GENERAL ELECTIONS: APC will win within three hours of voting – Akpabio

Senator Godswill Akpabio is a former governor of Akwa Ibom State and erstwhile Senate Minority Leader. Akpabio, last year, defected from the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC). In this interview, he speaks on issues in the polity. Akpabio Your analysis of the South-South aligning with the North as against the South-East is curious. 

Can you expatiate on this? We used to be part of the defunct Eastern Region. If we had built it like that, we wouldn’t have been strong to come to the centre to negotiate.

 I think the problem of the minority had always been fear of domination, fear of becoming extinct. If you say we should join the South-East in totality to build APGA, the question is, what has been the experience?

 I think one of the problems that people made in the past was that while we were fighting the civil war, many of the local governments in the minority areas, their names were changed. So, that sent a very terrible signal and, historically, also, former Biafran leader, Dim Odumegwu Ojukwu, had 12 generals, four of them were from Asaba in the Delta region, but when the map of Biafra was drawn, Asaba was missing. 

Four of the generals were shocked: ‘We are here fighting for Biafra and our area has been removed from the country’. You will also recall that during one of the coups in Nigeria, the coup plotters announced that seven states had been excised Nigeria. I think some of these actions in the past put fear in the minds of the minority. 

So there is the need to assuage those feelings and try to show love. That is why the South-South always aligns with the North which they believe will allow them to retain their ethnic identity. It is not something one can explain so easily. Then, don’t forget that the Yoruba are monolithic in their voting. They always go together politically. The first leader that made efforts to reach out to the larger Nigeria is Bola Tinubu. And you have a presidential candidate from the minority supported by the North in the case of Goodluck Jonathan. With cases like that, the minority people are likely to have more confidence in the nation. 

The Sardauna of Sokoto, as the leader of the North, did not come to the centre to become the Prime Minister, he sent Tafawa Balewa instead. He was more interested in being the Premier of Northern Region. The approach to power is different over there. If the late Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe had been picked as the leader of government business in the first republic, there would never have been need for agitation for states creation. Nigeria would have retained its regional structure. 

But now we are correcting that. For example, my wife is from the South-East and we are working very closely with the governors of the South-East and leaders of the region. We even founded the South-East and South-South Governors Forum and we are trying to see how we can integrate economically and make conscious efforts to let bygones be bygones.

 READ ALSO; APC group says mole working against Buhari’s govt Did you leave any debt in Akwa Ibom as governor? 

There is no government without debt; even the current administration of President Buhari inherited debt, the colonial masters left debt for Tafawa Balewa. Some people said Akpabio left behind N500 billion debt which is not true. The total amount I collected as loan from banks was N80billion in two instalments of N50billion and N30billion and the reasons were very simple. We were struggling to get Paris Club refund of over 100billion dollars, and 365million dollars or so. If we had received that, we would have offset the N80billion loan.

 During my first term, I did not borrow a dime. The option of loan came when we started having dwindling revenue from oil; we were having zero allocation. So when they say Akpabio promised 31 industries but did not build any, it was because money was no longer there. I was going to make available N20 billion through the investment arm of the state every year for those four years,   so that   people could access the money with conditions and then set up the industries, so that at least one person per local government was able to set up one industry. But we never touched N20billion because the money was not there and part of what confuses people is that they don’t know that budget is an estimate. It does not mean you have spent the money and lack of funds also slowed us down in completing some of our projects. We had over 3,000 projects completed at a time in one year.

 So the debt you are talking about is of no consequence. So what did you leave behind? I don’t think the debt profile that we left behind was up to N60billion, and don’t forget that except the payment to contractors…you know you pay them on milestones as they work, so there must have been some outstanding IPCs. What happens is that as money comes in, you pay, and the state used to receive up to N15billion to N30billion every month. Even if you don’t do any other thing, you can’t pay all the debts in four months. Government is about being able to move the people forward, not as if government cannot owe and whatever was owed was taken over by the Federal Government and spread over 25 years, so that whatever the government pays on monthly basis is reduced.

 As it is, the state government is not paying anything above N500million a month. So, the N147billion was taken over by the Federal Government. You can get the record from the Debt Management Office. 

We were even among the least indebted states. Some states are indebted to the tune of N600billion, N300billion and N400billion. I also left behind economic enablers, that if you were able to take one of them and privatize or sell off 50%, you will pay off the entire debt. What was really the issue then with the EFCC trying to get the state government to open its books to investigate you? Those were baseless and unfounded stories. The job of EFCC is to investigate petition. There was a young lawyer who had personal disagreement with.

