Columns
Who says Akpabio should shut up?
First, let me tell you how much I know about Uyo, the Akwa Ibom State capital. One Sunday afternoons, during one of my regular visits in the 1980s, my elder brothers, who were actually among the big boys, decided to give me a special treat in town.
Back then, it was a one street town, with the Aba-Ikot Ekpene Road, to show as the best and only major road to give it a semblance of a city.
The Honda CD-195, today’s equivalent of a top-notch Sports Utility Vehicle (SUV), which my brothers owned then was demonstrable evidence of this affluence for the middle class where young men of their ilk belonged. Mind you these were ordinary artisans. Their major business was constructing of aluminum water tanks. But because of the thriving economy then across Nigeria, what they made as incomes were enough to make them paint the town red.
They actually started off in Calabar, the Cross River State capital with the workshop at Wapi Junction by Highway, but had to split for business reasons when Akwa Ibom was created, one moving to Uyo and the other retaining the Calabar business.
You know the treat? I’ll tell you shortly. But let me first tell you that when the Akwa Ibom or Cross River man tells you that they own the franchise for the best culinary ability in Nigeria, don’t even argue. No one else comes close.
For instance, I never knew that unripe plantain was such a good delicacy until I ate it in Uyo. I hardly accepted it from my father, the only one that relished it in my family back then. Whenever I did, it was, like other children, with squeezed face. Of course, he’s was prepared roast, with the popular ukpaka, fresh pepper and red oil to go with.
Never mind that I now throw glances and salivate like Pavlov dogs whenever I pass through the streets and see local women preparing the same recipe. But try the Akwa Ibom variant with bush meat and scent leaves mixed with vegetables. That was how I fell inseparably in love.
Come to think of it, was it the white soup at that popular joint in Calabar that I couldn’t recall the name or the ekpang nkukwo or the afang or edikang-ikong that I didn’t fall in love with? Or the fisherman soup?
So, the treat! Atop our ride, we soon arrived at the spot and a table was quickly arranged for the three of us. It was obvious that my brothers were quite popular with the owner of the joint who saw them as prized customers, hence the special treatment. It was also obvious that he knew their purpose and specialty.
We were actually in our third bottle of ukot, the brown-coloured variant of palm wine, quite different from what I used to know, when it arrived.
You would have thought, like I used to think that ishi-ewu was the best thing on earth after rice and banga stew until you have tasted a steaming hot head of J5 the euphemism for the delicacy, surrounded with periwinkles as I did that day.
Those and many other escapades, were the experiences that drew me to Uyo like a bee to the nectar. Not anything else and certainly, not the attraction of a city! There was actually no part of the town that I didn’t traverse in search of the good life in the company of those my brothers. That was how I got to know every nook and cranny of it.
But go to Uyo today. I have on many occasions. I could testify to the sharp contrast. The grand transformation is clearly not contemplatable. Who could imagine that the nondescript enclave, no more than a vintage Nigerian village, or at best the local government town, it actually was, would transit into the modern town that it is today?
Who could contemplate the exquisite edifices that have now replaced those weather-beaten structures that hitherto dotted the town or the glittering streets that practically bring it close to some of the celebrated cities of the world in terms of beauty?
Who would have thought that after Lagos, Abuja and Port Harcourt, the next city on the cards today in Nigeria is Uyo, the Akwa Ibom State capital? That is why I enjoin anyone that sees Godswill Obot Akpabio to greet him. Hail him wherever he is sighted. His good deeds are certainly more than his sins. He is the one that did the magic.
I actually told the story above to underscore that I met Uyo at its virgin state and now its present status as a mega city. As an undergraduate in the 80s and a journalist two decades later I wasn’t only deeply into this town, but witnessed the instant revolution in a matter of few years.
Of course, while not denying credit to Obong Victor Attah, his predecessor, who started the process of moving the state away from the inglorious era the late Vice President, Alex Ekwueme described as the years of the locusts, with some ambitious projects, the trophy belongs to Akpabio. He breathed life into the state. Visiting the two at their own times, I knew when the wine fermented into its rich taste.
He was the one who took the gown to town not only in physical development, but doing the work of the salesman. He virtually sold it not only to Nigerians, but the world.
