AKPABIO AND THE JEHOVAH COMPLEX: ! THE TIME TO RESCUE AKWA IBOM STATE IS NOW! *********************** When I first heard the story from those who attended the event, my immediate reaction was that of utter disbelief. I disbelieved because I found it extremely difficult to imagine that a sane and emotionally stable person holding such an exalted office could descend to the level of venting such mutinous and reckless statements. However, when I read the full text of the speech in the print and social media, I was filled with horror, mixed with utter disgust, that the governor of my Akwa Ibom State, His Excellency, Chief Godswill Akpabio, CON, could make such irresponsible public pronouncements, even before the National Chairman of the PDP who visited Uyo for the ground-breaking ceremony of the Akwa Ibom PDP chapter secretariat on Wednesday, 16th July 2014. While delivering his opening remarks at the occasion, Governor Akpabio made it very clear to Alhaji Adamu Muazu, the PDP National Chairman, and members of the NWC who came with him and the generality of Akwa Ibom people that he relished the idea of seeing the physical extinction of his political opponents in the state PDP. In the presence of the Alhaji Muazu, he described those he calls his “political children” as “Lucifers,” “betrayers of the governor” and “Absalom.” The cardinal offence of these Akpabio’s “political children,” made up of essentially those men who have served in his government and who have expressed the legitimate desire to succeed him in 2015, is that they are stiffly opposed to the Governor’s desperate determination to singlehandedly impose his anointed candidate on the people of Akwa Ibom. Imagining himself as the genuine front “door” to the Hilltop Mansion, Governor Akpabio fiendishly proclaimed, in the full view of the whole world, that all other governorship aspirants in the state who have not got his blessings and imperial approval were using the “backdoor;” and as such, they will “die.” He even audaciously coerced those listening to him to assent and approve his malefic proclamation with the sacred “Amen.” Here is an excerpt of the governor’s indecorous and totally irresponsible outburst: “Even our God Almighty recognized that even the people he worked with, and called them angels, that one of them was going to betray him. And that was Lucifer. What did God do? He threw him out of heaven. Has he entered Heaven till today? Those who have betrayed the Governor (of Akwa Ibom State) will not enter Government House (in 2015). I thought you would say Amen! I thought you would say Amen!! I thought you would say Amen!!! Can you say Amen? It is very clear. You empower your children so that they will be a pride to you. You don’t empower them so that they come and betray you.” He went further: I go back into the Bible. I saw the story of Absalom. And I said may God take away the spirit of Absalom from our midst. Who was Absalom? The son of David; the father trained him and empowered him as the would-be King of Israel. Because of impatience, Absalom wanted to take over before the age of 30. He wanted to kill King David. And the King said, leave him to his fate. Did it end well with Absalom? As a young man, he died, while his father continued. I am assuring the Game Changer (referring to the PDP Chairman) and the President that those who want to take power through the backdoor will die. They will die! And the PDP will continue. In Akwa Ibom State, those who want to betray, who were supposed to be our political children, of course they will end like Absalom. But if they changed their minds, then they will obtain favour from the sight of God.” This is not the first time that Governor Akpabio is making very provocative public statements regarding the 2015 governorship race. We recall with alarm that at the investiture of Archbishop Cletus Bassey on the 29th of June 2014, he pointedly told the influential pastorpreneur that “the job of the Governor as the political leader is to give direction to his people and I will do so. It doesn’t matter whose ox is gored. Your feelings notwithstanding, I will give direction to my people… I will produce my successor whether you like it or not.” True to type and without minding “whose ox is gored,” Governor Akpabio has forced all the Commissioners in his cabinet, all appointees of his government and all the 31 local government Chairmen in the state to be “champions” and “coordinators” and “promoters” of the gubernatorial aspiration of Mr. Udom Emmanuel, the political neophyte he desperately wants to impose on the state in the face of widespread opposition; and not minding that his preferred choice was inducted into the PDP only after his appointment as SSG less than a year ago. At this point, Akwa Ibom people in particular and Nigerians in general would like to know by what method, means and time that the “Lucifers” and “Absaloms” who have “betrayed” the almighty Akpabio and are trying to use the “backdoor” to enter the Government House in 2015 would meet their violent death just like Absalom. This clarification is very necessary against the background that since Chief Godswill Akpabio became governor in 2007, Akwa Ibom has recorded many cases of politically motivated assassinations and kidnappings of not a few people publicly identified as the governor’s political opponents. To venture a few examples, Engr. Ini Udonwa who came out to contest the governorship in 2010 escaped death by whiskers when assassins went for him at midnight. He escaped, but his mother got killed and her corpse left on the roadside as a horrifying warning. General Edet Akpan, rtd, a former DG of NYSC and Akwa Ibom PDP Elder was kidnapped in church and kept away for days because of his refusal to support Governor Akpabio’s second term bid. He was not released until the military high command in Abuja issued a strong warning. And only a few months ago, Chief Albert Ukpana was cold-bloodedly butchered by unknown killers in his residence. It is instructive that the latest police reports say Ukpanah’s assassination was “politically motivated.” In the light of the foregoing, it is pertinent Governor Akpabio disclose how the “Lucifers” he has thrown out of his government, the “political children” whom he “empowered” but have turned round, like “Absalom,” to “betray” him, will come to the violent “death” he publicly said will be their lot. We recall that at the twilight of Obong Victor Attah’s glorious epoch, Chief Godswill Akpabio and 57 other aspirants from the three senatorial districts freely campaigned within our PDP to succeed Obong Attah. In spite that Obong Attah had his preferred candidate who was his son-in-law, he never accused Chief Akpabio, who served as one of his commissioners, or any other contestant for that matter, of “betraying” him or using the “backdoor” to the Hilltop Mansion; Obong Attah did not stigmatise those who rejected his son-in-law and openly favoured other aspirants as “Lucifers” and “Absaloms;” he never cursed them or call Dr. Ahmadu Ali, the then National Chairman of PDP, and pronounce before him that those who do not support his preferred candidate will “die.” This is why we find Governor Akpabio’s latest public outburst very worrisome. We are deeply worried because we think the governor’s eerie pronouncement is a Freudian slip that betrays the typical character of a ruler, like the biblical Abimelech or Herod, who is afflicted with a neurosis Carl Jung characterised as the “Jehovah Complex.” Persons with this malady suffer from delusions of grandeur; playing God and believing that everything they do is “God’s will.” They are megalomaniacal, egoistic and fiercely intolerant of opponents and opposing views; they are bloodthirsty and believe in the physical annihilation of their perceived enemies. We fear that our dear Governor is exhibiting disturbing symptoms of this neurosis. How else can we explain why he wants those who disagree with him to “die;” why those who reject his preferred governorship aspirant he calls “Lucifers” and “Absalom”, sacks them from office and threatens them with violent death? Akwa Ibom people, we are faced with clear and immediate danger. This is not and cannot be the Akwa Ibom we deserve and yearn for. We must all rise and generate the necessary “Peoples’ Power” that will rescue our great Party, the PDP, and our State from the clutches of this cabal. The only way to do this is to collectively reject in totality the imposition of any gubernatorial aspirant on Akwa Ibom people by Governor Godswill Obot Akpabio. THE TIME IS NOW!!! Ita Awak Former Akwa Ibom State Commissioner for Information and PDP Stakeholder.
Posted on: Fri, 25 Jul 2014 13:38:30 +0000
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