“I GAVE BIRTH TO UDOM POLITICALLY. HE WAS BORN WITH A POLITICAL SILVER SPOON IN HIS MOUTH - Akpabio

“Udom you are like a child who was born with a silver spoon in your mouth...you have not had to fight for anything the way I had to fight and I have handed everything over to you”.

The year was 2015 and it was in a political meeting that Akpabio uttered the above words to Udom Emmanuel. At that same meeting Akpabio told the Akwa Ibom State PDP Governorship aspirant that he had handed over his entire political structure to him to ensure his victory in the 2015 Governorship elections. Well, that was when the romance was hot. Today things are completely different.

The other day I heard how Governor Udom made some disparaging remarks and described Akpabio as arrogant. Yesterday during his official declaration to run for a second term of another four years, Governor Udom Emmanuel called Akpabio a liar. However, since the whole drama began nobody has heard the Senator utter a single word against the Governor, he has kept a dignified silence. Today the man being described as arrogant and a liar has kept his promise to the end he has left his entire political structure with the current Governor. Unlike other former governors who defected with the entire state political apparatus , Senator Akpabio walked away with nothing. The Senator could have delayed his defection and lobbied some people to follow him. But he kept it clean, he kept it his personal decision.

It takes some audacity to do what Senator Akpabio has just done, to walk away and not ask for anything back. In 2006 he built a formidable impenetrable political structure in Akwa Ibom State. That structure got him elected in 2007 and re-elected in 2011. And in 2015 the same structure delivered Governor Udom Emmanuel and awarded him the golden stool. Today Akpabio has bequeathed everything to Udom and just like in 2006 when he built a mass political youth movement from scratch to win the 2006 PDP primaries and governorship elections; Akpabio is attempting the biggest political comeback in the history of Nigeria , to build APC from the grassroots to the hill top mansion in 2019.

The senator was in Akwa Ibom State some days ago on foot addressing thousands of youths. Some anti Akpabio voices on social media had said the crowds that attended his defection rally were rented crowds. I'm wondering if the sea of heads that stood under the rain to listen to Distinguished Senator Godswill Akpabio last week sunday at Ikot Ekpene plaza were also part of the supposedly rented crowd from Abia State, because there were thousands of them and they were all cheering him on in our local dialect.

Just some days ago Akpabio was walking the streets of Akwa Ibom speaking to the masses about Food and Jobs. It felt like 2006 all over again. He addressed himself as the Promise Keeper, he told them just as he had given them good roads, bridges, free education, and had lifted Akwa Ibom State from obscurity to prominence he was ready to do it again. He said Akwa Ibom State cannot remain in opposition- he promised Food and Jobs - and insisted that the famine was over! He told the vast crowd to get ready for an Uncommon Takeover that would lead to Uncommon Prosperity! He spoke in a language the masses understood. They gave him a thunderous ovation. A lot of people felt relived somebody was at last speaking to them.

Today the fear of Akpabio has opened the State treasury, money is being shared everywhere in political meetings and solidarity marches across the State. Akpabio is the Tsunami that must be stopped. I hear the State Government pays participants between N3,000 to N20,000 depending on one’s pecking order.

This is free money. This is money the State Governor said he never had. This is money he said he didn’t have to pay Pensioners their gratuity. This is money the Governor said he didn’t have to fulfil his campaign promises which was to create hundreds of cottage industries that would produce food and empower the masses with entrepreneurial skills and jobs.

Today Akwa Ibom State has the ignoble position as the State with the 2nd highest unemployment rate in the entire nation but ironically it is also the State that picks up the highest Federal allocation monthly. How do you reconcile the two positions? When the National Bureau of Statistics said Akwa Ibom State had the highest unemployment rate in the nation, was that an exaggeration? Because the State has disputed that claim. Anambra State on the other hand picks up N4b monthly, while Akwa Ibom State picks up N15b on the average. But Anambra State is not even in the top 20 bracket on the unemployment scale.