You may have heard about the legacy projects – the Ibom Tropicana Resort, a five-star hotel, which boasts of Nigeria’s best golf course and other facilities that makes the city the attraction for billionaires and playground for tourists both locally and foreign or the Uyo Township Stadium, which during Akpabio’s time became the home-ground to the Super Eagles of Nigeria and other top football and sporting events.
You may have heard about the first-grade roads across communities in and outside the state capital and the highways that crisscross the state. In fact, in one of the occasions I was in the state, the campaign and focus of his government, was operation zero potholes in the whole of Uyo.
Yes! You would certainly must have heard about the multi-purpose Akwa Ibom Ecumenical Centre – that grand edifice that was supposed to cater for religious activities, conferences and other local and international events.
But what about the little details of that government? Did you know that Uyo, was never ever supposed to be flooded in Akpabio’s visionary thinking? He took care of that. In one of my trips, I saw the huge underground pipe jacking drainage facility that was meant to collect storm water in the state capital. I learnt the project, then under construction by Julius Berger slashed the purse of the state by a whopping N13.6billion. It was the epitomic demonstration of Yo shinai, Yo kangai, the popular Toyota advert in the 90s, meaning Good thinking, Good product.
There are so many similar projects like that gives impetus to those, inclusive of yours truly, who see Akpabio as a man of vision and mission, regardless of the other side of his political story.
So, when I hear Pat Utomi, Nigeria’s most respected political economist, asking Akpabio to shut up the other day and Reuben Abati, prolific journalist following suit, by injuncting him to speak less, and after taking a cursory look at the entire park of the All Progressives Congress (APC) government of President Bola Tinubu, the abiding question I ask myself is who else is qualified to speak from there outside Akpabio?
In my view, Akpabio is the most highly rated official in that government with tangible things to show in his political years. I have provided the basis for my assessment. In fact, save for the uncanny penchant for reversal of roles in Nigeria, where the tail wags the dog rather than the reverse, what is the explanation for Tinubu being the President with Akpabio as the Senate President?
But Nigeria is already what it is. Is it not evident that Akpabio is the real visioner in that APC house of commotion? For one, he is an orator extraordinaire. On the many occasions I had encountered him, then as a governor, I never saw him read a prepared speech.
Yet, he would speak for two hours, still making sense and presenting figures. It was that immense gift of the garb and general carriage that made him practically sell Akwa Ibom to the world. It was like the recreation of Michael Iheonukara (MI) Okpara of Eastern Nigeria.
Indeed, has anyone wondered the sudden dim surrounding that state since Akpabio left as governor? Who is still remembering that state now? Why is Akwa Ibom no longer in the national spotlight as it used to be? Does it mean the state is getting less money than it used to, since many people seemed to suggest that the sudden high profile it attained was as a result of the high revenue accruing to it? Isn’t it obvious that it has to do with that extra shine, the debonair air around him, which his successors have failed to replicate or sustain?
The major snag, if not the only one, is that he has found himself in bad company. APC is a bad product, in fact and in deed. Since Nigerians bought into it through former President Muhammadu Buhari, who should not have risen beyond the Emir of Daura, it has continued to decay.
With Tinubu’s listlessness, the rot and degeneration have since worsened. How does anyone defend this President and his underwhelming performance and still come out smelling roses? This is Akpabio’s dilemma and not the inability to say the right thing. As long as he remains in that crowd, nobody is qualified more than him to speak. So, speak, Akpabio must!
My name is Sunny Igboanugo and I’m The Tiny Voice!
I bet you didn’t know Abike Dabiri. Two factors will make this possible. Either you were not around in Nigeria in the golden era of our Nigerian television girls – the era when being a regular face on Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) gave you the golden key to open all doors – or you were somewhere in the villages very far and distant from civilization – many of us were – that included not having access to the television.
O! You didn’t know? You didn’t know a time was in this clime when seeing a television screen from a distance, was one of the biggest privileges one could get let alone watching it – that people clustered at the windows of homes with television sets to catch a glimpse of Village Headmaster, for instance.
You’re carrying shoulders because you probably met the time when carrying a Blackberry phone was all you needed to get that fine babe behind your sheets! Today, you thought that because you could now watch your matches on your phone – I watched all the AFCON matches on my phone, being on the road most times – there was no time men had to climb walls to turn television antennas to get some appreciable pictures. Chai! This changing world.
