BY GREGORY AUSTIN NWAKUNOR
IF you are to run into Godswill after working hours, you will certainly miss him out in the crowd; well, except you are lucky to hear him laugh or throw banter at his men as good pals would normally do.
He is a socialite, a mixer and a good family man, who could be caught sharing cinema seats with one or all of his children.
Godswill Obot Akpabio was born a gift to humanity. There is something uncommon in him that turns everything he touches to gold. From humility, he rose to nobility. In fact, no generation has his type more than one.
From his early age, he had proclaimed that the time for change had come. Even without a father, he knew he was destined to change the fate of many.
Though destiny gave him to his mother with one hand, it took away his father with the other.
And it came before sunrise.
The mother doubled as a father, rising to the highest rung of the ladder of hardship and difficulties to raise a future champion — an exemplary leader. Well, as the expression goes, ‘the situation at home was bad, but the boy was good’.
His mother, seeing him as her only hope in life, painstakingly brought him up, inculcating in him, the value of hard work, discipline and honesty. These trees had since bear fruits.
His record as governor has raised the bar of leadership, making him a deserving leading light and rallying point. A bastion of development, he is a metaphor for hope. Destiny made him a man for the people, not for self.
He has governed Akwa Ibom State with policies that have human face because he believes God sent him for the purpose of affecting the lives of people through doing God’s will. To him, development is people-centred.
Hence, whatever is not for the benefit of the people is not acceptable. There could not have been a better name for him than Godswill; a man God is using to bless a people he named after himself. Governor Akpabio is an exhilarating developing story. He is out of the ordinary.
He says with a toothy smile, as he took the oath of office for a second time, “we dare not forget that we are the heirs of great revolutionaries who breathed hope into the political fabric of our country.”
He continues, “many years from now, posterity will look back at this time and take a holistic view of all that transpired in that election. And they will surely be proud that we all stood on the right side of history and sent a signal to our brothers, sisters, friends and foes that nothing shall separate us.”
His happiness is that his people are now “living in a state where every child, no matter the circumstance of his birth, has equal opportunity to acquire formal education. This is possible with the free and compulsory education programme. We now have a state where every child, pregnant woman and the aged have access to free medical treatment. We now have a state where the educational and health infrastructures have been completely transformed.”
Amidst a cheerful grin, the governor retorts, “we now fly in and out of the Ibom International Airport. We are poised to enjoy uninterrupted power supply from Ibom Power Plant as soon the Federal Government grants us the license not only to generate but to also distribute electricity. The Cineplex at Tropicana Entertainment Complex, which we inaugurated last month, has become the star leisure spot in our state. This is just a tip of the iceberg as the emerging radiance of the Tropicana Entertainment Complex beckons.”
Like Martin Luther King Jr., he is happy that he is happy that Akwa Ibom are living in the midst of ‘our dreams’. “We live in a time when our state has become one of the preferred conference spots in our country. When our road network, with our concentric flyovers in Uyo, has become the talk of the country. When no one comes to our state anymore to look for house helps and drivers. And Akwa Ibom people walk tall in Nigeria. We live in a time when key projects like the Ibom Gas Plant and the underground drainage system in Uyo have been completed. We live in a time when we look forward to the immediate commencement and completion of impactful projects like the Ibaka Deep Seaport, the Ibom Industrial City and many more projects in order to establish our state as one of the pivots of the Nigerian economy.”
Akpabio says the results of his achievements are everywhere for people to see “In over 1,350 communities which now have electricity, more than 205 urban roads have been rehabilitated or constructed anew; five brand new hospitals are now operational, many federal roads have been dualised and constructed and reconstructed; thousands have been employed in various completed projects like the Le’ Meridien Hotel and Golf Resort, the Ibom International Airport, which we met at ten percent completion level, the Ibom Independent Power Plant, the civil service, gas processing plants, the first class construction companies that opened offices in 2007 on my assumption of office etc. I am happy to report that in the last four years over 3000 life-impacting projects have been initiated and completed across the entire state.”
The 2007 oath-taking resulted in three brand new flyovers, dualized Ekid Itam Road, daulised Ikot Ekpene – Abak Road, new and dualised Uyo to International Airport Road, the liberation of the people of Etim Ekpo/Ika axis, the Nung Udoe Oko Ita, Use Ikot Amama (Ibiono) indigenes, the Enen Nsit Road construction, the Etebi Enwang road construction, the Abak – Ukpom Hospital Road etc. We should also note that our health institutions have been fully revamped and fully equipped and five new general hospitals added. Today we are a proud state with no single incidence of polio. Our pride as a people has also further been heightened with the completion of the state-of-the-art Government Banquet Hall and ten new Guest Houses. These have further upgraded our efforts in the deliberate attempt to turn Uyo into a metropolitan city.
Trajectory of a career
AKPABIO is certainly not a Nigerian politician. If anything, he is a statesman. He is only in politics. And his brand of politics is not for himself. To him, it is service first, self last. This is alien to Nigeria. “A good Nigerian politician serves self, a statesman scoops home the joy on the faces of his people. And he is always the author of this joy. Akpabio belongs to this people-centred politics,” says Aniekan Umanah, Commissioner, Ministry of Information & Social Re-Orientation Akwa Ibom State.
