Why Godswill Akpabio Must Drop His Ambition

Following comments from the national leadership of the All Progressive Congress (APC), that there was no proper consultations made relative to the zoning of principal officers of the National Assembly, former governor of Akwa-Ibom State, Senator Godswill Akpabio, has been told to drop his ambition of becoming the Senate President immediately in the interest of the party.

This was the position of a Nigerian US-based political commentator and businessman, David Adodo, who also posited that the past eight years have seen the skimming out of the South-East in the enterprise called Nigeria.

He noted that: “The part of righteousness now for the party is for Senator Akpabio to step down and allow the National Working Committee of the party to do due diligence on the matter. The senator must be statesmanly and not allow his personal ambition to override the interest of the party.

“The senator would have etched his name on our national stone as a patriot. The president-elect must be accorded a conducive environment to govern this great country. His lofty ideas must be allowed to manifest. We cannot continue on the trajectory of marginalisation of a region of the country as evident in the eight years of the Buhari administration. This has served no one any good.

“We must not allow this to continue as it could have devastating consequences on the entire nation. There is a local parlance in my area that says the eyes cannot be crying and the nose is quiet. Put differently, what affects a region of our country affects all religions of the country.

“The tepid relationship between the outgoing administration and the south-east needs recalibration and the president-elect being an astute politician is well positioned. Senator Akpabio should heal the wounds of a bleeding people and statesmanly step down for fairness, equity and unity of the country.”

Adodo concluded that: “The doctrine of sense of belonging should be accorded every region of the country. Elections are over, let us heal wounds and not aggravate them. We cannot now say that Nigeria is not anchored on a tripod because it is politically expedient to some interests.

“We are presented with a great opportunity for Nigeria to forge ahead in all areas of human endeavour, we must take advantage of the moment and do what is right for Nigeria. We must imbibe the spirit of fairness, equity and unity for Nigeria.