BY BRIGHT JACOB
Nigeria’s Senate President, Godswill Obot Akpabio, can easily pass for a jovial politician.
Having emerged as a central component in the All Progressives Congress Renewed Hope plans and later as Nigeria’s 15th Senate President, his leadership style has continued to be called into question even as he faces mounting opposition from Nigerians calling for his resignation.
For Akpabio, however, resignation is not in the cards. The former Governor of Akwa Ibom State has vowed to keep on conducting his business on the floor of the Senate and for this as well; the opposition against his person and the seat he occupies keep growing by the day.
Moreover, aware of his political antecedents, Akpabio’s antagonists have insisted that it is only a matter of time before he steps on the toes of his benefactors in the APC and incur their wrath.
Not originally of the ruling party, the APC, Akpabio stunned many Nigerians when he announced his defection from the main opposition party, the People’s Democratic Party, in August 2018.
For good measure, a picture of Akpabio and the immediate past president of Nigeria, Muhammadu Buhari who was in office when the former defected, shaking hands, with Akpabio seemingly grinning from ear to ear, graced the front pages of many newspapers.
Akpabio’s actions brought a wave of opposition as many former allies, including some members of the clergy in Akwa Ibom State who had previously been supportive and favourably disposed towards the 60-year-old politician, quickly turned their backs on him.
The men of God labelled Akpabio as a “herdsman” for the audaciousness in associating with Buhari, a Fulani man from the North who had been receiving a lot of criticism for going soft on rampaging herdsmen whose cattle were ravaging farmlands in the South.
Undaunted, Akpabio had said about the men of God in an article he wrote titled ‘The Lies and Liars of the Election’, “I am happy that God is not like some of His priests. Ever since I decamped to APC, they have been praying against me and have joined in peddling lies about me.
“Very well-known church prelates and bishops that dined with me for 8 years while I was governor, despite my benevolence to them and their families, joined the fray calling me killer herdsman for joining the APC.”
Many analysts hold the view that Akpabio, no doubt, carefully charted his political course before he called it quits in his relationship with the PDP.
They claim that though the man in the middle of the storm said he embraced the APC because Buhari was a nationalist and man of integrity, and because he wanted to lend a hand to the central government so as to salvage the country from war and poverty, there was a bigger political picture he was looking at.
Thus, it came as no surprise to discerning Nigerians after Akpabio, who got elected into the Senate in 2015 and was the Senate Minority Leader until he left the umbrella party in 2018 before his stint in the Senate ended in 2019, decided to contest for a senatorial seat in the 2023 general elections.
The calculation was that the Essien Udim-born politico, whom Buhari appointed Minister for Niger Delta Affairs after his failure to win re-election into the Senate in 2019 under the APC, was intent on becoming the Senate president and Chairman of the 10th National Assembly.
“If you underrate Godswill Akpabio, you do so at your own risk,” warns Benedict Njoku who also says he has been a great admirer of Akpabio’s works since his days as Akwa Ibom State Governor.
“I have known the man since he was the Governor of Akwa Ibom State from 2007 to 2015 and I like most of the things he did for the state.
“Even though Akpabio smiles and laughs a lot, he is very calculative and knows what he wants. He has a good and friendly heart.
“Akpabio knows how to address difficult situations. He is also focused and also knows how to pursue his political ambition; and for those waiting for him to fall out with Tinubu and the APC, they will have to wait a little while longer. Akpabio is not going anywhere until 2027. He is here to stay and the opposition against him means nothing to him”
“Akpabio knows how to address difficult situations. He is also focused and also knows how to pursue his political ambition; and for those waiting for him to fall out with Tinubu and the APC, they will have to wait a little while longer. Akpabio is not going anywhere until 2027. He is here to stay and the opposition against him means nothing to him,” Njoku added.
Before he dived into lawmaking in 2023, Akpabio did not eye the Senate from the outset. He had actually prioritized the office of President over the Senate. He, however, stepped down as a presidential candidate at the last minute for the eventual winner of the APC presidential primary, Bola Tinubu, and straight away began to reap the reward of his quick-thinking.
Akpabio was made the Vice Chairman of the APC Campaign Council and in what some political observers said was a remarkable feat of miracle, he was counted among other APC candidates who would contest in the rerun of the Akwa Ibom North West district primary ticket.
The election had earlier been held on May 27 and a Deputy Inspector General of Police, Udom Ekpoudom, had won but the election was cancelled after the National Working Committee of the APC said there was a security breach during the polls.
In the rerun on June 9, Akpabio beat four other candidates and this time, Ekpoudom, the former Police DIG, came second after Akpabio polled 478 votes against his 3 votes.
This sparked a resistance from a faction of the APC in the state led by Augustine Ekanem who took the matter to court. The Federal High Court, Abuja, which presided over the matter, in September 2022, upheld Akpabio’s candidacy.
At the Appeal Court, however, Akpabio’s candidacy was voided. But the Supreme Court, in a unanimous judgment delivered in November 2022 by Justice Ibrahim Saulawa, not only reversed the judgment of the appellate court but upheld the ruling of the Federal High Court.
All the same, the judgment could only bring temporary relief to Akpabio. Fellow APC chieftain from Akwa Ibom State, Don Etiebet, not only faulted the decision of the apex court but also said it was the turn of a politician from Abak-5 Constituency to be in the Senate. Akpabio is from Ikot Ekpene Constituency.