The governor made a perfect blend of two noble professions. He also had a brief stint as a teacher, and was an associate partner with Paul Usoro and Co., a leading law firm in the country.
His teaching background, though brief, exposed him to the educational crises in our society while his legal practice gave him insight into the needs of justice administration in Nigeria.
He had also called the shots in 2002, when he became the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of EMIS Telecoms Limited, a leading privately-owned fixed wireless company in Lagos.
To his credit, while in that position, he helped in developing majority of the current crop of management in the telecom industry.
His genius was recognised even before he became the MD of EMIS and he was elected the National Publicity Secretary of the Association of Telecom Companies in Nigeria, (ATCOM), while he was still the Company Secretary of EMIS Telecoms.
In 2002 His Excellency was appointed the Commissioner for Petroleum and Natural Resources. He left his stamp of efficiency in this ministry as an astute administrator, and was subsequently re-assigned commissionership duties in key ministries like the Ministry of Local Government & Chieftaincy Affairs and the Ministry of Lands and Housing.
As a Commissioner in the Ministry of Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, he was responsible for the supervision of the 31 Local Councils and traditional institutions.
His immense conflict management skills came to the fore and he commanded the respect of local government administrators and traditional rulers for always standing on the side of truth.
As a commissioner, His Excellency Chief Akpabio related with people based on their character and not where they come from.
Completely detribalised, he is imbued with a passion for excellence and driven by a sense of mission and purpose.
Honours
He is a recipient of over 30 chieftaincy titles from all over Nigeria. They include the Uko Akwa Ibom (awarded to him by the Akwa Ibom State Council of Chiefs), Utuenikang Ibibio, Iberedem Ibibio, Nta Nta Offiong Annang, Atta of Eket and the Nta Nta Oro, to mention a few.
He also holds the highest national honour of the Republic of Niger, Gold Humanitarian Services Award, which was conferred on him by Niger Republic’s Ambassador to Nigeria, His Excellency, Alhaji Moussa Ibrahim.
The honours he receives from educational institutions tell clearly that that is his constituency.
He has been awarded the Doctor of Law (Honoris Causa) of the University of Nigeria Nsukka; the Doctor of Public Administration (Honoris Causa) of the Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka; the Doctor of Law (Honoris Causa) of the University of Uyo; the Doctor of Law (Honoris Causa) of the University of Calabar; Fellowship by several tertiary institutions of learning (including polytechnics and colleges of education) and professional bodies; Man of the Year 2009 by Daily Independent Newspapers; Emerging Tiger by ThisDay Newspapers; Man of the Year 2009 by the National Daily Newspapers.
He has also been honoured by the National Daily with the award of 2008 Most Outstanding Governor in Nigeria (South South).
The newspaper said the award was in appreciation of his developmental strides and described the free education program as unprecedented in the region.
Trivia
GODSWILL likes cooking, but because of state function, this aspect of him seldom occurs, but he is a good cook.
Expect to see him in on suit and possibly, red tie, for any formal occasion and traditional, if the occasion demands. But in the evening you’ll surely catch him on jeans and long or shot sleeve. He likes flat slippers or canvass.
His Excellency is happily married to Mrs Ekaette Unoma Akpabio, and the marriage is blessed with four beautiful daughters and a son. He and his wife share a great passion for the underprivileged and for service to the community.
Umanah says, “His Excellency is a God-fearing man and devoted Christian of the Catholic Faith. Inspite of his high political office, he humbles himself and seeks the face of God for exemplary leadership.”
According to Umanah, “every year, there is always a solemn assembly to dedicate the state to God. Apart from the yearly service, monthly prayer sessions are often held on behalf of the state for God’s intervention in the affairs of His men.”
In fact, he has also bagged the ‘Nehemiah Award’ of the African Church. In its citation, the Church described the massive infrastructural development of Akwa Ibom State as “unequalled in the country.”
The National Youth Council of Nigeria earlier honoured him as the “Youth Ambassador of Nigeria.
Other recent awards include: Governor of the Year, 2010 by Tribune; Best Infrastructural Development Governor, Ben Television, UK Governor of the Year South South, City People Magazine; Best Governor Infrastructure 2009, Encomium Magazine; Best Governor South South, Encomium Magazine; Excellency Recognition Award As Best Governor South South by Global Excellence Magazine.
Prior to his emergence as Governor, the Africa Independent Television/Raypower FM in the South South Region honoured him with the “Excellence in Governance Award” in 2005.
BORN on December 9, 1962, in the cold and frosty Ukana Ikot Ntuen, Essien Udim Local Council of Akwa Ibom State, to the family of Chief and Madam Obot Akpabio, he had his first formal education at Methodist Primary School, Ukana.
That was to be followed by a secondary education at the Federal Government College, Port Harcourt, Rivers State, where he obtained his West African Senior Certificate Examination/General Certificate of Education at Ordinary and Advanced Levels.
Thereafter, he proceeded to the University of Calabar, where he bagged a Degree in Law. And on completing his studies at the Nigerian Law School, he was called to the Nigerian bar.
At Federal Government College, Port Harcourt, he was appointed the General Senior Prefect. And later in the University of Calabar, his charismatic mien endeared him to the students and he was elected the Speaker of the Students’ Parliament.
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