigeria’s fastest developing state, so much that the performance of other office holders was measured in relation to Akpabio’s.
His performance as governor of Akwa Ibom state was so legendary that he was dubbed, ‘the uncommon performer.’ In office, his greatest achievement was not the infrastructure he built (outstanding as they were) but the investment he made in human capital for the future of the state. Akpabio took up the matter of the Akwa Ibom child. He was the first state governor in Nigeria to sign the Child Rights Acts which protected children from all kinds of abuse. The case of Akwa Ibom was peculiar because of the stigmatisation of poor children as witches. The law stipulated 10 years imprisonment for labelling a child as a witch.
Realising that rights without opportunities amount to nothing, Akpabio introduced free and compulsory education, up to secondary school level. As a child, he had dropped out of school and vowed that any day he has the opportunity, no child will drop out of school. He renovated most of the schools in the state, provided learning tools and paid the money for running costs directly to the headteachers. The CRA also stipulated punishment for any parent who pulled the child out of school. His policy and investment in education pushed public primary school enrolment from 761,422 in 2007/2008 school year when he assumed office to 1,079,199 by 2012/2013 school year.
The performance, which excludes private primary schools, was a remarkable achievement by any standard but in Akwa Ibom, it translated into a turning point in the destiny of the people. Due to endemic poverty among the population, many parents could not afford to send their children to schools. As the children grew to teen age, without skills, they found themselves disadvantaged in a competitive society like Nigeria. The only way to earn a living was to serve as domestic helps in the cities of Port Harcourt, Abuja and Lagos.
Akwa Ibom state earned the unenviable title of ‘provider of houseboys and house girls to the federation of Nigeria’. Those who did not end up in the homes of wealthy Nigerians took to hawking or did menial jobs like pushing wheel barrows in urban markets. Akpabio set out to abolish this. By providing free education, he created opportunities for every Akwa Ibom child to realise his/her potentials. By the time he left office in 2015, the house help industry had no new recruits from Akwa Ibom. At the risk of sounding sycophantic, Akpabio set his people free from the Egypt of poverty.
Next Akpabio turned his attention to infrastructure. He took on the Akwa Ibom airport project which was a merely a cleared site. He completed it with a 3.6-kilometre runway reputed as one of the best in Nigeria. He built a 30,000-capacity stadium which has today become Nigeria’s saving grace by providing a venue for international matches. He created a network of first-class roads. He also invested in tourism; completing the Ibom Hotel and Golf Course and building the Four Points by Sheraton Hotel at Ikot Ekpene. By the time he was through with Akwa Ibom, his performance had also changed the psyche of the people. They acquired a new sense of confidence.
He carried his performance streak to the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs. When he got there, the Niger Delta Development Commission had operated from a rented office space for 18 years of its existence. The head office project, started 24 years prior, by the defunct Oil Mineral Producing Areas Development Commission (OMPADEC) was abandoned. This was not acceptable to Akpabio who believes in the politics of sustainability. He got to work and in less than 18 months saw to the completion of the 12 storey complex that serves as the Commission’s headquarters today.
Beyond his record in public service, Akpabio brings to his office deep seated values that Nigeria needs at this time. First, he is a nationalist. He believes that the greatness of Nigeria lies in the unity of its people. He is vary critical of members of his political class who act to undermine that unity. He is also a man of unparalleled loyalty. Akpabio is either with you or not with you. He is not an unsure quantity in the middle of nowhere. This explains while he has always been in the inner circle of political power.
Akpabio belongs to the utilitarian school of politics. He sees governance as a platform for service to the people, not self. To him, governance is about the needs of the people and the capacity of the leader to develop creative solutions to meet those needs. Governance is not about self. He prefers to see his treasures in the number of lives he affects.
Akpabio has been elected to office as a groomed leader. The experience gathered as the chief executive of a telecommunications firm, then as a commissioner, then as a governor, then as a Senate minority leader and minister has equipped him to lead a Senate of Nigeria’s best. The combination of this experience with his charisma, self confidence, pan national political network and people oriented mindset means he will find legislative solutions to the challenging problems of a traumatised country in uncertain times.
Ekoriko, the publisher of the London based NewsAfrica magazine, is a constituent of Senator Akpabio’s Akwa Ibom North West Senatorial District