 I assisted him in law school. I paid his law school fees. Somehow, he had disagreement with some of my staff and he also came up to say he was used by some people I relieved of their appointments. He said so in an affidavit he swore to in the Court of Appeal voluntarily. The EFCC has the right to look at that petition. But when I came back from overseas where l was treated after I had an accident in 2015, I said I must still go (to the EFCC) because I was not around when I was invited. So I went to the EFCC. I am the most investigated former governor in Nigeria. 

Go anywhere in the world; I don’t have a single house that I could sell, whether in the United Kingdom or Dubai. A lot of people thought Akwa Ibom state may become a battleground in 2019 because of your defection to the APC. Are you comfortable with the insinuation? APC had taken over Akwa Ibom even before I joined the party. By the time I decided to join APC, by the time I landed at the airport, the whole airport was APC.

 The whole of the airport to the town was APC. The whole of the plaza in Uyo was APC, the jubilation was infectious. Women and men were bringing their brooms from under their bed, which means they had been hiding them because of me and they were sweeping the roads. A distance of 20 minutes took us over two hours to cover because of the jubilation. I was now saying that so all these people belong to APC. When I asked them, they said, “Sir, after you left office, the situation wasn’t the same again. 

We have moved to APC”. And I asked them when, and they said since 2015. If you ask the APC headquarters, they will tell you that we have over 300,000 card-carrying members who joined the party within six weeks. When I hear that Akwa Ibom is going to be a battleground, I laugh because there is no battleground in a state that has already shown direction. I can confidently confirm to you that the first state President Buhari will win within three hours of voting is Akwa Ibom. It is not because of me but because of the change that the Federal Government has started.

 The reason I am being attacked is just because I am a leader here and a lot of people came out boldly to associate with APC when I joined, but the people have rejected PDP before I declared for APC. It was alleged that you gave money to some senators to become a principal officer of the Senate? People don’t like to give credit to whom it is due. The people of the South-South are very proud of me because I changed the story of the region. A lot of people say that lots of money goes to the South-South, but there is little to show for it. But when I became governor, that insult vanished because of what I achieved because if you come to Akwa Ibom, you will see some of my achievements. 

So when the position of Minority Leader was zoned to the South-South, the people from the zone in the Senate said I was the best person for the post. When they approached me, I refused and told them that I had never gone on leave for eight years, and I needed to rest. They insisted, and I had to honour them by taking the post. Don’t forget that I had been the Chairman of PDP Governors’ Forum. I also owe South-South senators an apology for joining APC without informing them because, after my meeting with the President, the story was already everywhere. So I believe that even if I called them then, they will be looking at me as an APC person.

 I owe them an apology for not informing them. Some people were saying that I left without followers but what about the 45, 000 people who came to the stadium on the day l defected? When the President came to campaign in Uyo, you saw over 70, 000 people at the stadium. Only God enthrones kings, so I don’t want to brag.

 I have done over 78 jobs in Akwa Ibom. I have been a governor of the state for eight years, and I will always serve them till I die. I am collecting pension as a former governor of the state. Some of you in the Senate are receiving pension as former governors and also salaries as senators. Is this right? Nothing like two salaries, because we are collecting pensions as former governors and, as serving senators, we must be paid allowances. At least we must maintain our offices (as senators) and we must earn pension as former governors.

 People don’t understand because you can receive only one pension as former governor, and as a serving senator, you must get allowances. On the issue of security vote, people believe that such money should be given to the police to enhance their operations. Whether you like it or not, security vote should always be available for governors to secure the state. There are things you must make provision for: Welfare of the people and security.

 We are operating a democracy and the Constitution says in Section 2, Subsection 2b that the primary duty of government is to provide security for life and property, and the welfare of the people. If anybody tells you that security vote should be stopped, that means the person doesn’t know what he is saying except if there is a misuse of the fund by the state governor. So if there is a vote, you will vote for state police? I have always voted for state police. If a security operative is from another state, he may not know the terrain like a person who has lived all his life in that particular environment. 

During the time of our fathers, they knew the bad guys in the village; so if a goat was missing, they knew where to check and who to hold responsible. There is a need to complement the efforts of the Federal Government by providing for state police. Any governor who misuses it also should be held responsible for his action. During my growing up days, you could not acquire wealth without doing anything.

 In the United Kingdom, you see police without guns because they are the metropolitan police. There can also be national state police commission that will be recruited by the state but will be trained at the national level but they will be deployed to the state where you are from and they can also advance to federal police level if need be.