SONALA OLUMHENSE FROM PUNCH
The 10th Nigeria National Assembly was inaugurated last week. I wish its members a productive session.
The 9th, headed by Ahmad Lawan, was a disaster. In his care, it had no idea what the legislative arm of government was, so it became an extension of the confused executive.
Last week, Lawan, baited by former Imo State Governor Rochas Okorocha at the transition to the 10th, provided a startling reminder of just how unfortunate Nigeria was to have had him in charge of the Senate: he tried to justify taking the seat of the man who had won his constituency, a race he did not even participate in.
A few years earlier, Lawan had lambasted the practice in Nigeria of rich people manipulating [court] judgements. In the 10th Assembly, history will record him as sitting on one of those dubious seats.
Taking his place as Senate President will be Godswill Akpabio, a former governor of Akwa Ibom State, former minister and a returnee Senator.
Following his swearing-in, Akpabio was singing like a very happy bird atop a tall tree. The 10th Senate, he declared, will “work to renew the hope of Nigerians via people-oriented legislation.”
According to him, “We are here to do our national duties. This Senate is about Nigeria and Nigerians, so long as the policies that come to this chamber is [sic] about empowering Nigerians, we shall dwell and deliberate on them.”
He declared that the 10th Senate would “hit the ground running and make sure that our constituents are proud of us,” and that “the dreams, aspirations and well-being of Nigerians would be at the heart of legislative activities.”
Mr Akpabio sounded like a man on a mission, and I am sure that every child or visitor was proud to hear his effusive enthusiasm. But we are no newborn or newcomer, so the Senator’s mission deserves some interrogation.
He wants to “renew the hope of Nigerians”? To “empower Nigerians”? To make “our constituents proud of us”?
But who are Nigerians to trust, the Senator or his record? His work or his words?
Months after he left office as governor in 2015 but as a member of the PDP, Akpabio began a regime of hide-and-seek with the EFCC, the commission arresting him over allegations of stealing N108.1billion in Akwa Ibom funds.
Those allegations have not been discharged until this day, but things began to change in January 2018 when Adams Oshiomhole, the new APC chairman, made the APC philosophy clear to all PDP stalwarts: “Once you join the APC, your sins are forgiven,” he declared.
Akpabio accepted that invitation, and for a while, his pains eased: Buhari put him in charge of the Ministry of Delta Affairs and its honeypot, the Niger Delta Development Commission. In July 2020 in this column, I reflected on Akpabio’s activities at the NDDC.
