Date Published: 03/07/10

RE: DECLARATION BY SEN. JOHN UDOEDEHE By David Essien

There has been a lot of phantom issues discussed on this forum that make reading some time very boring. That`s why you would notice that a lot of people have either declined comments here or have adopted a read-only attitude, often as a form of amusement. After all, what is more amusing than the fact that those who have completely lost touch with affairs at home, have consistently replicated whatever fancies their minds in a make-believe ploy to get others to swallow these warped thoughts as though they were real.

Consider the much advertised piece on the purported setting up of a campaign office by Sen. Akpan Udoedehe under the heading: Akwa lbom State Politics: The Race for 2011: Governor Akpabio`s lnfluence Going Down, Down, Down, and Down.

The impression sought here is to suggest that Gov. Akpabio`s popularity rating has dropped to the extent that he (the Governor) is sometimes booed. l feel for those who wallow in this fantasy. l pray that they stop at the internet where they are less visible otherwise they will have the shock of their lives were they to step on the shores of the land to face the solid reality that things are not always in the fashion of their mind sets no matter how fanciful they may be painted, that is if they would escape the wrath of the men and women of Akwa lbom who are sworn to the protection of the wonderful things embarked upon by the governor.

l don`t think that Gov. Akpabio, from the way l know him is afraid of opposition. The man has tested and survived much more than an  hercule when he surmounted all the bubby traps set by the former Gov. Obong Attah to become the Governor of Akwa lbom State. Or do you think that the slogan: `Godswill is Done` is for nothing? Those who have been on the front of it all have known that if indeed it were not for God, Godswill couldn`t have been Governor given the antics of the former cabal led by Obong Attah.

But God is alive, for while Attah was working on his game plan of deceiving Akwa lbom State where he wanted to impose his son-inlaw at all cost, God had worked on his original plan albeit as deceitful as it was. Obong Attah, having used Godswill as a member of his cabinet to achieve the modest success he ever registered, had on more than one occasion, pronounced Goswill as the only man who was  deserving of the governorship position in Akwa lbom State and the heaven had recorded this. To that extent, when the chips were down, God had decided for Akwa lbom in what history has recorded as unprecedented event in the comity of the Nigerian states. Godswill is a star whose radiance, nobody can deem.

The internet gurus should go to Akwa lbom State and test their popularity against the Governor, that is if they are worth their salt. l deeply feel for the likes of Eno Adam and Oduduabasi who has pitched their tent with Sen. Akpan Udoedehe. Who on earth, with any grasp of hindsight would dare to queue behind Udoedehe as a possible substitute for Godswill Akpabio? That person is a failure on commencement of any electionering process.

One day, l had to intervene, at the risk of personal harm, to rescue one of those hired hands who dared to rubbish the legacies of the Governor in Uyo. He was no doubt an Uyo man but he drew the ire of fellow Uyo people when he sought to rubbish the Gov. at a mere social gathering. Before one could do well in any step of intervention, the man had lost a tooth and Godswill was not there. Many of such instances abound in Akwa lbom for the people have chosen to protect the one thing they have seen as  representing hope for a hitherto neglected state.  Crude as this  action may seem, it provides a litmus for a popularity contest so lightly spoken of in this forum.

Be it known that no Governor has recorded the kind of followership as the present Governor. ln fact, no single individual in all of Akwa lbom history has generated the kind of support base as this man, Godswill Akpabio. The prolifaration of support organisations is a proof to this for no one person can afford to buy these much groups who come out on daily bases to support the Governor for a second term bid. Are the internet giants really wiser than our traditional rulers? How about the closing up of all primordial sentiments to the extent that an Oron man does not mind whether or not it is an Annang man that is on the throne. lt was the lbibios that gave the mandate by reason of their numerical strenght, a fact they have consolidated with the adoption of Gov. for a second term.

BY 

David Essien

Oslo-Norway