“Tell it not in Uyo.
Proclaim it not in the streets of Abuja.
Lest the daughters of the North West be glad.
Lest the daughters of the uncircumcised rejoice.”
– Adaptation of David’s Lamentation at the death of Saul and Jonathan in 2 Samuel 1, 20.
The impending defection of Senator Godswill Akpabio (if eventually it happens) should never excite any Buhari or APC apologist. And I will explain why. Hear me out even if you won’t agree with me:
*Senator Akpabio will not be defecting out of his own VOLITION. He has been under pressure for months from hawks in the Presidency using the EFCC to send subtle but pungent messages to him.
*Akpabio is said to be very scared of spending a night in detention.
*Secondly, there was no motivation to decamp as he is Majority Leader-in-waiting and his party is not in crisis and is even in upswing mood in terms of political fortunes.
*Going by the information at my disposal, a whooping N16bn was traced to an account that belongs to him by the EFCC and this was long ago.
*Even while some of us would still have raised hell over the lopsided nature of the anti-corruption war, Akpabio MUST be made to explain how he came about such humongous amount of money.
*Rather than make the society benefit from the punitive measures that must have been taken against Akpabio because of the heist, the APC chose to turn it to an instrument of blackmail. A political tool to rein in a suspected thief to share from his loot.
*You can wager that part of the said N16bn would be taken from Akpabio to finance APC campaign next year.
*The loser here is the NIGERIAN STATE, the ANTI-CORRUPTION war and whatever is left of Buhari’s integrity. The photographs of Akpabio with Tinubu and Osibajo tell a SHAMEFUL STORY of a ruling party in search of a lifeline.
We are all losers. Including the hailers…