AKWA IBOM 2015: UDOM EMMANUEL – THE REAL DEAL OR THE RAW DEAL! So much has been written, hyped, touted, commented, questioned and what not; regarding Udom Emmanuel’s governorship aspiration and more will still be said as the parties for and against his ambition continue with the battle for supremacy in getting the people to accept him or otherwise for the plum job of the office of the governor of Akwa Ibom State come 2015. I will therefore try not to bore you with all the arguments advanced before now as to whether he is right and the people are wrong; or whether he is the real deal or not; but my concern here will be to address the future of Akwa Ibom State next 8 years from a different perspective as the 2015 elections beckon. Negotiating the roundabout at the 4-Lane end of Nwaniba Roadin Uyo, the state capital; one will be greeted with a big billboard with the inscription: UDOM EMMANUEL: THE REAL DEAL. This very inscription is the inspiration for this piece so the people will fully comprehend and be guided on the implications of this deal before deciding whether Udom truly is right(the real deal) or not; for when he is proven otherwise, it becomes the raw deal. If one may ask, what is a real deal? My attempt to answer this question is simple:A real deal in the democratic context is that deal acknowledged and supported by the majority of the people with the ‘hope’ that the deal will deliver on its campaign promises vide a people centered and inclusive government for the benefit of the people. For emphasis, the real deal is that deal that portends a win-win situation where all parties involved go home satisfied with a fair sense of value derived from the deal. In a typical toss of a coin, you would often hear something like head or tail, it’s a bargain. This happens often when two teams in a football match try to decide which side of the pitch to play from at the commencement of the game (first half). When the coin is tossed, the side that chose the head will pick the half they are playing from while the opposing team will kick off the game. These roles will be reversed during the second half. Fair play and win-win you would say. With this understanding of a real deal, I would not like to bore you with characteristics of a good deal and whether Udom possesses such or not; after all we have all been inundated with details of his qualifications and pedigree in Corporate Nigeria, his contributions to the growth of Zenith Bank, and how the Bank would not have been where it is without Udom and how he sacrificed an offer to become the CBN governor and how he is the only one who can industrialize the state etc., which his promoters have tried so hard to sell to the rest of us. All of these arguments tend to portray Udom as being indispensable and thus the messiah who will Right all the Wrongs of the Akpabios and set the state on the path of real development?This is only the ‘wished features’ of the deal and let’s say this is one side of the coin. Nonetheless, his promoters are yet and I bet will never tell us who the owner(s) of the other side of the coin is (are); or how they will strike a balance fora win-win amongst these parties and still have something left for the people. For me, this portends the greatest danger to the people and the future of Akwa Ibom State, hence the need for this write-up for the records and posterity. I have always known where you can find indispensable people, a great many of them are in the cemetery and a few at various mortuaries in hospitals and embalmment homes across the world waiting in the queue to join their colleagues. Yes, that’s where they live but interestingly, the world is moving on without them. No wonder President Jonathan alluded the other day that Nigeria would have disintegrated if Buhari was killed when a bomb exploded few meters from his entourage somewhere in Kaduna or so. Mr. President had openly admitted that Buhari is indispensable as far as this charade of a country called Nigeria is concerned. By that statement, he (Mr. President) confirmed that the lives of about 80 ordinary Nigerians that were lost in that attack were dispensable (may their souls rest in peace) and Buhari’s own horrendously indispensable; the very reason Buhari is back to the presidential race to challenge him after shedding some crocodile tears openly in a press conference a few years back and telling vulnerable Nigerians that he had given up on whatever remained on his ambition to contest future presidential elections. That’s a coin for another day anyway. Mr. President and his ardent cohorts of this fallacy of indispensability forget that MKO Abiola and Shehu Musa Y’aradua are no more to