Angry Nigerians take on Akpabio for advising Buhari to reduce FG's power

By Nse Peter

Chief Godswill Akpabio’s advice that President Muhammadu Buhari should assist federal lawmakers to reduce the powers of the federal government has attracted angry reactions from ordinary Nigerians.

The immediate past governor of Akwa Ibom State was reported by The Punch newspaper to have said “The present revenue sharing formula should be reviewed in such a way   that the Federal Government does not take too much money and then the state governments that have much to do, receive little or nothing and end up becoming salary paying centres instead of centres of development. We must also make the Federal Government less attractive.”

According the news report, Akpabio, now a senator-elect, went on to say “It is wrong for the Federal Government to borrow N50bn and then give an order that any state government that wants to borrow N200m has to take permission from the Minister of Finance. That is not a federation. That is a unitary government. Let’s not pretend that we are running a federal system of government, we are running a unitary government.”

A Nigerian who simply identified himself as Seyi wondered why Akpabio couldn’t call for the reduction of federal powers when Goodluck Jonathan was the president, and said Akpabio was a ‘bunch of self-centred people’.

“He wants to reduce from the federal government and give to the state so that the man he put in Akwa Ibom State as a governor will not inquire what happened during election,” One Ben Benny commented on the Punch story.

One person sarcastically said that Akpabio wasn’t ‘God’s will’, but ‘devil’s will’. “He is silly, greedy, and good for nothing,” he said.

“It's really unfortunate to hear Akpabio trying to speak like a saint,” said another person who commented on the story. “You governed Akwa Ibom State for eight years and all the local government allocation was controlled directly by you, and you are talking about true federalism.

“You became an emperor to the very people you were supposed to rule, by selecting who becomes a local government chairman and today you are advising for power to be shared with component units. Constitutional you were only a governor, but you used the apparatus of government as a dictator, killing and maiming those you perceived as your enemies.”

A Nigerian who identified himself simply as Burbank said Akpabio was only applying his survival instinct. “He knows a tree, no matter how strong, cannot withstand Hurricane Buhari,” he said.