Opinion
S’Court: Forget APC governors, they’re criminals – Apostle Suleman *Read full speech, endorsing Obi
Published
3 years agoon
One of the things I don’t do is talk about politics. I don’t do that anymore. I can only encourage you and advise you to do the right thing. Hunger and all of that are not what we’re supposed to be going through. We have no business going through what we’re going through right now.
What is happening now is that 200million Nigerians are suffering from two-fighting. We’re victims of two fighting. Let me give you a short parable. Some years ago, some politicians from different parties, decided to come together to form one party to chase out one man.
It’s a story. I heard this story from a mad man. They came together that they want to stand behind one man, so all of them collapsed their structure and gave it to one man. They sponsored him with the money they kept at home. They didn’t take the money from the bank. It was at home that they kept it. They sponsored him.
But on the inaugural day, the first thing the man said was that – I’m for everybody and I’m for no one. That should have told them that this is not a reliable person. This is an ingrate. (But) all of them came together again and supported him for a second time, not knowing that this person never had them in mind.
Now the person came back and the first thing the person said is that he doesn’t want vote-buying and so they want to make sure there’s no money anywhere. For people to agree to sell their votes is because you made them poor. You weaponised poverty and that’s why you’re scared of vote-buying. If you made everywhere okay and people are comfortable, you’ll not be scared of people buying votes.
It takes bulk money, it doesn’t take people withdrawing little money from their banks to buy votes. Money has to be so much to buy votes. You know who you’re targetting, why not go to the person and collect the money they kept at home? Why dragging all of us into your fight. You know who you’re targetting.
And those who supported him, ntoo! Your eyes are clear now. Most of my friends who supported him, have been retired. They retired them because they gave their support. And on the other part, they’re all crying. They said that the governors are crying that the policy is hard on Nigerians, forget those governors, because they’re all criminals. The truth is that they’re paying for their own selfish game – that we should obey the courts because of this. The courts have said that Nnamdi Kanu should be released long time ago. He has not been released. They didn’t obey the courts. All of a sudden, you’re talking about the court. You that doesn’t obey the courts.
They know why they’re fighting and they shouldn’t drag us into the mess. Those of you politicians in the church, you should have learnt your lesson. don’t plan your political life around the person that is not grateful. They’ll retire you.
Omega Family Ministries, God has blessed us. No matter the economy of the forest, the lion cannot eat grass. Use this anger to vote against this wickedness. My wife, my children, myself, we’re fully Obidient. Fully, 100 per cent. We’re not one of those who make noise on the social media. We work at the background, we support.
If you like, vote something else. You see me, I hardly stay in the country. I hardly stay in Nigeria. In a whole year I can stay 80 days or 60 days. I’ll be going and coming and I’ll be looking at you if you go and vote nonsense – if you vote insecurity, tribalism, bigotry, ethnicity – if that’s what you’re going to vote.
Listen to me, as I say this – you know I don’t talk like that, but I’m telling you the truth – my wife is here, me, I’m here, I will never – I have friends across the divide – they’re there, they’re my friends. But most of them are supporting because of what they want to get. They know who they’re supporting is bad. They know, but it’s because of what they want to get.
For you to support a man and you’ve nothing to gain, it shows that you’re honest, because it’s about the country. Somebody sent me a message – Apostle, I’m waiting for your candidate to fail so I can call you out. And I told him and said – una no dey tire? You want to call me out, so what will that do to me. You think me, the big men or some of the celebrities who are supporting Peter Obi, you think we’re supporting because we don’t have anything to do? We’re supporting because of the masses. that’s the truth. Win or don’t win, it doesn’t reduce us. We’re supporting because of the masses, so no matter win or lose, it doesn’t reduce us. They’re some of us that can never come down. It’s too late. No matter what you do, we can never come down.
