Akwa Ibom: Taking Nepotism For Granted

The article entitiled Akwa Ibom and the burden of Stalinism credited to Udo Akata and published in Sunday Vanguard, Compass and National Life, et al last week made interesting reading though it missed one point. That is that the problem in Akwa Ibom is not only the ghost of Stalinism but also that of crass nepotism.

Anyway, a rather weak case can probably be made for some form of nepotism in the conduct of public affairs in the country. The wild prevalence of rural idiocy even in the face of rapid urbanization, the relative weakness of formal institutions and the generally primordial character of politics in the country tend to make a certain degree of nepotism inevitable.

Yet if the peculiarities of the Nigerian condition can be held to provide a feeble enough excuse for some mild form of favoritism towards an office holder's immediate social group, they do not, and cannot, justify the elevation of nepotism into an instrument of state policy. Yet, this is precisely what many observant citizens of Akwa Ibom state complain that Governor Godswill Akpabio has done to the detriment of fairness and equity. Save perhaps for some unreconstructed middle eastern oligarchies (which are proper monarchies anyway), it s difficult to think of another government anywhere, whether at the state, provincial or national levels, in which members of one family so dominate the affairs of the state as in Akwa Ibom in the last thirty months or so. Certainly, it has never happened in Akwa Ibom until the Akpabios came on the scene.

We know of no other state in Nigeria where such crass nepotism is on display. Even though many Abachas wielded power under the late maximum ruler, the goggled one cannot be said to have surpassed what Akpabio has done. Yet, Abacha was a dictator. Akpabio is supposed to be running a republican democracy, and presumably will be seeking the people's endorsement for another term in office. Having created a dynastic empire where a democracy is supposed to prevail, does he expect to be rewarded with the people's votes, come 2011? On the other hand, does he plan to win in ways that have nothing to do with the people's vote? Your guess is as good as mine is, but we digress.

Nepotism of the undisguised, unapologetic sort that has been unleashed on an unsuspecting Akwa Ibom people is, as Udo Akata rightly said, we have had occasion to remark earlier the direct result of a Stalinist mindset. The governor is no democrat and does not understand the concept.

He sees himself as a potentate, a maximum ruler, Akwa Ibom as his fiefdom. Therefore, his brothers, cousins, nephews, nieces, uncles, in-laws, two or five times removed should have suzerainty over the state, to pillage and despoil as the human spirit takes them. People outside Akwa Ibom state will probably, at first blush, find our assessment of Akpabio rather harsh.

However, Akwa Ibomites understand that if we have not understated the true position, we are right on the money. It sounds strange that some of the happenings in Akwa Ibom state could take place in a constitutional democracy in the 21st century, and amongst a culturally republican people to boot. But there you have it, and the numbers tell a good part of the story.

A direct brother to Governor Akpabio, one Ibanga Akpabio has been installed as the Secretary to the Peoples Democratic Party in his state. He was not party secretary before Godswill became governor, so we have a good idea about how he got there. It certainly was not by merit, or the freely expressed democratic principles of PDP members in the state. In fact, some members are still contesting the election of an Akpbio as party secretary. Another sibling, Emem Akpabio, holds sway on the government board that is supervising the Airport project. Two family members sit on the board of the state-owned Ibom Power Company. Yet another is to be found on the board of the State Investment and Property Company.

At SUBEC, there is again another relation who is known to be the real power behind the place, never mind who the chairman is. Indeed, the wise chairman or executive on the board of a company in which a governor's relation sits knows that he or she must defer or even court that relation or risk being rendered completely ineffective in his or her official capacity.

Then there is Nsentip Akpabio who is well known to be the shaker and mover behind every lucrative sweetheart contract in the state of which there are many, thanks to 13% oil derivation.
Speaking of contracts and the Governor's family, if a clan member does not support your bid, you stand no chance of success. Unless of course, a relation in-law puts in a good word for you; or you are working for the big man himself. Western media speak derisively of the oligarchs that emerged in post-Soviet Russia and point to their emergence as a sign of the degeneracy of that once progressive land. They should visit Akwa Ibom to see how an Oligarchy has emerged literarily overnight. The special and economic rise of the governor's clan has been nothing if not meteoric.

Deprived citizen, desperate for crumbs from the masters table, fawn and prostrate before them so much so that one, a schoolteacher of average talents barely thirty months ago now holds court for favour seekers from her mansion in a toney part of town. Without dwelling too much on suspicion in the state that the governor has ordered all marriageable relations of his (and some not so marriageable once) to get hitched so that they can enjoy the largesse of state-sponsored weddings, it is a fact of social history that never before had the Akpabios held so many weddings, naming ceremonies, child dedication and house warming parties, both in Akwa Ibom and overseas as they have done in the last thirty months.

An why not? Their newfound wealth is now legendary. An Akpabio brother is said to have presented a personal bank account statement to a foreign embassy showing a credit balance of over N1 billion in support of a visa application. The astounded consular staff thereat raised an alarm and called in some anti-corruption agencies. The well-reported case of a banker detained by the authorities over the causal and undocumented transportation of US3.1million through an airport was first traced to, and later denied to have been connected to an Akpabio. Yet more funds flowed and the case ended in a very Nigerian-way. These are just a few of the too-numerous-to-list indications that in Akwa Ibom State, what we have is government of the people by an Akpabio for the Akpabios. And if that is not what your civics teacher taught you to be democracy, then tough luck!

If the principle of zoning or rotation of public offices appears to imply acceptance of some mild form of favoritism, it was never intended to operate at the family level. Godswill Akpabio came to power as governor based solely on the tacit agreement that the governorship should move to Ikot Ekpene senatorial district. It probably would have been found quite acceptable for him to have given preferment to people from that district. But no, the people of Ikot Ekpene senatorial district whose concession it was to produce the governor have largely been left in the cold.

It is his blood relation alone who must benefit and benefit in so disproportionate a manner. This is sad. By all lawful and constitutional means let Nigerians say no to nepotism.

Nseobong (nseachibong@yahoo.com) writes in from Ikot Ekpene