Bet you didn’t hear about Bimbo Roberts – later Bimbo Oloyede, Julie Coker and later Augusta Maduegbuna, Elizabeth Nze, Sienne Alwell-Brown, Ruth Benamesia-Opia, Eugenia Abu, Ronke Ayuba, Kehinde Young-Harry, Lola Alakija, in no particular order. No! You wouldn’t if you were not that privileged in the 1980s and even 1990s. They were the glamour of that era.
Glamour? Not in the sense of beauty – but glamour, because television made them so. For indeed, some of these television faces, were not that glamourous.
But beauty or no, Abike Dabiri was one of the discoveries of that era. Obviously not in competition with these others who were the newscasters on NTA News At Nine, she actually carved a niche for herself elsewhere on Newsline – the soft-sell edition of the station’s news programme aired every Sunday.
Abike Dabiri was a toast of that programme. She was a reporter’s reporter – traversing beyond the seven seas and seven wildernesses to bring to Nigerians those rare stories that either made Nigerians laugh their hearts out or cry their eyes out – a doyenne of human-interest reporting.
Then, suddenly – suddenly – suddenly – the serpent came with the forbidden fruit – the temptation of higher ground – the allure of high office – Tinubu’s tainted chalice that comes like glittering ornament but with hollow and rotten underbelly. She took, she ate and now everything scatter-scatter. Our dear Abike Dabiri accepted and ate the sour grape and now her teeth are set on edge! What a pity!
The breeze has blown to uncover the romp of the hen. Before now, whoever believed that our dear Abike Dabiri farts. But we now know that Abike Dabiri-Erewa not only farts, but her fart smells badly. At first, no one noticed the degeneration.
The time she was at the House of Representatives, was the golden era of Tinubu. That was when the Jagaban Borgu was the governor of Lagos State. She glowed along by tapping from glittering appeal of the Lagos show boy!
At that time, Tinubu was generally holding the golden trophy adorned with the beautiful calligraphy of democracy in Nigeria. That was before he drank from the poisoned chalice of Muhammadu Buhari, his predecessor by joining him in the hatred for the Igbo man – a phenomenon that becomes the nemesis of some Nigerian leaders – Buhari’s major insignia. Then the desperation! Then the degeneration! Now the albatross!
Now, whoever hates the Igbo and remains the same? None! That was what sealed Buhari’s fate. And surely the snake that bit that braindead archeological discovery – that museum piece – has definitely whipped Tinubu with its tail and the rest is now history. If not, compare a Tinubu as governor when he was all cozy with Ndigbo and now he has turned 360 degrees.
And as long as the darkness will give way to reveal the sun breaking from the East, the sting of the snake’s tail will reach everyone who toes that line. You know why, the dominant culture of the Igbo man is ofo n’ogu – justice, equity and fair-play! Have you watched an Igbo man pray with colanut.
He wakes up and with his cola in his hands, beckons on his chi with these words – ndu mmiri, ndu azu, mmiri atanaa, azu anwuna – the life of the river, the life of the fish – may the water not dry and may the fish not die! Egbe bere ugo bere, nke si ibeya ebena nku kwaa ya – let the kite perch and let the eagle perch – whichever says the other should not perch, may its wings whither. Which other people say the same or similar prayer elsewhere?
Now, because the kid-goat watches when the mother-goat is chewing the cud, hating the Igbo has become a fad among those who want to please Tinubu. Obviously, the totem through which this sentiment find expression is Peter Obi. He has become the tree standing by the roadside that receives the strokes of the machete. Obi has remained the hieroglyph for expressing real and imagined pro-Igbo angst.
So, in 2025, when Babajide Sanwo-Olu wanted to mend fences with Tinubu, after allegedly falling out of favour with his boss, he launched an unprovoked attack on Obi, using the latter’s Johns Hopkins University lecture as a pad. Reno Omokri, has since made himself Minister of Peter Obi Affairs. Daniel Bwala, Femi Fani-Kayode et al along this line never end a line without Obi getting a slash of their machete.