I’m saying this because I know – my father is here, he’s having his reservations somehow – I know he said remove mouth from politics. I’m not talking politics. You’re my people and I should tell you. Me, I’m voting Peter Obi. My wife, peter Obi; my pastors, Peter Obi; those that love me, Peter Obi. If you’re not tired, continue. No money anywhere now, do you want to continue like this? All of them are part of the people that destroyed the country. The one that has not destroyed the country is the one we’ll support. This is how I see life. All these things I said now, I heard it from a mad man!
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News
The man who saw tomorrow: Senator Akpabio and the uncommon politics of certainty
Published
5 days agoon
May 20, 2026
By Hon Eseme Eyiboh
Let us begin with a confession. There is something unsettling about a politician who no longer appears to struggle.
In the turbulent theatre of Nigerian politics, where noise is often mistaken for relevance, where primaries resemble wrestling contests and delegate management demands the instincts of a hostage negotiator, a man who walks in unopposed does not merely win. He transforms the entire contest into a rehearsal.
On Monday, May 18, 2026, at Methodist Primary School, Ukana, in Essien Udim Local Government Area, Senator Godswill Akpabio did exactly that. No contest. No drama. No nervous counting of votes. He simply emerged as the candidate of the All Progressives Congress for the Akwa Ibom North West Senatorial District without a single challenger.
While many politicians remain trapped in the exhausting rituals of horse trading, factional bargaining, and survival politics, Akpabio’s good works delivered something far rarer in Nigeria’s political environment than gold itself. Absolute consensus.
To the casual observer, an unopposed return may suggest the absence of competition. That would be a dangerously shallow interpretation.
Those familiar with the political phenomenon long associated with the “Uncommon Transformer” understand the distinction clearly. An unopposed ticket does not mean nobody desired to contest. Politics naturally attracts ambition the way light attracts insects. Power always generates interest. Influence always provokes aspiration.
What an unopposed return truly means is far more significant: potential challengers surveyed the landscape, studied the numbers, weighed the networks, measured the emotional connection between the man and the political structure around him, and quietly concluded that the road to victory simply did not exist.
There is a profound difference between lack of opposition and the collapse of viable opposition
Why is there no road to victory for others? Because what Akpabio has built in Akwa Ibom State in general and Akwa Ibom North West in particular is no longer merely a political structure. It is a fortress. Its walls are not made of concrete. They are made of cultivated loyalty. Enduring networks. Strategic generosity. And the unspoken understanding that confronting him politically is not simply difficult. It is often futile and absurd.
The atmosphere at the ward centre resembled less a political exercise and more a carnival of affirmation. Supporters, community leaders, women groups, youths, and party faithful gathered not to determine an outcome but to endorse a grace carrier already settled in the public imagination. The votes were counted without end. The votes were celebrated.
Here is the remarkable part.
The whispers surrounding Akpabio’s dominance do not come only from admirers. They come from seeming opponents too.
They do not fear his voice. They fear his results. They do not tremble at confrontation. They confront something more sobering: the recognition that within his political territory, the arithmetic has been solved with almost clinical precision.
While others are still assembling coalitions, Akpabio consolidated his long ago. While rivals continue calculating delegate figures, he has already moved to the next question: what happens after victory? How does political power translate into enduring relevance and measurable impact?
That is the distinction between a career politician and a political architect. One chases office. The other shapes the terrain on which the chase itself occurs.
Since assuming office as President of the 10th Senate, Akpabio has projected a measure of stability within the Red Chamber. That should not be understated.
The Nigerian Senate has earned a reputation for turbulence over the years. Leadership rebellions. Internal fractures. Floor dramas that generate headlines while weakening governance and social democratic structures. Against that backdrop, a Senate President capable of maintaining institutional stability without recurring crises becomes more than merely effective. He becomes uncommon.
His admirers see in him a politician who has consistently combined institutional authority with emotional loyalty from his base through the National to International arena. From Governor to Minister to Senate President, his rise is framed as the journey of a man who understood tomorrow before others arrived there. A politician deeply conscious of timing, alignment, and the delicate craft of converting social capital into durable influence and uncommon power (political capital).