In spite of the resistance, Akpabio went on to beat PDP candidate, Emmanuel Enoidem, and earned bragging rights to represent his constituency in the Senate.
In the National Assembly, the stage was then set for the Senate to choose its leadership and pronto, Akpabio became the anointed candidate of the APC for the coveted seat, but this was frowned upon by other candidates who wanted to jostle for the third highest political office in Nigeria.
In the forefront of the agitation was former governor of Zamfara State, Abdulaziz Yari, who vowed to ignore the instructions of the APC to step down for Akpabio.
Yari said he rejected the idea of Akpabio becoming the consensus candidate of the APC because, according to him, the Senate presidency was senators’ business alone and because the constitution urges senators to elect their leaders by themselves.
When all was said and done, Akpabio beat Yari, polling 63 votes against Yari’s 46 votes.
There was another cascade of resistance before Akpabio’s election by fellow senators and even after his inauguration as the Senate president, notable among which was the outcry from a former Minister of Education, Oby Ezekwesili.
Back in June after Akpabio took the reins of leadership in the Senate, Ezekwesili had asked in a no holds barred post on X, “Was the newly elected President of the Senate a candidate in the Party Senatorial Primaries?
“The Nigerian courts, not the public, elected him as a senator. Do they believe these heinous acts of corruption will continue?”
And then last week, Akpabio announced that Abba Moro (PDP, Benue South) and Osita Ngwu (PDP, Enugu West) were the new Senate Minority Leader and Whip, respectively after those seats became vacant.
The courts had sacked Simon Mwadkwon (PDP, Plateau North) as Minority leader and ordered a rerun while Darlington Nwokocha (LP, Abia Central) was outrightly removed as Minority Whip and Tony Nwoye (LP, Anambra North), miffed that no Senator from his party, the LP, was included among the Senate’s Principal Minority Officers, accused Akpabio of picking Minority Leaders for opposition parties.
And though Akpabio later explained that he made the announcement in good faith because those he announced had the majority support of their party men and women in the opposition, Ezekwesili said, in her latest post against Akpabio, that if not for the “rottenness” of the Judiciary, Akpabio did not merit being called Senator or Senate President.
In one of his first acts as Senate president, Akpabio supervised the screening of ministerial nominees.
However, he provoked a backlash from Nigerians for giving some of the nominees “easy passage” and for neglecting to properly scrutinise the credentials of others.
A political analyst and Lagos–based businessman, Kizito Opara, who reflected with incredulity on the shabby way the screening was handled by Akpabio told The Point, “That ministerial screening exercise was a total failure. Was there even a screening in the first place? If there was, how was it conducted? Which criteria was it based upon?
“You mean a screening in which people that attended primary school right from their mothers’ wombs, or entered the university with just two credits, were asked to take a bow and then made ministers? Is that screening? Or can’t you see how they are performing now as Ministers?
“Education has no more value in this country. They have made this country the laughing stock of the world.”
Asked for comments on Akpabio’s performance so far, Opara said, “Can anything good come out of Akpabio? Anyone who has seen anything good come out should inform me about it.
“The only good thing Akpabio has been doing is to approve every document that has everything to do with money so that he would get his cut.
“Akpabio and his Senate are not performing. They are just rubber stamps.”
After the “hectic” ministerial screening conducted by the Senators, it was time to go on recess and Akpabio, in his boisterous manner, said on national television that “holiday money” had been disbursed to Senators’ bank accounts.
Though Akpabio withdrew the statement, saying instead that prayers had been sent to Senators’ mailboxes, his leadership style came under the spotlight with many bashing him for being insensitive to the plight of Nigerians.
Enter the Sports Utility Vehicles that would serve as official vehicles for lawmakers. Members of the House of Representatives had procured 360 SUVs valued at N57.6 billion, each worth a staggering N160 million.
Though some commentators have said that Akpabio should not be crucified for the unbridled display of opulence in the midst of so much poverty, others have insisted that he is liable.
In their argument, the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Services, Sunday Karim, had disclosed that “the leadership” of the two chambers of the National Assembly, in which Akpabio is the Chairman, were the brains behind the procurement and had bought the SUVs because of their durability and maintenance.
A public affairs analyst and clergyman, Reginald Anene, said of Akpabio’s leadership style, “To be honest with you, I am disappointed. Akpabio is the Senate President that should never have been.
“Obviously, he is going to engender money politics like never before and I know that it is always the will of the President to have a Senate President that would help him make his job easier, especially for the passage of bills, confirmation of the president’s nominees and all that, but then again, you would also expect some level of competence and cognitive input in running the Senate.
“We all know that Akpabio got to that seat because of political patronage, not really because of his sterling qualities as a leader or because of his pattern of approach to politics.
“Akpabio needed to be compensated for helping the president do well in Akwa Ibom State and the South South and also because of the fact that he is a yes-man.”
Asked whether he thought the Senate President would last until 2027, Anene said, “I see no reason why he shouldn’t, because, unfortunately, when it comes to sharing our money, we have a Uniparty in the Senate.
“You hardly hear any dissenting voices when it comes to sharing money. Take for instance, when it was time to buy each of those N160m worth of SUV, we did not hear any dissenting voice from any of the members of the National Assembly.
“In fact, they were excited and happy.
“As long as things like that keep getting to their pockets and tables, they (Senators) would definitely stay in line and not remove Akpabio, and that is the truth.”
