Since the creation of Akwa Ibom out of the former Cross River State in 1987, the last three and a half years have put paid to arguments whether or not Akwa Ibom deserved to be a self-governing state. Unlike many other states of the Federation, Akwa Ibom has stood to be counted among the comity of viable and development-driven states and the credit for all this goes to the Akwa Ibom people, who defied impositions, intimidation and opted for Barrister Godswill Akpabio as their governor in the April 2007 elections.
With the present mood in the State thirty eight months after that historic election, it is evident that the people congratulate themselves for having made a good choice. The accolades and wide-spread endorsements for the Governor to repeat the feat with a second tenure have been so deafening, Governor Akpabio would be a saddist to ignore them.
If Godswill Akpabio had earmarked a dual tenure, when as a commissioner, he began eying the governorship of Akwa Ibom State, he has done a good job of justifying his ambition. After three years in Government House, Uyo, people of the State have shaken-off the previously held toga of backwardness and poverty ‘in the midst of plenty’ worn by the State for its stunted or stifled growth. Until the wages of democracy began to showcase under the Akpabio administration, not a few indigenes believed that such feats were ever possible.
Before his ascendancy to the State’s top job, select loyalists of Akwa Ibom Government House were said to be empowered individually, in return for promoting the fortunes and propaganda of their benefactor. Akpabio’s entry into the scene changed all that as empowerment assumed a much wider scope by way of development, spread evenly across the three senatorial districts. Road construction, renovation of classroom blocks, rural electrification, boreholes, completion of an ‘international’ airport and an international power plant, among others, are all to the credit of the Akpabio administration. The level of development in the State since his assumption of office surpassed those of all previous administrations put together, since the creation of the state in 1987 and has sparked a fire among the citizenry demanding he be given another four year shot on the job.
The performance of the government has baffled many who believe they defy imagination that a man can transform a state that much in such a short time. An official of the Rivers State who declared this at a well-attended public function, went as far as giving kudos to Akpabio stating that “if only 10 governors in Nigeria can do what Akpabio is doing, then Nigeria will be on the path to recovery.” That a non-indigene of Akwa Ibom would be so impressed by Akpabio’s performance and declare it so openly before other delegates at a conference, a commentator said reminded of the words of Jesus that ‘a prophet does not command respect amongst his people.’
With so much to show for a successful first tenure, one can only wonder the source of a negligible, self-seeking, self-centered few who would rather wish to give a good dog a bad name so as to justify slaying it. What happened to the age-long adage that honour should be given where it is due? If Akpabio was as self-seeking as some of the faceless opponents, all he needed was borrow a leaf from a former governor of neighboring Cross River State, who did far less in his first tenure and drummed to his people that “one good term deserves another.” And he got it. How much less one with a glaring track record of performance that has caused many an indigene of Akwa Ibom and visitors alike, wondering if they were in the same state they used to know?
Quoting some visiting indigenes of the state from their bases abroad, “We were privileged to physically view and assess completed and ongoing infrastructural developments. The sheer enormity of the various projects in the three senatorial districts and the obvious dedication of the SSG, the Deputy Governor, and some Commissioners and government officials we interacted with illustrated to us that things were being turned around or were positioned to be turned around. I believe a simple and sane analysis based on what has been completed, what is in progress, and what is projected in available government programs vis-a-vis the oft-cited huge revenue allocation from Abuja, will bear this administration out,” they said.
At an elaborate reception ceremony held at the Castle Green Community Leisure Centre, Daghenam, London, indigenes of Akwa Ibom State in the United Kingdom and Ireland, endorsed the governor for a second term based on what they described as the uncommon transformation of the state for provision of vital infrastructure and human capital development in the state in the last three years.
