By Michael Bush
Last night as I contemplated this piece, some troubling, godforsaken news filtered in. I rejected it, and being too confused to write thereafter, I went to bed. This morning, Facebook messed me up: check out almost every Akwa Ibom timeline. Why do we celebrate death more than we do life, Akwa Ibom?
Akwa Ibomights play politics with everyone and with everything. We play politics with blood, with relationship, with the powerful, with the rich, with the poor. We play politics with money, with poverty, with excellence, with mediocrity, with emotions. We scream ‘Abasi akan,’ every time but we play politics even with God, even with Jesus, even with the Holy Ghost, even in the Church, even as Christians.
Every time I remember Gov. Udom Emmanuel, the First Family and all the value they have added and all the beauty they represent, something leaves me. I shudder at how we have greeted their role and style and, even more, at how thanklessly we shall discard their post-tenure memory. This is not a prayer. This is what I know: we did it to Obong Akpan Isemin (may his soul rest in peace) and Chief Etim Okpoyo; we did it to Arc. (Obong) Victor Attah and the two men who served him as deputy governor; we are doing it to Sen. Godswill Akpabio and the trio who variously served as his deputy.
It is in our character to dishonour even our helpers and such other respectable people, the moment we suspect they have fallen out of favour or power. No one knows whose turn it is tomorrow, but today everyone knows whose it is. However, hate him or like him, Akparawa Ephraim Akparawa Inyang-eyen, Gov. Emmanuel’s immediate past Honourable Commissioner, Works, who now serves as his Chief of Staff, is someone you should have on your side!
To be clear, he and I don’t enjoy what I call a good relationship (He recently warned me never to say that again; so I won’t). He comes across, sometimes, as brash, impatient, inconsiderate, etc. I remember once calling him out on live radio, because on three consecutive occasions the all-powerful Works Chief gave me a two-hour-on-air live appointment and neither showed up nor … But, at the end, his warts and all, the man is still best as a teammate rather than as an opponent.
For example, there’s not one person living or dead -other than this Ikot Ebiere, ONNA man- with the record of the most vocal public support for both this governor and this administration. Until politics happened, he was on this or that radio or television or newspaper house every other week selling our governor, our state, our people and our government. Please, show me, who else has had and displayed this much energy and love? From the foregoing, even if he has made any mistake whatsoever (by the way this is not about the recent viral video; I found nothing incriminating in it), no one should privately let alone publicly cast any stone at all.
Having said that, the Chief of Staff must realise what authority means -especially in Nigeria. He should, in spite of and despite what so-called blackmailers have already achieved on his head, understand that a man under authority is not and can never be the same as THE MAN IN AUTHORITY. A man under authority has nothing to prove; except, perhaps, to wait for his own time. Being Akparawa to power two, he should henceforth show more tact, more restrain, more honour; even as he goes about within the constitution searching for a future spot in Abuja.
On the other hand, the world must not miss the lessons inherent in the Ephraim Inyang-eyen saga. One: God truly gave Akwa Ibom a governor in Mr Udom Emmanuel. My God, what a leader, what a man, what a governor! So patient, so long-suffering, so calm!
Two: People only stand with you when your going is good. Three: Even your people who never applauded your good deeds would call for your head once you open the window. Four: Anything can happen to anyone, anytime. And, five: in Politics Nigeriana, NEVER EVER LOSE THE BALL or you’d find yourself defending forever!
Finally, and directly, I pray and believe that as things stand now, our governor shall break one jinx that has tormented Akwa Ibom State Government since the second term of Obong Attah. Two of the latter’s aboriginal foot soldiers (Chief Idongesit Udokpo -may his soul rest in peace- and Obong Emmanuel Obot) were unceremoniously sent out of government. In the second term of Attah Successor, Sen. Godswill Akpabio, the lot unfortunately fell on his two best loyalists-from-the-beginning, Mr Umana Okon Umana and as he then was Bishop Samuel Akpan. I move that our tongue-speaking Gov. Emmanuel shouldn’t fall to the temptation that bedeviled the former house.
God bless Akwa Ibom State of Nigeria!
• Bush is a newspaper columnist and broadcast journalist.