Enter our dear Abike Dabiri-Erewa. The little birds flying around whistle that her tenure as Chairman of Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NiCOM) is coming to an end and she is eying a renewal or another job from the Jagaban. How else to go about it than the low-hanging fruit? – Peter Obi.
From nowhere, on Sunday, the media were suffused with the screaming headline – “Peter Obi has actually raised monsters.” As it were with syndicated stories, each of the medium used to transport the outing carried the same headline – well crafted – of course, using her journalism skill to make maximum impact.
After rambling some clearly obtuse and incoherent words in form of reasoning, she ended up with even more brainless, imbecilic and asinine submission – by the time it is Igbo turn to produce Nigerian President, Obidents – followers of Obi – would have destroyed his chances. Me paraphrasing. Chai!
Now, aunty Abike, whose turn is it now? Isn’t already the turn of Ndigbo and the selfsame Obi? Isn’t it part of the argument that the seat your Jagaban is occupying was stolen from Ndigbo? So, you know that Ndigbo also have a stake to it? Yes! You know. But now you have eaten Tinubu’s palm nuts, see how your teeth have all turned red.
But Ndigbo have another way of invoking justice – ochu nwa-okuko nwe ada ma nwa-okuko nwe nwenwe-oso! I won’t explain. Find an Igbo staff at NiMCOM – if there is one – because I hear you hate them so much that finding one near you might be impossible. But even a cleaner in your office could help or better still – ask your spare parts seller. He’s sure to be Igbo!
My name is Sunny Igboanugo, I’m The Tiny Voice!
Justice Centus Nweze was one of the seven S’Court justices that gave the judgement sacking Emeka Ihedioha and pronouncing Hope Uzodinma Governor of Imo State on January 14, 2020.
He later recanted when Ihedioha returned to the same court and declared that Uzodinma was no longer fit and proper to be governor – the only one out of the seven to hold a different view out of the seven-man panel in a dissenting judgement.
These were his exact words on March 3, 2020, with which he emphasised his position after disavowing his earlier position, to capture the impact and import of that event: “The decision of Nigeria’s Supreme Court on the Imo governorship election is wrong and will continue to haunt our (Nigeria’s) electoral jurisprudence for a long time to come.”
But, on Monday, February 6, 2023, Nweze himself, was to lead the same Supreme Court to give another highly controversial judgement – one – legal purists considered no less impactful and damaging to Nigeria’s legal jurisprudence.
It was the 3-2 Supreme Court decision that paved the way for Ahmad Lawan, former Senate President, to return to the Senate, despite being supposedly barred by an existing law forbidding politicians to contest for two different positions in an election circle.
Recall that Lawan, was one of the candidates that contested for the presidential ticket of the All Progressives Congress (APC), a few months earlier, which was eventually won by Bola Ahmed Tinubu, now President of Nigeria.
Many had practically laughed it off, dismissing him as a jester, when he returned with a fresh struggle for the Yobe North ticket for the Senate under the same APC.
But it turned out that the real joke was on these naysayer, who taunted, mocked and even pilloried the former Nigeria’s number three citizen, because in the end, he came out thumbing his chest and shinning his teeth in triumph.
Reason! On Monday, February 6, 2023, the Supreme Court practically wrenched the APC ticket from Bashir Machina, who had earlier picked it at the APC primaries months earlier and handed same over to Lawan.
Guess whom the mantle fell on to read the lead-judgement? The selfsame Nweze, who made the statement above. With two others in support, he went ahead to decapitate the decision of the Court of Appeal, which had earlier thrown into the thrash-can Lawan’s appeal to a Federal High Court decision slamming his claim to the ticket.
Interestingly, Lawan, seemed too ashamed to continue with the matter after the attempt at the appellate court collapsed. He had to hide under the umbrella of the APC, who appealed on his behalf to get the judgement at the apex court.
But you know what? On July 30, 2023, Centus Nweze, died! Just barely six months after the outing. He was just 64 – six years shy of age of retirement for Nigerian judges.
Now, the story. A little message-bearing-bird, squealed that the late eminent jurist didn’t die a happy man.
The establishment was said to have moved in to make him eat his words for stepping out of line in the Uzodinma case. The decision was supposed to be unanimous and giving a dissenting judgement was an affront – more like challenging the gods!
The Lawan outing was the height of teaching him a lesson on how to play ball next time. And play ball he did!
