By Dele Sobowale

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…Sir, you need another visit to A/Ibom to see how Akpabio has built on d foundation your friend, Attah, whom I regard as d founding father of modern A/Ibom laid. U’ll be amazed at d transformation. Tolu”.

That message was at the tail end of the text sent to me by my friend, Tolu, on March 13, 2011. As it turned out, some other folks anxious for me to visit Akwa Ibom State, had not only sent me a leaflet entitled, bondages of Akpabioism, which they claim is now being widely distributed in the state. Going under the name of Free Akwa Ibom Committee, FAIC, the group, in the leaflet under reference, drew everybody’s attention to the fact that Governor Akpabio had in the first three years in office collected from the Federation account and other sources N700 billion.

They also pointed out that this year’s budget, which had just been passed by the state’s House of Assembly amounted to N310 billion. They did not tell me, but we do nothing else at UniJankara other than add figures.

If those claims are true, and, at least the N310 billion is true, then Governor Godswill Akpabio would have become Nigeria’s first governor to have N1 trillion to spend in four years. This is vital because of people like Tolu who make unfair and misleading economic and performance comparisons between various governors.

It is a fact supported by the monthly publications of the Federal Ministry of Finance, that from 2007,  Akwa Ibom had collected more revenue than the poorest six states (Kwara, Ebonyi,Ekiti, Plateau, Gombe and Nasarawa) put together. In fact, only a blockhead or a mischievous person will compare Akwa Ibom with Nasarawa or Ekiti. The sensible comparison is between those states in “The Premiership of States” – Akwa Ibom, Rivers, Delta, Bayelsa and Lagos. And ,that is going to be the point of departure.

FAIC, as pointed out earlier, not only sent me a leaflet, disclosing how much the state government had spent in the last three years and what is budgeted for this year, they also made a startling disclosure. They claimed that all the previous governments of Akwa Ibom since its creation in 1987, had collected less than half of what the current government had collected in three years. Indeed, from the figures provided, Gov. Akpabio will have only N70 billion less to spend this year alone than other administrations in 23 years! And, they assert that the people of Akwa Ibom had not got value for money. So, I was invited. Given my busy schedule, it was going to be a short visit, so I asked to be shown the Tropicana Hotel and Entertainment Complex which Gov. Akpabio had promised, back in 2007, would have been completed by now, employing 5,000 people. The FAIC leaflet had claimed the Tropicana is not anywhere near completion. So, I went last week to verify. Unless the two eyes I took to Uyo had gone completely blind by the time of my arrival, there was no Tropicana Hotel employing anybody.

So, Tolu, let me turn the table around and ask you to visit Uyo again and tell all Nigerians if there is a Tropicana. FAIC made other allegations bordering on massive deception of the public. Since, this is not an attempt to pull down the government of Gov. Akpabio, but to set out the facts as best as I can, there is no need to list seriatim all they have said in the leaflet.

But, let me mention one other issue in contention. Gov. Akpabio, in one of the several advertisements proclaiming his achievements, had claimed as follows: “Tripled school enrolment.” That would mean that two out of three kids in schools in Akwa Ibom today started school in 2007. FAIC considers this a fraudulent claim. One of their spokesmen, who had called to invite me, challenged the governor to tell Nigerians if all those newly-enrolled were in primary one or was the tripling from primary through secondary and tertiary institutions (including nursing school, technical colleges etc). Two, he demanded to know how it was possible to triple school enrolment without building additional schools/classrooms and recruiting teachers. Thank God, I am not the governor, so I don’t have to answer those questions.

He also debunked the governor’s claim that he constructed 205 roads totaling 601 kilometres in three years. As Tolu has remarked, Akwa Ibom probably has the best set of roads in Nigeria today. But, queries still remain and FAIC is issuing them. First, the logical inference from the governor’s claim would be that the average length of road is three kilometres – some will be shorter. Second, question is “where are they?” Third is “at what cost?” There is more where those came from. Fortunately for me, I don’t have to answer those questions.

ISSUES FOR PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN – 1
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Oga Dele, why is it dat u are so hard and insincere about your criticism of our president? Anyway, whether u like it or not, he will be our president till 2015. If u don’t like him when he becomes pres, u can go on exile. Dr Great.”

Anyone who calls himself Dr. Great must be suffering from delusions of grandeur. But, that is not the point. The point dear “Dr Great” is that you must have been on exile yourself when the military and northern leaders, ably supported by most of the 100 million Nigerian fools imposed Obasanjo as President. Right from the time he was nominated as the Presidential candidate of PDP till he left office, I never stopped warning “My Fellow Nigerians” that they had made a bloody mistake. I didn’t go on exile then for a simple reason. I waited to see all the damn fools stew in the boiling pot that Obasanjo prepared for us. Today, virtually everybody, except people like President Jonathan, now knows that OBJ is poison to the polity. And, now that Baba Iyabo has the President under his thumb, you can bet the question of exile does not arise. In the unlikely event that Jonathan becomes president this year, I will stay and I go laugh O!

Let me quickly tell you why. It might not have occurred to you that you cannot vote Jonathan alone. With him will come people like OBJ, Anenih, Bode George, Ibori, Lucky Igbinedon, and those National Assembly members who awarded themselves jumbo remuneration packages; the IOC spies who run our Petroleum Ministry – the most corrupt party in Nigerian history. Certainly, you can kiss goodbye to the $13 billion that was wasted on the power project because Jonathan is a candidate of those who stole the funds as a result of which we are still in darkness today.
To be continued.