This point matters enormously. Political capital is easy to squander. This point matters enormously. Political goodwill is easy to destroy. Many politicians exhaust it through arrogance, exclusion, or the endless pursuit of personal advantage. But Akpabio appears to understand something deeper about leadership: goodwill grows when people genuinely feel seen, valued, included, and carried along.
Over the years, he has cultivated relationships not merely through politics, but through accessibility, generosity of spirit, loyalty to associates, and an unusual ability to make people feel remembered even in the midst of high office. That is why his support structure often appears less like a coalition held together by convenience and more like a community bound by shared experience and enduring personal connection.
What some interpret merely as political dominance may actually be the long-term harvest of sustained human investment.
And perhaps that explains the ease with which the field gradually cleared around him. Not because opposition was forcibly silenced, but because many within the political environment saw little wisdom in disrupting a consensus built around continuity, stability, experience, and an existing relationship of trust.
His commitment to continue working closely with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Governor Umo Eno reinforces a broader message of continuity and strategic alignment. At a time when fragmentation remains the temptation of many ambitious actors, Senator Akpabio has chosen coordination. That is not a weakness. It is political arithmetic.
And this is where the conversation shifts from the present to the near future. The same political capital that secured his senatorial return without resistance is not a one-use currency. It accumulates. It compounds. The goodwill he has cultivated, the equilibrium he has maintained, and the pragmatic preference for results over rhetoric are not merely tools for another Senate term. They form the foundation of something larger and forthcoming.
The crystal ball is not required to observe the trajectory. A Senate President who secures his own return effortlessly, stabilises a chamber historically associated with instability, aligns himself with the centre of national power grid while maintaining grassroots legitimacy, is a Senate President who has solved one of Nigerian politics’ most difficult equations.
He has demonstrated to his colleagues that he can deliver. He has shown the party hierarchy that he can be trusted. He has reassured constituents that proximity to power has not disconnected him from them.
This combination is rarer than any single attribute standing alone. So when the 11th Senate eventually convenes and the question of leadership emerges once again, the conversation may prove shorter than many anticipate. Not because there will be no interested contenders. There always are. But because the arithmetic of loyalty, institutional experience, strategic alignment, and demonstrated political capacity will already have completed its quiet work.
Akpabio has not formally declared interest in leading the 11th Senate. He does not need to. The declaration already exists in the pattern of his movements, the stability of his stewardship, and the political field he has cleared without visible strain. It is simply the discipline of reading political signs as they present themselves* .
In the end, Nigerian politics rewards those who understand the people more deeply than those who merely master performance and noise.That is not sentimentality. It is a political reality.
A politician capable of delivering his constituency without violence, panic, or emergency intervention is a politician who understands something fundamental: power is never truly declared. It is demonstrated. And it is demonstrated most convincingly when nobody steps forward to challenge it.
On that Monday in Ukana, the drums rolled. Praises echoed across the gathering. And the political message arrived without ambiguity. In Akwa Ibom North West, the conversation has moved beyond opposition. What remains is an audience waiting to see the next chapter unfold without ceasing.
Senator Godswill Akpabio has once again reminded observers that in certain political spaces, dominance is not always loud.
Sometimes, it is simply complete. And in the intricate chessboard of Nigerian politics, where many players are still learning how the pieces move, that level of mastery remains rare, consequential, and deeply potent.
The man who saw tomorrow understood something else too. The loudest voice in the room is rarely the one that prevails.
The one that prevails is the one that no longer needs to shout because everybody already understands. And that is what Senator Godswill Akpabio has demonstrated that he is the man who saw tomorrow.
Rt Hon Eseme Eyiboh mnipr is a former member and Spokesperson of the House of Representatives and currently Special Adviser, Media/Publicity and official Spokesperson to the President of the Senate
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