be found in the political landscape of Nigeria and yet the country had since moved on; even Sani Abacha that was adopted by the five frontline parties as their sole candidate died on top of the mandate and yet again, the country still moved on. Only recently, Rilwanu Lukman died and OPEC is still holding meetings. Yes, these are men who in times past lived under a warped illusion that Nigeria belongs to them and we ‘believed’ and allowed them to carry on unchallenged.Besides the ones that are cooling off in the comfort of their morgues and cemeteries in different locations across the country, we also have a handful of illusory indispensable Nigerians that are still living with the bizarre delusion that Nigeria can go nowhere without them; the likes of Babangida, Obasanjo and yet Buhari to mention just a few fall into this category. I am aware Mr. President does not enjoy‘rosy’ relationship with these men anymore, yet Nigeria is still moving forward. In Akwa Ibom today, Godswill Akpabio and his cohorts have taken the lead of the indispensables and as the race for 2015 heats up, they are stopping at nothing to enrol Udom Emmanuel in that list by all means. Understandably, the latter has offered himself a sacrificial coin for the deal and therefore a tool of bargain in the hands of the Akpabios even when he is not qualified to run (Udom’s membership in PDP is less than 2 years)!Regrettably, the ruling PDP National hierarchy and Mr. President seem to have settled in to this phantasm that Governor Akpabio and everything he represents is the only thing that is right thereby making them indispensable. Of course, the reasons are not far-fetched for as long as Akpabio continues in his fleecing exploitation of the people’s resources to feed his whims and greed and that of the PDP hierarchy and the Presidency at the expense of the ordinary Akwa Ibom people; these guys are simply indispensable.Is it any wonder the reason they have come to certain conclusions such as Udom is Right, (and the people are wrong) and now Udom: The Real Deal (meaning every other deal is fake) and are hell bent to foist this deal on the people?Imagine the extent to which they go in a bid to consummate the deal where mortal men will swear that only rapture can stop the deal! That must be some serious deal. Would you then call such a real deal or simply a RAW take it or leave it DEAL? Guided by the above background, few questions would readily come to mind: 1. Is Udom Emmanuel truly the real deal for Akwa Ibom come 2015? 2. If the answer is yes, what is the proof and where is he coming from? In other words, who is selling this deal to the people and what is the seller’s pedigree? 3. If the answer is No, what is in this raw deal that they are hell bent on consummating? Is it about covering some shady deals conducted over the people’s head in the past years and up till now or is it another raw deal of striping the people bare of whatever remains after Akpabio’s uncommon rule? Or better still, is it both? Oh, Akwa Ibom! 4. Who and who will sign the deal slip and on whose behalf? 5. Is Udom’s emergence a product (child) of necessity to protect the interest of a certain external mafia whom Akpabio has some unfinished dirty financial dealings with? 6. Can Udom sincerely say that this ambition is his original idea,abinitiolike the lawyers would say? 7. If yes, what is Udom’s vision for Akwa Ibom 2015 upward? When did this vision come to him and to whom did he communicate this vision prior to 2013 when he was drafted into the murky waters of Akwa Ibom politics nay, the Nigerian crooked style of democratic ruse called politics of interest. Even if he had not communicated the vision to anyone before now, does he have it written down anywhere and where exactly was the vision given to him? 8. And if the answer is no, then whose deal is Udom Emmanuel? Is he the people’s deal or that of the Akpabio’s clan and by extension the PDP National and the Presidency? I am asking these questions because I watched with surprise the presence of Mrs. Unoma Akpabio’s at Udom’s declaration at the stadium penultimate week. If Mrs. Akpabio or the husband does not show up in any other aspirant’s declaration event, then we don’t need a soothsayer to tell us whose deal Udom is. Before attempting to answer any of these questions, let’s reason together a bit and take a cursory look at where Udom is coming from. In the last seven and a half years, Godswill Akpabio vide his uncommon style of governance has succeeded in making Akwa Ibom the destination of choice for capital flight in favour of foreigners (non Akwa Ibom citizens)and a place of agony for Akwa Ibom people where the commonwealth