He was procured to read the lead judgement as a way to punish his impudence, underscore his vulnerability and prove where the real power laid.
An erudite scholar, judicial perfectionist and purist of the highest order, whose track record was known beyond the judicial circle, he not only became a wreck thereafter, and unable to live with his conscience, he apparently died a broken man.
Now, it is hard to authenticate this. Nweze is no longer alive to tell his story. But it all the same points as an indicator to the fact that a lot of water passes under the bridge in the nation’s high places, including the judiciary.
Were Nweze alive today, may be one day, in his memoir or other places, Nigeria could read the true story of what actually happened with Lawan, with powerful forces and with intimidation. But do we even need to go that far?
In which other country of the world has the homes of judges been burst open in the middle of the night – many still in their underpants or completely in their birthday suits?
In which other country, has the Chief Judge of the country suffered the fate meted out to Walter Onnoghen by the executive branch of government? Did we not see these with our own eyes?
Has Nigeria been the same ever since? So, if you looked around today and you didn’t find the Kayode Esos, Chukwudifu Oputas, Niki Tobis et al, who looked the military in the face and dispensed justice according to law, who do you blame?
Who is the culprit if the only people who you see are those who receive keys to mansions and sing lustfully – On Your Mandate We Shall Stand? Through where did water enter the coconut?
My name is Sunny Igboanugo, I’m The Tiny Voice!
What was the offence that swept Adrew Cuomo out of office as former governor of New York? You don’t know? Okay, I’ll tell you. He was accused of touching women, including hugging them without their permission. That was considered inappropriate. Fiam! Out he went! That was the end of it.
But you know what? It is the culture of Italians, where Cuomo hails to grab people, embrace them and even kiss them as an expression of warmth and friendship – no string attached. But did that help his case? No! He was a politician, occupying a high position. And cuddling people – women or no – was inappropriate for such a position. And Cuomo doing so, it was not only fatal, it was final!
Now, there is a bigger example. What chased Boris Johnson out of office as Prime Minister of UK? You still don’t know? Again, here is the answer. First, he drank tea and shared a couple of drinks with his colleagues in government during COVID-19. Then the fatal blow – he appointed a cabinet Minister who had a case of abusing a woman.
O tan! Magana yakari! Okwu agwu! In both cases, the two apologised. But their apologies were not directed at retaining their offices. They were for their inappropriate behaviours. The apologies neither vitiated, mitigated, nor cured the consequences, prominent of which was loss of their individual jobs.
Now, imagine the selfsame Boris Johnson announcing the appointment of a dead man into his cabinet. What do you think would happen to him? But how many times has President Bola Tinubu announced the appointment of dead people for public institutions? How many times has he included the names of dead people for national awards as if they were living?
Again, imagine the fate of Cuomo, if he were the one who was caught in a private jet massaging the feet of a woman in such a cozy and lascivious manner as the one seen in a recent viral video? What do you think the American society would have done to him?
So, you hear Nyesom Wike, Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, declaring on national television – with a chunk of global viewership that what stopped him from shooting and kpaying Seun Okinbaloye of Channels Television is the barrier of the TV screen.
Outside that, if he had the way of breaking the screen, our dear Seun would have been resting somewhere in the morgue in Abuja or joining his ancestors in his home of Kwara State.
As you read this, some 72 hours after, he is still in office signing papers for land allocations and supervising the carving out of plots for new estates to emerge out of Jabi Lake precincts – an enclave sustained and maintained by successive governments as probably the only remaining arena for public recreation – in an entire nation’s capital city – to boot!
Surely, you’re hearing the ballyhoo, abi? Some people are even calling for his head! What a laugh! Calling for Wike’s head! In this Nigeria? People joke too much. If Wike is no longer the Wike we know – if he is stripped of his Odogwu power – who would take over and do what he does? Remember if it is not Panadol, it cannot be the same as Panadol.
Who would hold PDP down to ensure that Tinubu has no opposition in 2027? Who has the blank mind to sequester Rivers State the way he is doing such that Sim Fubara, Governor of Rivers state is not only a shadow of himself but a shadow of what his office should be? You people should think! Don’t just talk. What you’re demanding is impossible.
