FOR almost eight years, the people of Akwa Ibom have been under the suffocating influence of Barrister Godswill Akpabio, the governor of the state, who, in active connivance of the federal might had subjugated the people to an unbearable level of mental and emotional torture, self doubt and humiliation in the name of governance.

WE the people of Oke Ogun have waited in vain since the inception of regions and states creation to have one of our own son or daughter to be appointed as the chief executive officer of a region or a state, as military administrator or civilian governor. The best and the closest we have had is deputy governor of Oyo State despite the fact that we have always had pockets of individuals that could be considered.

It all started at a Friday social forum where friends had the opportunity to interact and unwind. But this soon gravitated into a discussion about the multiplicity of challenges in Nigeria and how it was difficult to change the status quo. After various arguments laced with mudslingings, reasons prevailed and it was agreed that rather than dissipating needless energy lamenting about our current predicament or cursing inept leaders, we should work within our sphere of influence to see how we can make a difference and engender good governance at the local, state and national levels.

Few years ago, one of my student stood up in the middle of a lecture and asked, ‘Sir, who owns Nigeria?’ I was teaching a topic on colonialism and it could have been easy for me to answer, the British, but that would have been appropriate if only we were still under colonial rule. Its been decades since we exchanged the union jack for the green and white flag to enjoy self-government.

AS Nigeria consolidates its economic dominance in Africa and presses to attain the projected 12th position in the global economy by the year 2050, we need to see that the present decline in revenues due to the slump in world oil prices does not deflect our trajectory to the mid-century target date.