The political deceit going on is also nauseating. People are engaging in political marches and attending solidarity meetings with the Governor but the same people are calling Senator Akpabio in the night and begging for forgiveness, claiming this is the only way they can pay their children’s school fees in September. Meanwhile how about the strong rumours that the State Governor has sent emissaries to APC leadership for a possible defection. How about the rumour that APC Akwa Ibom State have written an open letter warning the national body not to accept the current Governor. The question is, this rumour, is it true? Quite unlike the Governor’s excitable media team - they have kept a stony silence to these rumours of a mass executive defection prompting the people of Akwa Ibom State to believe there is a very strong truth to the story. Based on these defection reports flooding the media, people are already asking, “ is it possible Akwa Ibom State is already an APC State even before February 14, 2019 elections?”

Akpabio has been called the comeback kid. People admire the fact that he walked away and left everything to Udom, many are becoming increasingly convinced that Akpabio’s departure was borne out of his deep convictions and was not a gimmick to share out some political meat. Today he is back on the streets speaking to the masses, talking about Food and Jobs - something the current Government is not doing. From what people are saying it appears the people of Akwa Ibom State are taking ownership of the Senator’s defection.

Somebody even said - when a banker defects to a new bank he takes some clients with him. When a doctor defects to a new clinic he takes some patients with him. When a mechanic defects to a new mechanic workshop he carries some customers with him. When a religious leader defects he takes along some members with him. But what Senator Akpabio has done is unprecedented, in fact he didn’t go behind Udom’s back and try to persuade people to follow him. Akpabio walked out alone on his own. He left everything behind for the Governor. He kept his word.

Akpabio has gone against the natural order of things. If there was any integrity in political defection, this has to be one. Because it is unfathomable how a man can leave everything he built, if anything - this shows this was more about Akpabio’s political conviction than just politics. It takes a certain political honesty to pull this sort of feat, building a political movement on a blank sheet.

But the Senator is not alone, his new party, APC is 100% behind him. They also have a formidable state political structure, a structure that fought Akpabio almost to a standstill for eight long years.

Whatever you say about Senator Akpabio this one thing is sure , he is not just a politician in Akwa Ibom State, he is an institution and a thoroughbred streetwise politician, he knows and understands the language of the masses. Today he’s no longer in the opposition party he is a member of the ruling party and he is on the streets. I sincerely hope the Akwa Ibom State Government understand what they are up against. If I were the State Government I would stop the insults on the Senator and start engaging and talking Food and Jobs. Because Akpabio is already 10 steps ahead of the State government and gathering a tsunami behind him.

The uncommon movement of Senator Godswill Akpabio has uncommonly opened the treasury of Akwa Ibom State. Just like a local politician was overhead saying , “Akpabio anam Udom atad expat okuk" The surprising thing is the mysterious appearance of money in the state today while there was no money yesterday. This implies that Udom lied to the people of Akwa Ibom State. Now that the money has suddenly appeared, instead of doing the needful by paying pensioners their gratuity and arrears of pensions, it is instead use in organizing political marching across the state. Political solidarity meeting is held everywhere using state fund while poor primary school retirees are wallowing in abject poverty. Their gratuity and pension is been trapped down by the government. This is unacceptable. The more reason Senator Akpabio is making the uncommon move.

The State eagerly awaits to see who will be APC’s Governorship candidate for 2019 general election.

Have a wonderful weekend my people.

© Ifiok Nkanta & Emmanuel Ibok.

And we adopted Udom politically

The God that adopted you is better than the Devil that gave birth to you

Your defection to APC is an act of cowardice

You will soon know your political relevance in Akwa Ibom and at the end commit a political suicide

You rode on PDP to become relevant

You're now riding on APC to become irrelevant

What a political Akpabio

Waiting for udom's paid agent to come here

Too late to Akpabio.. APC can never win Akwa Ibom State.

This OP is a joker! Akpabio left with nothing? Really?
Anyway, before now, Udom has immobilized most Akpabio's supporters in his government so there was really not much to take away by Akpabio.

If you know how many enemies Akpabio has both in PDP and APC Akwa Ibom, you will pity the man.

Going to APC is a massive blunder that would hunt Akpabio for a long time.

akpabio na fk up guy

AKPABIO in apc UDOM is finish politically

yarimo:
AKPABIO in apc UDOM is finish politically

You never see something, una go chop am 2,000,000-0

abokibuhari:

You never see something, una go chop am 2,000,000-0

different colours, it's clear that is rented crowd.