of the people are fleeced to favor his whims thru bogus contracts to Julius Berger, Ben Bruce, his Igbo in-laws, his family members, PDP National leadership and hierarchy, National Assembly members, the Judiciary, Leadership of Security Organizations, Religious Leaders, Nollywood, and every famous Nigerian (and non-Nigerians alike, e.g. the President of Ghana) that catches his fancy, the Media and numerous unimaginable award benefactors in Nigeria and abroad all at the expense of development of Akwa Ibom State where uncommon hunger, uncommon anger, uncommon unemployment and uncommon oppression of the common people reign supreme. Needless to ‘talk about’ the uncommon political ideology of Akpabioism which postulates nothing good but total crushing of opponents, sidelining, maligning, maiming, kidnapping, rape, assassinating, hatred, ethnicity, nepotism and harassing anyone who opposes him or other aspirants who dare to consult or campaign in Annang land against the wishes of this uncommon self-styled emergency evil tin-god of today’s Akwa Ibom State. Because of the uncommon draconian civil dictatorship rule that Akpabio has handed the people in his seven and a half years reign of terror with the support of PDP National and the Presidency, the people are now so neck-deep busy looking at Udom from the eyes of the Akpabiosonly without looking at the other side of the coin. Now let’s assume Akpabio succeeds in foisting Udom against the wishes ofthe people thereby holding on to one side of the coin (head or tail as the case may be), the question is: who owns the other side of the coin? Is it not the people you would readily assume? The answeris emphatically NO. The other side of the coin is owned by Udom’s immediate constituency, (not Onna Local Govt. or Eket Senatorial District but) the Zenith Mafia where he served faithfully for over two decades before his recent appointment as the ‘indispensable’ SSGof which he has now resigned to become the only right, terribly indispensable real deal in the hands of the Akpabios and this Mafia group come 2015. Yes, I know many of us did not look at it from this perspective but that is the naked truth and I have my own reasons for saying so. Udom’s short address at his declaration ceremony penultimate week will readily tell that Udom has no mind of his own as far as this deal is concerned. He reechoed everything Akpabio has been telling us in the last seven and a half years and not what the people wanted to hear for a change which would have given some gleam of hope to the common man as a fair share of the coin come 2015. Of course not, he would not have said anything less with Unoma Akpabio sitting down right there fixing her eyes on him and listening with rapt attention. Needless to say, Udom read out a script prepared by the people who will toss him (the coin) about. After listening to that speech and reading it over again on the net, I came to the conclusion that the vision is not Udom’s idea thus making him just a coin to be tossed for the Akpabio’s on one side and a hungry mafia waiting to devour Akwa Ibom State on the other side. Yes, it was that same mafia that brokered Mr. Godwin Emefiele – former Zenith Bank MD’s appointment as the current governor of Nigeria’s Central Bank. I am aware of how powerful that mafia is and how they have bought into the powers that be at Aso Rock. These guys are extreme rapacious capitalists to the core and I can tell you these guys are mean. When they enter a market, they want to take everything and everything I mean it. Again, you could see the fingers of the Presidency in this other side of the Udom coin. That makes it more dangerous for us. This mafia led by Mr. Jim Ovia, owner and Chairman of Zenith Bankfeatured prominently in the so called ground breaking of a Petrochemical plant in Ibeno recently performed by Mr. President. Granted that Udom will build industries, the answer is who will own those industries? Who will run them? What will be the equity structure in those industries? For example, how come Mr. Ben Bruce builds common galleria with own funds and/or Bank borrowing in Lagos, Port-Harcourt and Abuja only to turn around and build an uncommon one in Akwa Ibom with State funds and the Govt. in turn subsidizes the patronage of the uncommon galleria. What a way to strip-rape a people. Is it by force to watch a movie in a theatre when they know too well that these people are either unemployed or underemployed and therefore cannot afford this kind of luxury? This example unfortunately is the type of uncommon industrialization that the people will get between the Akpabios and their PDP/Presidency cohorts on the one side of the