I had great respect for Godswill Akpabio because I had seen him as a brilliant leader of men and a progressive politician until it started becoming evident that hewas defecting to deflect some pointed political arrows. To conceive the idea to defect from a political party that brought him into public reckoning is ruthless, cruel, cold and miscalculating. This is tragic for someone once considered a splendid politician whose sense of manhood could be relied upon to bring sanity to the political space.He was worshipped as a god in his own state. This is, no doubt,a leap into political oblivion. He will certainly disappear into the silent hallway of political history.
I listened to him recently on the television while talking about those who defected to PDP. I guess he was referring to the APC when he said “Warsaw saw war” and “war saw Warsaw.” I believe he has himself seen war for being loquacious following the defection of some of his colleagues. What a tragedy! Anyway, anything can happen in a polity where corruption and bribery are the order of the day.
To have a complete change of mind to defect to APC after meeting President Buhari in London shows that he has not been a politician at heart but a political merchant. In order to keep the sanctity of his prestigious job as president and demonstrate sanity and skills worthy of his exalted office, I expected President Buhari to have had the courage to ask him: Akpabio,on whose invitation are you here in London? Is it Godswill that you plan to defect to APC? What makes the visit inauspicious in Nigeria? Rather, Akpabio was received into the open and waiting arms of the president. Knowing Akpabio as the minority leader in the Senate was enough to stop the president from acquiescing to whatever demands he came to make.The questions persons have asked are: whose interest is Akpabio’s defection likely to serve and why would he choose to move against the tide? Remember, “there is a tide in the affairs of men, which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune” (Julius Caesar). Akpabio’s case will not be an exception.
The answers to these questions are not farfetched. The EFCC has shot two pointed arrows at Akpabio. Even though no blood was spilled therefrom, he has, however, had his psyche bruised; and like the prodigal son, the time to return home is now. He understands what it is to have one’s feet firmly lodged in the quicksand of prosecution by EFCC. It is a question of ‘if defection is wrong, I don’t want to be right.’ And as you and I know, no one would allow an arrow visibly seen roaring tohit one and cause blindness. Everyone tries to escape from an invading arrow whether it be physical or spiritual. Even though arrows from the EFCC may not have been very effective, but they could in the case of Akpabio be like the stone from David which killed the once insurmountable Goliath. So, the earlier he sought asylum in the sinking political bunker of the APC, the ‘safer’ for him, at least, in the short run. In the long run, the result would be so calamitous that he would wish he neither contemplated nor took the action.
There are three issues that have come to light in the political unfaithfulness of Akpabio – the erosion of truth in the political life of politicians in Nigeria; the erosion of individual freedom of politicians and the lamentable faltering of faith in the political process. First, the truth has lost value in Nigeria following the activities of the political nonentities that adorn our political space. As the political train drifts, values such as truth have been impaired. There is hardly any politician today in Nigeria who has truth planted in his heart and upon whose veracity one can rely. They have become allergic and continue to walk away from the truth as though it is leprous. The erosion of individual freedom is the second issue of concern. This has become so pronounced that politicians suffer indigestion from the inability to extricate themselves from the whims and caprices of political godfathers whose stock in trade remains malfeasances of unimaginable dimensions.In Nigeria, anything can be traded-off for great wealth that does not guarantee happiness or joy. Even for those whose ability to create wealth is natural and with a modicum of effort, happiness is not guaranteed. The wealth permits them no sleep. So, you can be sure that the situation is worse for those who steal our public inheritance.
The effect of all of this is the loss of faith in the political process in the country. There are political darkness and lawlessness everywhere. Those we expect to demonstrate bold leadership, coolness in battle and readiness to endure hardship and pain for and on behalf of the people they represent, now have daggers in their tongue. They want to continue to enjoy the wages of unrighteousness at the expense of the masses. The question, then is, where lies the political future of the country? It should be evident to all and sundry that in abusing the commonwealth of the nation by the political he-goats, religion or ethnicity are no critical variables. The glue is simply the ability to be callous, unrepentant, boisterous, mean, amusing and weak-willed. As far as the political class in Nigeria is concerned, everything and anything they conceive and execute is right and, therefore, evil has no existence.
I weep for the masses whose wellbeing has been impaired by the political class. The time to rise in unison and thunder, not in violence, but in prayers against the callous and great deal of abuses of the political class is now. This is a crusade that should not admit of any political, religious or ethnic divide. The crusade in mine, yours and ours. If we donot legitimately fight our way into freedom, no one else will; not the political class. I trust God that the current political class will surely depart into oblivion without being celebrated.
Francis Iyoha
