 |
| Dr. Tom Mbeke-Ekanem |
By Nse Peter
“I want to admit that a good many of us made mistake in ushering
in the man Akpabio as the governor of Akwa Ibom State.”
Those were the words used by Dr. Tom Mbeke-Ekanem, a
U.S-based Akwa Ibom leader to express regret over the leadership style and the
administration of Chief Godswill Akpabio, the governor of Akwa Ibom State.
Tom Mbeke-Ekanem, the founding president of Ibom People’s
Congress (IPC) and the author of Beyond
The Execution: Understanding The Ethnic And Military Politics In Nigeria,
says the only reason Godswill Akpabio became governor of Akwa Ibom State was to “plunder, destroy
and cause pain so that the people might learn from their sad experience how to
do things right.”
He stated this on Wednesday in article titled ‘The Cry Of
Elder Etiebet: We've Been Vindicated’ which he posted on Ibom Forum, an online
discussion group which he is the founder and moderator.
Mbeke-Ekanem says he has personally refused to travel to
Akwa Ibom State for eight years now for the fear of his life, since Akpabio
became governor. “Many people including
Chief Etiebet thought we were dealing with a human being with a good heart. But
how wrong we were!” he said.
“The damage Godwill Akpabio has done to the state of Akwa
Ibom can only be equated to what Boko Haram has done to the nation state
Nigeria. One can quantify these damages in human term as in barbaric killings,
economic term as in sabotaging genuine investment efforts of the citizens,
political term as in going any length to destroy democracy in all manner of
ways, as well as in ethnic and social terms.
“How can we forget in a hurry Akpabio’s N100m medical
retirement scheme, and not a single industry to provide food on the table to
the teaming unemployed youths in 8 years?
“Whatever pains Akpabio has been able to wrought on the
citizens of Akwa Ibom, the repercussion of such devilish deeds would equally be
visited and evenly shared also with members of Akwa Ibom State House of
Assembly (AKHA) whose primary role is to protect the interest of the generality
of Akwa Ibom indigenes, rather they choose to become partner in crime with
Godswill Akpabio to vilify, plunder and inflict maximum pain on the citizens of
the state,” Dr. Mbeke-Ekanem stated. 