Senate President Godswill Akpabio

By Simbo Olorunfemi

‘All political lives, unless they are cut off in midstream at a happy juncture, end in failure, because that is the nature of politics and of human affairs. ‘

Those familiar with my interventions will probably remember how, at different times, I had taken up on this quote, which was generously used back then, to mock what was thought to be a long-term aspiration of Asiwaju Bola Tinubu that would never fly.

Apart from making the point that the quotation was being contextually misapplied, cautioning those playing God back then to take it easy, I had made a counter-argument on the back of some posers:

“What is a happy juncture? What is failure? Who determines what the happy juncture or failure is? The person in the ring or the spectator? Well, I suspect that the easy take to the quote might be on account of its dislocation from the context in which Enoch Powell originally used it – in reference to Joseph Chamberlain never becoming British Prime Minister. What makes a political life a success? Attainment of the apogee in the hierarchy of political offices?

How many political lives did not, at some point, suffer a ‘setback’ only to make a rebound onto greater successes? What if the career had terminated at some earlier ‘happier juncture’, would that count as success for the one who stopped daring, in deference to this counsel, and failure for the one who reached beyond, only to fail to attain a higher office?

Even with Chamberlain, history has him as one of the most important British politicians of his day. So, would it be right to assume his career as having ended in failure, even at that? Even if Powell’s statement was to be accepted as a statute of general application, which it is obviously not, to make such pronouncement on an active career must be a bridge too far, one which even Powell did not venture towards.”

I would later cite the turnaround in Biden’s political career which saw him emerge as Presidential candidate then, after a 4-year hiatus as evidence that a political life, not cut short at a happy juncture, might eventually have a happy ending. That has now proven true in the political career of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who the quote was usually gleefully deployed to deride, only a few years back.

Now, with the emergence of Godswill Akpabio as the Senate President for the 10th National Assembly, it would appear that there is another ground for the falsification of the Powell hypothesis, if it was ever one in the first place.

Akpabio had broken into the nation’s consciousness following his emergence as the Governor of Akwa Ibom state in 2007. That was not without some controversy, as it’s usually the case in the political space with transition from one leader to the other.

The outgoing Governor Victor Attah’s preference for a successor was not Akpabio who had served as Commissioner under him since 2002. His choice was his son-in-law, Bob Ekarika. But Akpabio who had 57 other aspirants to contend with, won the primaries. He would be elected and not long after, in his task of ‘uncommon transformation’ of the state, elected to be his own man.

Through the deft use of the media, Akpabio boosted his profile, warming his way into the hearts of the leadership of his party, some will say, on account of his ‘generosity’. He would embark on an expansive infrastructure upgrade for the state and/or renewal of Uyo, even if critics argue that some of his projects were clearly over the top, with the building of the Stadium standing out as perhaps one ready evidence that some of these projects were not in sync with local needs and priorities.

But Akpabio had become a political force within the PDP even beyond Akwa Ibom, securing for himself a preferred successor as Governor and emerging as one of the most prominent sponsors of the Goodluck Jonathan campaign in 2014/15.

As his time as Governor wound up, talk that he would be heading for the Senate was rife. His response was every inch Akpaboesque. “Initially, I said I was going to retire from politics and thousands of people attacked me on the internet. Nigerians were so angry, so I don’t know yet. I think what my people are clamouring for now is that I should not retire, I should try and get to the Senate as a major stake holder in the Senate and put my experience to use on the national sphere. I may have to agree and contest for the Senate because of popular demand, but you see, if you ask me what I like, I will really like to retire. I would like to retire but I can see popular opinion forcing me to the Senate.”

2014/15 appears to have been the peak of Akpabio’s political career, with expansive footprints in the media, perhaps second only to what we would later see with Wike years after. He loomed so large in the PDP as the uncommon leader from Akwa Ibom that he would bulldoze his way into becoming the Minority Leader in the Senate in 2015, even though he was a first-timer and there were ranking members available and eyeing the office.

But while he rode high in the Senate, employing a mix of his characteristic bombast and quick wit on the floor to maintain visibility, things were turning not going according to plan back home. Within a year of assuming office, things had already fallen apart between him and his anointed successor, Udom Emmanuel. It only got worse, and with things no longer at ease, Akpabio would be forced to leave the PDP, resign his position as Minority leader and decamp to the APC in 2018.

He ran for the Senate again in 2019, but lost in circumstances that were predictably controversial. It appeared then that the political career of Godswill Akpabio had careened off, heading for an abrupt ending.  With his failure to return to the green chamber, he had become a fish out of water. Such was the change of fortune for Akpabio that Dino Melaye was made a mockery of him on the floor of the Senate.

But fortune would again, soon after, smile on him as he was appointed Minister of Niger Delta Affairs. But with that will come an exacerbation of the crisis within APC in the State, which hit the head in 2022. Party leaders pulled in different directions as different factions emerged, with parallel congresses held, leading to the emergence of different party candidates.

Such was the precarious nature of the situation for Akpabio only a few months back that he had no guarantee of securing the party ticket to stand as Senatorial Candidate. If a seer had told him then that he would be emerging the Senate President in the 10th National Assembly as he just did, he probably would have laughed it off as product of an overactive imagination. But it is politics, and politics is like gambling. Often, all you need to win is the courage to take that first step of buying the ticket.

The manner of his eventual emergence as Candidate in the election was as dramatic as it was controversial. An uncommon path, it surely took.

The former minister of Niger Delta Affairs had started out as a Presidential aspirant and was, in fact, a part of the contest until the last minute when he eventually stepped down for the President. He would then proceed to participate in the primary election for the Senatorial seat for Akwa Ibom North-west District in a parallel election, alleged to have been organised by a faction of the party, defeating other candidates, including UdomEkpoduom, who had been declared candidate by another faction, following an election organised by a different faction.

It would take the Supreme Court to eventually secure Akpabio’s place as the Candidate of the party in the election setting aside the judgement of the Abuja Division of the Court of Appeal, which had sacked Akpabio as candidate of the APC in the election. He had earlier won another leg of the battle against INEC, which had initially refused to list any candidate for the party on account of factionalisation, which led to the presentation of different candidates for one position.

Such was Akpabio’s journey to the Senate, characterised by twists and turns, only for him to get there to see fortune beckoning, with the party boxed into a corner where the seat of the Senate President could only rationally go to a few zones, and in one of those zones, he happened to have been the only ‘qualified’ candidate. Then began another race, which has eventually ended with Akpabio emerging as the Senate President in a most dramatic change of fortune.

Now that he is Senate President, Akpabio will have to be mindful of the banana peel in the Senate, which would appear to have been finally thrashed by Senator David Mark, after it had led to the fall of the first few Senate Presidents.

He will do well to work on his style of staying too long on the mic and tone down on his jokes. He must have learnt, no doubt, from the ‘off the mic’ experience, seeing how that moment became a talking point and argument against his candidacy.

His emergence as Senate President is indeed a remarkable comeback for the one who calls himself ‘the uncommon transformer’. He will most likely see his uncommon run to the Senate Presidency as another instance of ‘God’s will’ being fulfilled in the life of Godswill. One hopes he puts his uncommon fortune to good use for the good of Nigeria and the Senate, working with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to deliver a better Nigeria.