coin and the Zenith mafia on the other side of the coin if Udom Emmanuel becomes the governor. That is the raw deal Akwa Ibom people will get. What Udom does not even know is that he is only a coin to be tossed about by the Akpabio’s on one side and the Mafia on the other. But who cares about a sacrificial coin? The grave and sad implication here is that a coin has only two sides and therefore nothing and I mean nothing will remain for the ordinary Akwa Ibom person. Even the crumbs from the round edges that will fall off on the ground in the course of tossing the coin will be for the cultists and hoodlums which Akpabio and his cohorts have bred over the years. How sad? One thing I like Akpabio for is that he does not hide his feelings when he wants to feed his greed as he will leave no stone unturned and we all know it. Prior to 2011 elections, he and his cohorts warned that Annangland will not condone campaigns from other aspirants, a former minister and senator, James John Akpanudo-edehe tried it and got what he wanted. Again, when he ordered his army of thugs to crush everything opposition in the build-up to that election, Mrs. Comfort Ewang, Iniekong Udonwa and the mother, Madam Udonwa, Steve Ibanga, Udo-edeghe and many others had stories to tell. At another occasion, he announced to the whole world that he gave Ikono/Ini people a place in the Senate by crossing off the name of the person who won before at the primaries and replaced him with Alloysious Etok and nothing happened. Months ago, in the presence of the PDP National Chairman, Akpabio issued another threat to the Absoloms of today’s Akwa Ibom State politics. Just a few weeks ago, Senator Helen Esuene was attacked in Essien Udim, Governor Akpabio’s hometown by Akpabio’s hoodlums for daring to toy with Akpabio’s coin deal; apparently confirming that he meant business when he called on the youths (his killer squad according to Senator Alloysius Etok and Ambassador Asam Asam) to rise up and attack elders and take their crumbs destiny in their hands. It was reported that the hoodlums had guns and machetes with them which they openly displayed and under the influence of narcotics which these group of people normally operate, anything could have happened but thank God for Ma Esuene and her team, they escaped unhurt. This is a pointer to what will happen as Akpabio attempts to foist his uncommon coin down our throat. We dare say that from hindsight, the violence, assassinations, kidnappings and rape activities that engulfed the state prior to the 2011 elections will be a child’s play if nothing is done to stop Akpabio. Now there are certain aspirants that also know what Akpabio knows. They also have money (the people’s money that they shared together when the going was good) and they have boys (their own version of clueless and crumbs eating hoodlums etc.) just like Akpabio; and you may want to ask, are they the real deal? Again the answer is emphatically No. They cannot overnight become saints just because the tides are not swinging in their favour anymore. They are like Atiku and Amaechi of the APC. This is the reason Obong Victor Attah must be careful with these men, the likes of Umana Umana, Bassey Albert, Nsima Ekere, Bishop Sam Akpan etc., No, they are not. It is avidity of exclusion that is making them sing a new song and attempting to paint Godswill as the only evil reigning in the land. No, they can’t fool all of us anyway. They too, are evil. Tomorrow they will regroup and tell you politics is a game of interest and that there is no permanent friend or enemy but I know for sure there is God and a permanent judgment. In summary, the battle for the soul of Akwa Ibom now appears to be between two foremost contenders, the Akpabios on the one hand and the Zenith Mafias on the other and sadly encapsulated in one sacrificial coin, Udom Emmanuel having served the Mafias for over two decades as well as riding on the back of the Akpabios as SSG. The clueless and gullible touts and hoodlums are those cultists that will benefit from the crumbs in the name of providing security for their paymasters band unfortunately, the hapless people of Akwa Ibom is the battlefield upon which the fleecing and exploitation of the innocent, naïve and vulnerable will take place. No wonder it is often said that when two elephants fight…. The people have truly become the grass in this unfolding RAW DEAL they are about to be served.I am just piqued by the agony that is set to befall the vulnerable people of Akwa Ibom State. The RAW DEAL UNDER THE UDOM COIN IS HEAD OR TAIL, THE PEOPLE LOSE. For the Akwa Ibom people, it is a case of NO DEAL, period. As I make effort to conclude