Michael Bush brushes off attacks on Umana Okon Umana: “In an orchard, the tree people throw sticks at most is the one that bears the ripest fruits”

Mr. Umana Okon Umana

By Nse Peter

Sponsored media attack isn’t hurting the political rating of the Secretary to the Akwa Ibom State government, Mr. Umana OkonUmana, but rather it’s strengthening and preparing him for the job ahead, says Akparawa Michael Bush, a media guru from Akwa Ibom State.

“When you go into an orchard, it is not all the trees that people love to throw sticks at,” Akparawa Michael Bush, the CEO of BUSH HOUSE NIGERIA, says in an interview published in Uyo-based newspaper, Community Pulse. “In fact, in most cases, it is always one out of many trees that people love to aim at, and what is the quality of that one? It has the ripest fruits. It just shows that the 2015 election in Akwa Ibom State is about him because everyone is talking about him.”

Umana Okon Umana is one of the early fovourites within PDP for the 2015 governorship race in Akwa Ibom State, even though there have been pockets of criticism against him, mostly from politicians in Eket Senatorial District of the state who are clamouring that they should be given the exclusive right to produce a governor in 2015. But the argument from the SSG’s camp is that Eket Senatorial District has never in the past allowed other zones to enjoy such exclusive right, therefore 2015 PDP governorship primaries should be kept open for all.

Akparawa Michael Bush

Michael Bush sees the attacks on Umana Okon Umana has being normal.

“Have you noticed that no one is attacking me? It is because I am not running for governor. We are not bothered about people attacking him; they need to attack him so we can see what manner of man he is. He is calm, very calm; he does not even argue or threaten sponsors of those malicious propaganda. My thinking is: even these attacks are selling him.”

Bush went sarcastic in his response to a question about the ongoing debate on zoning. He says in the Community Pulse interview, “I am still an apostle of zoning, but because of what I now know, I want it (Akwa Ibom governorship in 2015) to be zoned to excellence. I want it to be zoned to that best man. Let the best person take the job…. A man who will make all three senatorial districts proud.”

He commended the Akwa Ibom State governor, Chief Godswill Akpabio for building massive infrastructure across the state and for “the loud way he has put Akwa Ibom State out there in Nigeria”. “My prayer is that Akwa Ibom should benefit from the huge national presence that the governor has registered,” he added, while requesting Akwa Ibom people to remember Gov. Akpabio and Umana Okon Umana in their prayers.