…Predicts EndSARS uprising will be child’s play to social upheaval that may erupt as result of unending hardship
By Agatha Emeadi
Isong Akpabio is seen as a man that is wearing many caps. He is a veteran journalist, former features editor of the Nigerian Chronicle; and a Public Relations expert who headed the Nigeria Institute of Public Relations (NIPR), Akwa Ibom State. He also worked with Princes Trust in England which was presided over by the present King of England, King Charles 111. One cannot remove sports from Akpabio who sponsored one of the longest running private football trophies for his community.
In this interview with Sunday Sun, the senior Akpabio who is of the same descent with the present Senate President, Godswill Akpabio x-rayed the cross-carpeting of the Senate president some years ago as a fulfilled dream, the place of Ndigbo, recent tribunal judgment and many more. Excerpt:
Senator Godswill Akpabio is related to you, now he is the Senate President; was this his ambition why he somehow disappointed most of his followers even as a PDP stalwart and cross-carpeted to the APC with most of his supporters?
Well, Harold Laswell defined politics as “who gets what, when and how”. Changing sides is one of the attributes of political living. Crossing carpeting is a key aspect in political behaviour just like in football where you cannot play on one side of the field and win. Senator Godswill Akpabio changed sides in politics as a Senator when he walked away from PDP into APC some years ago. He is a keen footballer which is why the best stadium in Nigeria located in Uyo is named after him. Senator Godswill Akpabio wanted to win and, therefore, changed to the other side at half time. He was governor in PDP and thereafter got elected as a Senator. Again, there was nothing more to add than find a role in Nigeria’s political centre, Abuja. When he did crossed-carpet, a lot of friends and opponents did not understand why. But since joining the APC, he had been the Niger Delta minister, and I think the first to have Niger Delta Development Commission extracted from the Presidency to his Ministry. Now as a ranking Senator; still in the APC family he vied for and took over the Senate as president. Playing on both sides of the field he has won the game and the gains on his people are enormous. To this end, as the end justifies the means, I am not sure he disappointed anybody by changing sides. Let’s give it to him he is a master-strategist. If one should ask me what he will go for after this Senate Presidency, I will say I don’t know, but will be quick to add that like Nostradamus, Godswill Akpabio can be credited with the gift of seeing tomorrow’s politics.
How will you react to the recent tribunal judgment that upheld the administration of President Tinubu?
Well, I will say that in the court of justice, both parties know the truth. It is the judge who is on trial. In our special case, the electorate have abandoned and surrendered their mandates to the judiciary to elect our leaders into different political positions. The moment the electorate live up to their responsibilities and pursue their constitutional rights responsibly the judges would have no role to play in the aftermath of the electoral system. There again, in Nigeria the electorate had conspired with unscrupulous politicians to rig the elections, engage in ballot stuffing, votes buying and other electoral vices and the five judges followed the law as it is and not as it ought to be. I do not, therefore, see the truth in the accusation of the five judges selling their conscience, rather it is a situation where the electorate derelict their mandates with impunity.
How do you see the removal of fuel subsidy by President Tinubu’s government?
Well, it is written that the removal of subsidy had to come someday and when that day, it was removed. However, to most Nigerians fuel subsidy removal means increasing the yoke of the common man with Bola Tinubu as the hatchet man. Then again, if the neighbouring countries were benefitting from its existence while Nigerians were suffering then its immediacy in removal should be upheld. Now, the question is what did we do with the trillions of naira expected to stream in? One can tell that from indication, we have already started sharing the windfall as booty amongst governments and legislative-leaders while the poor masses, in effect have nothing to do with the advantages of subsidy removal except suffer more grief. However, if in few months’ time gas prices come down to the reach of the common man, then Tinubu must have succeeded on the road to national recovery. But, give it to Tinubu, one thing about our president is that he gauges success of governance on revenue generation; that is money squeezed from the common man. Part of the boast of The governments he has been involved in is their ability to attract revenues, taxes, tolls, fines, levies et cetra from a dying public. So, subsidy removal fits well into his scheme of engendering public impoverishment.
Do you think President Tinubu has the magic wand to bring the transformation Nigerians want?
I do not believe in the political magic of one man to rescue a country especially the leadership which is saddled with recycling old and aged utensils. He may have good intentions, but has his hands tied behind his back and the reward style will be a Presidential system of government which poses challenges where sponsors, no matter what level of criminality, they show up with, must be accommodated in government. When Tinubu gets over the euphoria of ascendancy to the throne, and concentrates on right activities for national resuscitation, he will succeed in partially rescuing Nigeria from its economic epilepsy.
Criticism has trailed the presidential election petition tribunal, and accused the judges of selling their conscience, what do you think?
Those accusing the Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC) judges of selling their conscience are on one side, those happy with the outcome of the judgment are on the other side. If the judgment had gone the opposite direction, roles would have been reversed and the winners would be the complainants. Honestly, it is hard to believe the judges’ interpretation of the status of Abuja, the Federal capital, because their judgment thus has created Abuja as a state that deserves full rights in structures and elected officials. The judgment has invalidated the necessity of a by-election when the winner no longer requires 25 per cent votes in the FCT to become president.
What do you think about the shift of the legal battle to the US?
The shift of the legal battle to the US is a political idiocy. A man has been declared winner and he has started work in earnest, and we are hoping for a simple rated university in Chicago in the US to provide the bricks to stone him out of office. What new evidence will be revealed by that varsity in Chicago that we have not already heard? Is PEPC going to sit on the fresh evidence all over again or simply put, will the Supreme Court use the findings of a US university to throw Tinubu out of office? I advise litigants to tackle this problem with votes numbers and not disturb the US to do the job. Donald Trump on January 6, 2021 had planned to truncate American democracy and today has been indicted four times. What has ‘almighty’ US done to punish him? For comfort, he is still the front runner in the 2024 Republican Presidential nomination. So, the Americans, even though, they see Trump as guilty and liable, may not radically stop him, but we expect their university to come, help, drop a man of equal status in our clime.
The season of palliative is a new development in the country, is this a result of government’s silence on developmental projects and for how long will palliatives save Nigerians from excruciating poverty and hunger?
Granting palliatives to Nigeria when you leave robbed the people of their real income, then exposed them to indignity and that makes it a scam by government. Remember during the COVID-19 scourge, where thousands of bags of rice were carted away and hidden by governors and their agents for personal and selfish use, did the so-called palliatives get to the people, no? With a few cups of rice to households costing few naira probably for one-time cooking cannot appease the bread winner who has to fill his car tank with thousands of naira worth of petrol for a simple journey to drop his wards in school. What about the product’s price that have gone through the roof, relationships have broken due to insufficiency, misery is the social expression on every face, and deaths are the reward of hunger and frustration. If these scams called palliatives last longer than expected, knowing Nigerians, the days of SARS uprising could be child’s play compared to any social upheaval that may erupt as a result of hardship.
In Nigeria today, where do you think the place of Ndigbo is?
The Igbo people are Nigerians and should be allowed some measure of respect and dignity accruable to other ethnic groups. It is not easy to keep them quiet politically and economically without turning them into the stubborn fly that perches preciously on the nation’s scrotum. Affirmative action must be taken to include them in national leadership positions with the hope we will be able to find our way out of the maze of confusion and ridicule we have sunk into.