this piece, I am not sure whether the family of Alamasiagha is back from Dubai where one of his sons was reportedly killed in that country. Far be it from me to mock people that mourn (may the soul of the young man rest in peace) but this is a reality and we must make certain references in order to learn from it; after all we will all go that way one day as our time on earth is up. For the Akpabios, their case is already settled on account of their activities from 2008 till date. I am making reference to Senator Etok, Atuekong Etiebet and Ambassador Asam’s allegations that they were directly and indirectly responsible for the needless killings, kidnappings, raping and all manners of evil perpetrated in the state on account of looting, positions and greed at their whims and caprices which truly leads no one anywhere but self-destruction in the end. If these allegations are true, then sooner or later they will be buying tickets or flying private jets to places like Dubai and other countries to collect their dead children or merely to visit them in rehab homes for abuse of narcotics or even in road accidents from expensive cars bought with blood money stolen from the people.I am not a prophet of doom but the word of God is infallible or is it not proper to remind mere mortals of the consequences of their deliberate actions that means doom to other peoples’ children today? For Udom Emmanuel, I only need to remind him of Ambassador Asam Assam’s advice to him in an open letter which we all read and I quote, “Please tell Governor Akpabio not to kill us (or any other Absolom’s supporter) for your sake for if and when it happens, you will be a partaker of the blood” and the consequences would be the same. A trip to Dubai or any other foreign country in the future or to a local accident scene in Nigeria where your own children will grow up to drive in expensive cars bought with blood money. For the power bloc in Aso Rock, and the PDP National who appear to pay deaf ears to the cries of the hapless people of Akwa Ibom State (please refer to Obong Victor Attah’s press conference of Tuesday October 28 2014),the usurpers of justice at the nation’s Judiciary and the Mafia waiting to devour the already maimed down trodden people in the name of industrialization, let it be known that there is no way that you partake in these spoils on top of the blood of innocent people Akpabio has caused to be shed and is even bent on shedding more in his blind and desperate bid to toss the Udom coin that you will not make a trip sometime in the future abroad to collect the corpse of your children or from a local accident in an expensive car (like it recently happened to El-Rufai) bought for your children from the blood of Akwa Ibom people. It is as simple as that for truly, as Dame Patience rightly captured during the Chibok girls saga, there is God and He is watching.It is only a fool that says in his heart, there is no God and Mr. President knows this. He is no fool, after all, they all returned from a pilgrimage to Jerusalem and who knows after their planned kangaroo primaries, all of them will gather in the brand new exceedingly uncommonly-priced Akwa Ibom Stadium to sing their victory halleluiah song at yet another Akpabio’s mindless fleecing Project 9,999 carol night where the people’s money will be shared. So don’t tell me they do not know that there is God. What then is the real deal for the people? Take it or leave it, God has the real deal for His people and it will soon unfold. Could it be that the Presidency, the PDP and the Judiciary have ganged up to sit on the people’s real deal? What is happening to the cases that are pending against Akpabio at the nation’s Supreme Court? How come other recent cases (like that of Anambra State) have been determined? What are the options open to the common Akwa Ibom people should the powers that be today insist on foisting the Udom coin down our throat in total ignominy of the efficacy of the cases pending at the nation’s apex court against Akpabio? Or do the power bloc at Aso Rock, PDP National and Judiciary think that the recent press conferences by the likes of Obong Victor Attah, Atuekong Don Etiebet and the numerous petitions pending at Presidency and the PDP secretariat against Akpabio for his atrocities in the state since 2008 and again wanting to suppress the wishes of the people baseless insinuations? These questions are begging for answers and Akwa Ibom people cannot wait to get them. We are watching. Indeed the whole world is watching. God Bless Akwa Abasi Ibom State! Sara Ironbar. Calabar
Posted on: Sat, 01 Nov 2014 18:35:29 +0000
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