Now, don’t even imagine that it were the Chancellor of the Exchequer in the UK that said that he would shoot Piers Morgan of US Secretary of State that said he was so angry over a comment made by Andy Cooper that he would have shot him! Don’t even go there. The heavens would fall! On their head! Practically!
But surely, you must have read Wike’s response. If you didn’t, know it that he is blaming Nigerians as usual. He says the outrage by citizens is engineered by those doing a hatchet job, “as instrument of blackmail and propaganda by those whose intent is to misrepresent facts for political gains!”
Now, you could be sure that’s the end of the matter. Go wager on it anywhere. Nothing would come out of it. You would probably be hearing about it for the last time within some more few hours from now. Soon, another drama will overshadow it from the theatre house that has become Tinubu’s Nigeria. Just watch.
Come to think of it, who would speak or act in such a manner to check Wike or make him circumspect, wiser or more prudent with his utterances? Who is Wike afraid of? Who would he fear? Is it Tinubu, who himself is full of drama? Didn’t you see the sordid show he put up in Jos, Plateau, hours before Wike’s outing? What is the worth of Nigerians that would make Tinubu sacrifice Wike? That’s a joke!
Which other President across the sane world would instead of visiting the locus in quo – the scene of kpaying of 30 persons in his country – stop at an airport and ask for the victims to be brought to him? And if you took in his puerile explanation that he was pressed for time, ask him if Jos was an isolated case.
Was it not an encore of Benue, when he visited the state over the slaughtering of more than 200 people in Yelwata. Did he visit Yelwata? Did he not stop in Makurdi where he left the grieving people with some phantom and banal words, just like he did in Jos last week.
The only element that politicians are afraid of is election. That is why Cuomo suffered his fate in the US. The snake that bit Cuomo in the US was the same that whipped Cameron with its tail. The reason even Donald Trump is thrashing around frantically today is because the mid-term elections are around the corner and he knows the consequences of losing out.
But here, it is a different kettle of fish. It is either a Yakubu Mahmoud is there in INEC to create “technical glitches” to ingratiate and enable the patrons of grab, snatch and run-away brand or a Joash Amupitan is ensuring that his own INEC will make sure that the patron becomes a sole candidate in his own show.
In other climes, citizens wait to use the power of their thumbs to create the change they need, but here, that door is completely shut in their face. INEC and the judiciary will make sure of that. And might you think of a different approach – I’m sure you saw the bigger show at INEC headquarters last week. Those mint military machines you saw on display were not for fancy.
It is no longer guesswork that the Nigerian military has the best equipment around in this part of the world, the ability to use them more on the citizens than the terrorists for whom they were acquired have also been clearly proven on many occasions. You don’t need to go far to see the left overs. The evidence is there at Lekki Tollgate and other parts of the country.
So, head or tail, Wike stays. Of course, if you do anyhow, you see anyhow! Naturally, there is always a consolation. In the instant case, Lere Olayinka, Wike’s spokesman, told the world that Brother Seun and Wike have spoken on phone about the incident. If you fail to understand that aspect of the conversation a la Nigeria – na you sabi! The joke is on you!
My name is Sunny Igboanugo, I’m The Tiny Voice!
NCDMB, Seplat firm up plans for take-off of Centre of Excellence at DELSU
NLNG concludes 2026 VIBES Pitch-a-Thon, disburses ₦250m in business grants
Abike Dabiri: Did Obi raise a monster or you’re drunk on Tinubu’s poisoned chalice?
-
News3 weeks agoGovernor weeps, as terrorists kill soldiers, police in night ambush
-
Columns2 weeks agoSeun Okinbaloye saga: How does Tinubu survive if Wike resigns?
-
News6 days agoStop using Latin phrases, make clear, unambiguous orders – NBA tells courts
-
News3 weeks agoBREAKING: Bloody day in Ibadan! *Trailer loses control, crushes residents!
-
News1 week agoNafiu Gombe: Yes, I have sponsors! *I can’t fight ADC big men alone!
-
Columns6 days agoCentus Nweze (JSC): Death of legal purist, irony of Nigerian judiciary
-
News2 weeks agoBREAKING: INEC can’t stop us – ADC *Vows to go ahead with congresses
-
News6 days agoArmy: Stop spreading fake news! *How General Braimah, three others died!