Udom’s media consultant criticizes ex-gov Akpabio for ‘African time syndrome’

By Nse Peter

Will posterity be kind to the immediate past governor of Akwa Ibom State, Mr. Godswill Akpabio? Time, they say, will tell. Well, while waiting for that time to come, the verdicts are coming in, piecemeal. And this latest one, from a journalist who lives in Uyo, the capital of Akwa Ibom State, is certainly not in favour of Akpabio.

Akpabio was a poor manager of time while he reigned for eight years as governor, says Mr. Aniefiok Macauley, in an opinion article he posted, Sunday, on Facebook.

Macauley served as a media consultant for Mr. Udom Emmanuel’s governorship campaign. He has previously worked as the Akwa Ibom State correspondent for Fresh Factsnewspaper whose headquarters in Abuja was ransacked in January 2008 by the police and the chairman of its editorial board Mr. Sam Asowata and daughter reportedly arrested on Akpabio’s order.

“Without any apology, I dare say the last eight years saw the worst abuse of time management by the then governor and government officials. It was a time when traditional rulers would be invited and kept in Ibom Hall from 10 am without food and water for his Excellency to arrive at 5pm,” Macaulay said in the article.

“Imagine wasting 7 good hours waiting for someone for a meeting that would not last up to one hour. It was a time when the swearing in of council chairmen billed for 10 am will not take place until 8pm, it was time when keeping time was of no used.

“Of course, even commissioners also learnt and copied effectively. It was not uncommon for a Commissioner to call a press conference at 10am only to surface at either 1 or 2pm for the untenable reason of attending to other state matters. Such behavior, does not only speak of someone as unorganized but it shows gross lack of respect for others.”

Macauley’s intention of doing the article was to tell people how time-conscious Governor Udom Emmanuel is. He said he didn’t intend to bring in the past administration of Akpabio. But that “the more I tried, the more it resurfaces.”

“Though Emmanuel worked under former Governor Akpabio now a Senator, one attitude he never copied from him (Akpabio) was lateness to event.

“It is certain that those who will rise to defend the former governor will quickly claim that since he was the PDP Governors’ Forum Chairman, he needed to work closely with the party and the former president. For that group of defenders, I make bold to say that when a certain attribute repeatedly occurs for eight years, it becomes an attitude and an attitude once formed is difficult to do away with.”