By Gbenga Oshinowo
It has become increasingly obvious that Governor Udom Emmanuel of Akwa Ibom State is obsessed with pride and loquaciousness that would lead him to self destruction. The banker turned “politician” who has remained a study in arrogance is a proof to the fate pride holds for its victims and a confirmation of the truism that pride goes before a fall.
Recently, Governor Emmanuel seems to have flown off the handle. He appears to be led by some rage that depicts desperation, immaturity and lack of tact. The ease of his predisposition to outburst and infantile comments suggest that he may have been a “successful” banker but in politics, he is not only a greenhorn, he lacks the temperament and humility to cope with its demands.
Not too long ago, the governor publicly lampooned his predecessor describing him as one without a second address. The inference in that expression is that his predecessor has no other occupation. But it is public knowledge that his former boss that he delights to disparage is a lawyer of 31 years standing who served as commissioner for six years, governor for eight years and Senator for of the Federal Republic of Nigeria for the past three years and seven months.
This kind pedigree cannot lend itself to the phantom conclusion that such a person is one without an alternative means of livelihood. As if that had not served as sufficient humiliation and public ridicule, Governor Emmanuel took his war with Senator Akpabio notches higher using a pedestrian narrative that is peculiar to palm wine joints and street corner beer parlours.
Hear him: “Those who came to Akwa Ibom State through night bus and the ones who came back through chartered flight, are they the same? Empty vessels make the loudest noise. I don’t speak behind people’s back. Anybody who has anything to say should come up face to face, let us debate.”
Though some people believe that the veiled reference is about Godswill Akapbio, it is not so. He used “those” which is plural. In other words, he referred to Lagos returnees who are seen to be poor, wretched and talakawas. He referred to those who spent their entire youthful days looking for illusive jobs in Lagos, yet they could not find one despite their academic standing or without but had to be “smuggled” home in night buses. Why should a governor mock such people who are eligible voters in Akwa Ibom State?
Godswill, indeed, was not one of them who came through a night bus. As soon as the announcement of appointment as a commissioner was made, Godswill boarded the then ADC Airline and landed at Margaret Ekpo International Ariport, Calabar since Akwa Ibom (Victor Attah) International Airport was not built then. “I was the person who picked Godswill from there to Uyo for interview in Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly. I drove the v-boot vehicle of Ibanga Akpabio, the then personal assistant to the late Chief F. E. J. Etim and brought him to Uyo,” John Okure, a cousin to Godswill and Ibanga Akpabio confirmed.
Yet, Udom mocked Akwa Ibom people who returned to Uyo as being poor. Has he forgotten that Godswill Akpabio, then a governor, used Akwa Ibom State government aircraft to ferry him to Uyo to resume duty as Secretary to the State Government? Is that what he meant by using a chartered flight? Is Udom from a royal talkless of a rich family? Has he forgotten his parentage? As a banker, how much was his salary for him to be able to hire a flight? Has he forgotten the owner of money that shot him into the boardroom of Zenith Bank Plc?
He talked about debate. What kind of debate is he asking for? Does he think he is the most brilliant person? What a false illusion! This irascible comment is infantile, juvenile, petty and depictive of the arrogance that tends to typify his public life and conduct. Has he forgotten how he had been using the platforms of United Evangelical Church, Surulere and Akwa Ibom Professionals, Lagos to sneer and cast aspersions on the Akpabio administration, yet the same villified person still handed over ark of governance to him?
It is against public knowledge that Governor Emmanuel has irreconcilable disdain for Akwa Ibom people whom Senator Akpabio is a part of. He once publicly derided the people of the State calling them illiterates. His reasoning is that he went to Harvard which in his view, other Akwa Ibom people have not gone.
One does not know how perhaps a short course of a few days in Harvard can confer on him the pompous claim of intellectual erudition. This belief that he is better than every other Akwa Ibom person is why he publicly derides the people including other leaders like Akpabio. The question arising from this infantile comment is, even if he came by a chartered flight and the other by night bus, did they not arrive at the same destination? How has the means of transportation impacted on their individual accomplishments in the State?
What did our dear governor seek to achieve with this peevish comment? Is it not safe to say that the man who supposedly arrived through night bus has recorded better accomplishments than the man who came with a chartered flight? Governor Emmanuel’s comments mirror his personality. Apart from being estranged from the people, the governor acts as if he is doing the people of the State a favour by being their governor.
He treats the people with spite and openly insults other leaders in the State. He has scant regards for the traditional institution. For instance, he only bought paramount rulers vehicles recently for political expediency. There is the story of how he shouted down the paramount ruler of one of the local government areas in the State and how he has treated and scoffed at others.
All of these are products of his lack of humility as ordained by the scripture. What Governor Emmanuel may not know is that as he continues to unleash invectives and uncharitable comments about his former boss and benefactor, his rating in the eyes of right thinking and discerning people diminishes irreversibly.
Rather than add value to his electoral fortune, it depletes it and increases the popularity of the man who bent backward to do him good and whom he is rewarding with evil. His actions are reasons why Akpabio is soaring while he is sliding desperately clutching on all straws for survival. The truth is that Emmanuel is working at variance with the scripture which posits that those who humble themselves shall be exalted. Governor Emmanuel would remain a poor example to moral rectitude and other sundry virtues expected of great leaders.
His flippancy and intemperate behavior foreclose public expectation of him as one who can inspire the rebirth of a new state or maintain the momentum his predecessor had set for the state. Despite his youthful age, he has remained cluttered and tethered to primitive behaviours. This is why envy and pettiness preoccupy him, predisposing him to utterances that devalue him rather than elevate him. These are ranitings of an angry governor who is unsure of the next election. He does not think that the man he is tongue lashing today may be his saviour tomorrow. How will he hide his face asking his perceived enemy for nay help? These unguarded statements unbecoming of a governor are gaffes and sheer arrogance of office that may throw him off the balance in the history of the living and the state tomorrow. It is, therefore, portentous to note that the price of arrogance is humiliation, disappointment, shame and failure.
Oshinowo resides in Lagos
