2015: GOV AKPABIO AND COSTLY ALLEGATION OF 22 AGGRIEVED PDP ASPIRANTS Let me begin by congratulating these two fine gentlemen Udom Emmanuel (PDP) and Umana O. Umana (APC) who have picked the tickets of their respective parties. Although both their nominations were shrouded in controversies and may still be, I still congratulate them. Baring any change, they are the candidates we have for now. I also wish to congratulate Gov Akpabio for his searing drive to impose his will. It is historically remarkable. He achieved his senatorial nomination and his preferred governorship candidate. I also liked the idea of sponsoring the coverage of the nomination on national television. That was really unique. He should go a step further by sponsoring a debate between these two candidates on same medium to enable the state meet them properly to make informed decision. That would strengthen democracy. For obvious reasons, I have personally fought these two men them at one point or the other but everything has a limit. I am not unconscious that by their nomination, Oro once again has returned to the dilemma of the male widow spider. During mating, the female spider is reputed to bite into the abdomen of the male spider and holds on to retain energy because of the pressure that forces the eggs into the womb of the female. This makes the male so weak that the female would capture the male and eat it up to further regain energy. The male thus dies in the process but contributes its sperm as well as its life, flesh and blood for the female to reproduce. The male thus gives everything including its life to see to the survival of the specie but sadly never ever lived to either see nor enjoy the fruit of its labor. This is the dilemma of the Oro people in Akwa Ibom State. The typical Oro man used to be a fisherman. Oro water was somewhere between salty and fresh waters thus assuming salinity balance which was one of the best in the world. Fishes that have adapted to these type of waters have portent medicinal properties. The Oro man was known to catch and sell fishes of various types and sizes including cat fish (inaha), dog fish (oliok), shack (edeng) among others. Oro waters still houses some of the strangest fishes in the world some of which were said to be amphibious. In fact there was one specie of cat fish (uriong) that climbed Palm trees to feed on ripe Palm fruits. I recalled my late father gave it to one of my aunties who suffered hemorrhage to improve blood-clot. So vast was Oro fish basket that fishermen from Ilaje lived in Oro in those days to carry out fishing. Their brand of fishes was a mix called sacokpe by the locals. Today they are all gone because the fishes have disappeared due to oil exploration activities. Oro mans means of livelihood all gone but the oil feeds the nation and Akwa Ibom State in particular yet no one remembers the Oros nor care a hood about its existence. Infact whenever the Oro people complain, a few powerful but heartless members of the other ethnic nationals within the state mock them and show them some invented statistics why their claim should be ignored. Oro was only recently recognized as an oil producing area as a mere favor rather than deserving. The neglect of Oro didnt begin with the Akpabios administration. It only reached its peak during the Akpabios administration for reason best known to him. In the last 7 years Oro has been persistently, deliberately and calculatedly decimated to a point of surrender. Infact things got so bad at a time that the restive and unemployed youths turned against each other killing and eating each other. Armed robbery and violent crime reached a crescendo before the elders intervened by invoking some deities at Obio Ufre. Inspite of all these Oro has remained the most peaceful oil producing communities in the country. If any of these gentlemen is elected governor he should worry that Oro may not always be peaceful under economic and social trauma. Another issue that should worry them is the plight of the voiceless in the mist of widely acclaimed uncommon transformation. The story of Arit Robert and her baby could give them a clue. Arit Robert has been pregnant for about 196 weeks but she is still unsure of the pregnancy. A baby is considered fully developed between 37 and 41 weeks and should be delivered. But Arits baby wasnt ready to come out. Disturbed by the unusual length of pregnancy, Arit has visited the hospital a number of times and each check reveals the baby was healthy and kicking. She has suggested CS a number of times but her doctor insisted the baby wasnt due. The baby is still in the fetal stage of prenatal development. After over 3 years baby is still about 10inches long. But there is another strange side to it - the babys brain is fully developed. Her Pastor has grown tired of praying for this unusual baby. In fact some of her church members whisper that she carries an evil child, others claimed its fibroid. Still the baby is well. He is only developing at the pace the extremely poor supply of nutrient allows. But the boy is not idle. He has on his own developed a method of calculating the correlation between nutrients and oxygen provided by his mothers placenta and the true state of the economy in the world he is yet to be born into. He could sense that he gets more oxygen and nutrients whenever mummy eats - especially some types of food. He noticed that this is very rare. Though he is unaware of the uncommon transformation in his mothers world, his mothers feeding profile convince him there must be something wrong there. Somehow (dont ask me how) the little man has decided to stay in the mothers womb till the feeding condition of his mother improves - which would also be a pointer to the economic condition in the mothers world. Sadly the baby has a point. His mother is jobless though holder of NCE. His father Robert Akpan aka Ukeke is a welder at Ibesikpo junction. Akpan has no welding machine of his own; even if he did, he would have needed a generator as well because of energy problem in Akwa Ibom. Ukeke makes about 1000naira a week; grossly inadequate to feed him and his two children talk less of the unborn child. This family is not alone. This is the plight of many house-holds in Akwa Ibom State. While the print and electronic media are paid to scream transformation, the under employed, unemployed, the poor and generally deprived segment have no voice. If things continue like this they would eventually find their voice. The result may not be palatable. If any of these gentlemen wins he should depart a little from the 1% that flock around him and worry about the silent 99%. The third person who should worry is Gov Akpabio. What should worry him is not UOU against whom he has desiccated so much energy nor what Udom Emmanuel might turn out to be if wins. They are all old friends - they can reconcile whatever differences in the course of time and move the state forward. What should worry Gov Akpabio is the claim made by the aspirants who walked out of PDP primaries. They claimed that Gov Akpabio paid delegates one million NAIRA each. What this means is that over N1.5billion was spent just to settle delegates to vote for his preferred candidate in a state where an unborn baby chose to delay his birth because of his parents poverty level. This to me and most Nigerians is the height of financial recklessness if it is true. I hope it is just political claim. He should pray that Gen Buhari do not become president in 2015. If Buhari wins then this allegation may open a can of worms not only for Akpabio but other leaders all over the country. Akpabio should find a way to settle with the aggrieved aspirants to withdraw the claim or ensured Buhari loses; if not he may need Karl Max to help him calculate the cost-benefit- ratio of his actions during his last days as governor. If I hear Buhari well during his nomination speech, his only program seems to be digging up corruption and fiscal irresponsibilities. That is if he wins
Posted on: Fri, 12 Dec 2014 13:36:50 +0000
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