By Moffat Ekoriko
Nigeria’s Senate President once famously said that he would have been a comedian and a successful one at that if he had not chosen the path of politics. The comment betrayed the essential Godswill Akpabio: a man who sees the humorous side of life and pokes fun at the foibles of men. To him, life can be a joke or at best too playful to be taken seriously. His childlike disposition is uncommon with politicians. Akpabio is the only politician I know who holds his own phone and will pick the call of even an 18 year old constituent.
Much of his character has to do with his background. Akpabio grew up a catholic. He cannot forget his bible lessons where it is said that for any man to enter the kingdom of heaven, he has to be like a child: loving, caring and forgiving. The last trait played out in January when he went to church on New Years Day.
After listening to the homily from the priest, he grabbed the microphone to say the message of forgiveness was for him. There and then, he instructed his lawyers to withdraw all the cases he has filed in court against those who maligned him. It may sound a simple act of piety until you realise that there were up to nine cases against persons who bore false witness against him. Some of those false accusations went to the root of his survival as a politician. The Christian in Akpabio was at play. He had forgiven them. It was the biblical case of turning the other cheek. Akpabio is perhaps the only politician capable of that.
Last month, he gathered all the political stakeholders from his Akwa Ibom Northwest Senatorial District for a meeting. Among the guests were all those who dragged the Senate seat with him and men (and women) who signed a declaration opposing his bid for the Senate. Akpabio stood up, surveyed the audience and declared he has forgiven all. He encouraged the stakeholders to also forgive those who wronged them. Some in the audience could not comprehend his words.
Aniekan Akpan, the Akwa Ibom State chairmen of the PDP, who was at the meeting said Akpabio has acted like the Biblical Joseph who forgave the same brothers that sold him into slavery. The hall erupted in applause, but no one could miss the message. It is heroism to forgive those who wronged you, especially when the Almighty God has elevated you to the status of Senate President (No 3 man) in a country of 200 million people. Many Christians pray the line, ‘forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us’ every morning. Very few practise it like Akpabio.
Akpabio’s heart is also one love. When he makes political decisions, his love for his people counts more than his love for himself. This is different from being selfless. It is a state of loving others beyond self. When he moved from the PDP to APC in 2017, there was naturally a friction between him and the then governor of his state, who was his political protégé. His supporters urged him to use federal might to fight the governor. His ‘no’ was emphatic. ‘If we fight, the governor would deploy the same resources he would have used to send Akwa Ibom children to school’ in such a fight. To him, it was better to walk away than to let Akwa Ibom people suffer any loss because of him.
One dares to add that he values the peace and unity of his people more than his political interest. On the day he became Senate President, his state governor, Pastor Umo Eno lived to his billing as a man of God. He visited Akpabio to seek peace. Akpabio was overwhelmed. After advising Eno not to inherit his predecessor’s enemies he took actions that the ego of many politicians would not allow them to do. He declared Umo Eno the political leader of the state. In the hierarchy of affairs, a Senate President would come before the governor.
Akpabio was not interested. He wanted Akwa Ibom to be a state in peace so that the governor can have the latitude and the frame of mind to serve his people. He was mindful of the fight for supremacy between then Senate President, Joe Wayas and then Cross River state governor, Clement Isong in the second republic.
That fight led to loss of lives and denied then Cross River State (from which Akwa Ibom was later created) most of the dividends of democracy derivable from the federal government. Today, Akwa Ibom is the safest and most politically peaceful state in Nigeria. People from other states in the South South region ask: how did Akwa Ibom get its politics so right. The answer lies in the heart of Akpabio.
Beyond Akwa Ibom, Akpabio has brought his traits to bear in the running of the national Assembly. He has seen the legislature as a platform for national development. `He has not seen it as a platform for his policial ego or theatre for gerrymandering. President Bola Tinubu is perhaps the luckiest President in Nigeria’s recent history vis -a-vis his relationship with the National Assembly.
Recall the acrimony between President Olusegun Obasanjo and the late Chuba Okadigbo or the frosty relationship between President Muhammadu Buhari and Bola Saraki. He has driven the message home that Nigeria is in a hurry to develop. Rather than revel in the theatre of challenging the president, he has rallied the Assembly to support his reforms, politically painful as they may be at the moment.
In life, one’s strength can also be his albatross. His trusting and caring heart has also made him vulnerable to blackmail, especially from people of low character and animalistic survival instincts. He easily opens up to even strangers. Sometimes, those strangers take advantage of his simple nature.
They even record his calls to use as blackmail tools. He would never imagine that someone would record a private call, doctor it with AI to use as a blackmail tool. They accuse him wrongly. Unfortunately, such accusations trend but at the end if the day, majority of Nigerians see through the antics of the angels of darkness. As a result, Akpabio keeps striding in the only course he has set for himself: serving the people. The great book says, ‘to the pure, all things are pure’. That is the essential Akpabio.
Moffat Ekoriko, is writing ‘So Uncommon A Man’, a biography of Senator Akpabio who represents him in the Nigerian Senate.
