It was funny as Nigerians watched Godswill Akpabio dump the party on whose platform he became a two-term governor for eight long years and now a senator. Akpabio gave flimsy excuses on why he left and said he did it because he, Akpabio is a nationalist, so he wants to save Nigeria and the world from the doomsday he created in the first place.
Akpabio's comments were not the outrage. The outrage was the comments of the diarrhea-mouthed, impulsive, temperamental, erratic, emotionally-unstable, and corrupt and Benin thug chairman of the APC, Adams Oshiomhole. Oshiomhole looked at Nigerians in the face and called us fools when he said, for sixteen years PDP looted Akwa Ibom dry while standing next to the number one and greatest looter of Akwa Ibom State, Mr. Godswill Akpabio. That comment is the greatest insult on the intelligence of Nigerians.
Perhaps, Adam Oshiomhole is suffering from amnesia. If he is, let's cure him by reminding him how Akwa Ibom treasury got looted dry for sixteen years.
In 1999, Nigeria returned to democratic rule as a country, after years of military misrule and by implications, the states including Akwa Ibom State returned to civil rule.
Victor Attah, now a member of the All Progressive Congress (APC) was the governor of Akwa Ibom for eight years and handed over power in 2007 to Godswill Akpabio, now a member of the All Progressive Congress (APC) and for the next eight years, Akpabio looted Akwa State dry, borrowed billions of dollars in the name of the state and for eight years he squandered Akwa Ibom wealth, bankrupt the state and left hundreds of billions of dollars in debt for the next four generations of Akwa Ibom citizens. Akpabio in doing so left trail of records of ill-gotten wealth, domestic and foreign bank accounts and a 108 billion naira personal property all over Nigeria. To avoid prosecution he defected to the APC to seek protection and avert jail term.
This is the man Adam Oshiomhole and the APC say is a good man and have provided cover for him. For decamping to the APC he, Akpabio has become a saint and Messiah who will save Nigeria and the world from an impending Armageddon for which he, Akpabio contributed in creating in the first place.
APC, the party we labored hard for, which some people paid the ultimate sacrifice to bring to power in 2015, to fight corruption, restore and grow our economy, and end insecurity in our land, has now failed on all three fronts, instead it has quickly transformed itself into a sanctuary for corrupt officials and looters.
Perhaps, Oshiomhole didn't know that eight plus eight is sixteen or he didn't remember that the two past governors of Akwa Ibom State whose combined sixteen-year rule left Akwa Ibom in perpetual indebtedness are members of the APC.
It is, therefore, our civic duty as Nigerians, to remind Oshiomhole that the two past governors who looted Akwa Ibom dry for sixteen years and put the state into massive indebtedness are there with him. He, Oshiomhole should look in the mirror and he will see the looters of Akwa Ibom.
Our greatest failure as ordinary citizens is that we have allowed politicians for a very long time peddled false narrative in the hope and believe nothing will happen after all Nigerians lack the intellectual capacity to decipher the truth.
We on our part also have allowed these misguided and false narratives to fester for far too long that they have now become a threat to our future and pose an existential threat to our survival.
We as ordinary citizens, therefore, not only need to challenge these blatant and habitual liars but expose them for who they are, pure liars, selfish and egocentric bastards ready to say and do anything to perpetuate themselves in power to continue the looting.
Oshiomhole, you stand corrected. The APC has looted Akwa Ibom State dry for sixteen years.
You break it, you own it. You can't take Attah and Akpabio and not take the baggage they bring with them.
By Capt Bishop C. Johnson
Johnson is retired from the US Army, a National Defense and Military Strategist and National Commentator.
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