By Sukomi Joseph
It was the notable playwright, William Shakespeare who argued in one of his works that “he whom the gods want to destroy, the first makes mad”.
Perhaps the scripture presents a more poignant position in its assertion that “the prosperity of a fool shall destroy him”. When Distinguished Senator Alloysius Etok in a desperate bid to savagely defame Governor Godswill Akpabio by accusing the governor of hatching a plot to kill him through a jaundiced petition to the State Security Service, little did he know that such errant piece would expose the aridity of his mind, the hollowness of his thought and the barrenness of his capacity for logical thinking. The Senator has finally proven to the world that he is undiscerning and incapable of quality thinking that can promote proper legislation and appropriate representation.
Since the perceived rift between Governor Akpabio and Senator Alloysius Etok broke, the Ikono born politician has acted like a loose canon demonstrating a complete lack of maturity and public decorum. He has in the past fortnight been behaving as sodium bicarbonate dropped in water with its attendant furious effervescence. A friend described him as a bull in a china shop with a mission to cause maximum damage with scant regard for self honour. The well conceived hypothesis summarizes the conduct of Senator Alloysius Etok whose instinctive behaviour lends credence to the widely held belief that he is actually on an un-redemptive political mission.
Very recently, Senator Alloysius Etok petitioned the State Security Service claiming that he received a strange call from one Mr. Adelola Tamunotoye Olaore. In the petition he stated that Mr. Olaore had claimed that he had been contracted by Governor Akpabio’s loyalists to assassinate him. But the suspected assassin in a report quoted from Sun Newspaper of May 7, 2013 described Senator Alloysius Etok as a congenital liar. He said he never at anytime told the Senator that he was sent by Governor Akpabio or any of his privies to kill him. He further stated that he has never met Governor Akpabio or any of his loyalists for that matter for any such arrangement. Mr. Olaore, a graduate of mechanical engineering from Rivers State University said that he obtained Senator Etok’s telephone number from a mail bearing the Senator’s complimentary card at NDDC and decided to exploit the perceived rift between the governor and the senator to defraud the latter. And the senator with a trove of hate in his mind garnished with fixations against Governor Godswill Akpabio assumed that his perceived enemy must be the governor.
The conduct of the distinguished Senator finds accommodation in the summation of a one time British Prime Minister who said that “a great tradition can be inherited but greatness itself must be won”. Senator Alloysius Etok belongs to the hallowed chamber of the Senate with the responsibility of legislating laws for the nation. Such caliber of responsibility necessarily demands a person of great insight, depth and analytical mind. If a senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria can be easily hoodwinked and manipulated by a misguided youth, then the entire system is on trial. Again for a Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to lie so conveniently against the person of his governor to require a suspected criminal to attempt to bring him back to the path of truth and moral rectitude puts the political class on trial. For a Senator to manipulate a criminal investigation to obtain a pre-determined outcome with the intent to use same to afflict collateral damage on the reputation of the governor shows how morally bankrupt the system is and the extent of desperation some of the players are willing to go to grab public office.
Senator Alloysius Etok had earlier in the course of this imbroglio alleged that Governor Akpabio had resurrected his hit squad and had unleashed same on him. And perhaps since he took an ad in a national paper to bandy that falsehood, he may have seen the chance of Olaore’s claimed phone call as offering a veritable opportunity to consolidate the criminal falsehood arrayed against Governor Akpabio by people of his ilk. But the governor who has maintained a dignified silence since the beginning of this unfortunate incident has been vindicated by the confession of the 29 year old Mr. Olaore. It is time for them to know that Governor Akpabio owns no hit squad and is too decent to contemplate taking life for whatever purpose.
Senator Alloysius Etok should be reminded that any renewal of mandate is predicated on performance. The senator has literally failed in the provision of quality and effective representation to the people of Ikot Ekpene Senatorial District. It is at the altar of performance that any ambition he may nurse would die. Let him serve himself the paranoia that anyone wants to kill. His death is the dearth of performance and which is diametrically linked to the death of his political career come 2015. He should stop blackmailing and defaming decent men whose social worth and value he can never match even if they are given the same opportunity and level playing field. Let him begin to nurse his life of political liability for that is the fate that awaits him.
Mr. Samademi Joseph is a public affairs analyst