Why Choose Godswill Akpabio as Senate President? ~ by Bayo Oluwasanmi
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In Nigeria, satire is closer to real life than we’d like to admit. That seems to be the case when 72 “non-serving senators” endorsed Senator Godswill Akpabio, a former minister of the Niger Delta affair, as president of the 10th senate.
The 72 small fries said: “We in the spirit of equity, fairness, political expediency and following extensive consultations with stakeholders, hereby express our total support for the zoning of the position of the president of the 10th senate, to the south-south geopolitical zone of Nigeria.”
The post of senate president of Nigeria is the most ridiculed, scorned, worthless, and of no importance. Past senate presidents were thieves or scammers, idiots or fools.
Take a look at the following senate presidents since 1999: Evans Enwerem (South East), Chuba Okadigbo (South East), Pius Anyim (South East), Adolphus Wabara (South East), Ken Nnamani (South East), David Mark (North Central), Bukola Saraki aka Mesujamba (North Central), and Ahmad Lawan (North East).
Does anyone remember their contributions to purposeful government? What positive impact did they have on their respective constituencies? Was Nigeria made better by them during their years in office? Why should any ethnic group commit suicide for being denied senate presidency? Nearly eight years ago I wrote a piece titled A Senate of Fools, Blockheads, Ignoramuses and Idiots published on August 3, 2015 by SaharaReporters.
In the essay, I argued that “The senate is made up of callous, indifferent, stupid fools who keep silent in the face of tyranny while the nation and its people are dying.” I conclude that “As Nigerians, we handed over our destinies of a decent honorable life to a bunch of crooks, and decadent senators.”
Successive senators are worse than the ones I described in 2015.
The office of the senate president is further desecrated by proposing Akpabio as the next senate president. As minister of NDDC, Akpabio was invited by EFCC over abuse of office and misappropriation of N40 billion. In 2021, he was detained after he attempted to bribe the chairman of EFCC Abdulrasheed Bawa $350, 00 (N135 million) because of the tons of corruption allegations against him dating back to the time he was governor of Akwa Ibom State. In another instance, Akpabio was arrested by EFCC over the alleged theft of N108.1 billion of Akwa Ibom funds.
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In Nigeria, no amount of opposition or protest will prevent Akpabio from becoming the next president of the Senate. However, the timeless words of wisdom by America’s author Octavia E. Butler (June 22, 1947- February 24, 2006) is instructive not only to the senators who will be responsible for choosing the next senate president but to Nigerians as a whole: “Choose your leaders with wisdom and forethought. To be led by a coward is to be controlled by all that coward fears. To be led by a fool is to be led by the opportunists who control the fool. To be led by a thief is to offer up your most precious treasures to be stolen. To be led by a liar is to ask to be lied to. To be led by a tyrant is to sell yourself and those you love into slavery.” For the senate to be led by Akpabio is to open the nation’s vault to armed robbers!
