Within the stormy politics of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), it was expected that Governor Godswill Akpabio would sooner or later walk into an ambush. He has assumed a towering profile and an influential figure in the ruling party. A close ally and keen supporter of President Jonathan’s, Akpabio’s enthusiastic support of Jonathan’s re election naturally put him on collision path with a few other governors. As the chairman of PDP Governor’s Forum, Akpabio’s briefs include whittling down the capacity of the larger body, the fractious and noisy NGF, which had increasingly become antagonistic to the president. He was largely adjudged as the right man for the job, especially given his style and substance. But when Akpabio announced with gusto that his task also included ridding the PDP of Judases, it was apparent that he had unwittingly drawn a line in the sand. The ruling party itself is not noted for an iota of civility and so by last week Akpabio’s PR machinery was on overdrive to blunt off a barrage of scathing and scurrilous media attacks launched against him. Newspaper articles, editorials, TV talk shows and radio phone-ins were all focused on the governor all of last week. The battle will surely get more brutal as we get closer to the political season.
The central theme of the criticisms is that the governor is reckless in managing the state’s finances because he gave a car gift to a music star and his wife and bought lunch for N6 million for party delegates at a meeting in Port Harcourt. If these are what created the media hysteria of the last one week, it has exposed a major weakness of this very important institution in Nigeria – its susceptibility to manipulation. A governor spends public monies based on the state’s appropriation law (or the budget). In Akwa Ibom State, the law permits the chief executive to spend on donations, charities and gifts. Typically, the legislation does not specify the beneficiaries and the specific amount, but it is expected that the governor will exercise reasonableness, care and acute sense propriety in dispensing his generosity. Emotional and generous to fault, the governor has lived up to this expectation. If, however, critics could point at any genuine circumstance in which Chief Akpabio might have given more than necessary, Akwa Ibom people are wont to see it more as a mistake than misconduct. In the last six years, we have appraised this governor on the basis of broad and far-reaching KPIs (key performance indicators) and our collective verdict is that he had done well. Even corporate organisations have budgets for donation and charities, sometime grouped under its corporate social responsibility (CSR). As a Corporate Affairs Manager for two big banks between 2000 and 2006, it was my lot to prepare the budgets and spend money on the banks’ CSR. A good CSR generates enormous goodwill for a business and ensures mutual understanding between the company and the community. So when a company provides potable water, build schools and hospitals and other amenities for a community, it naturally expects that the community will intrinsically become its ambassador, defending its policies and supporting its operations whenever it matters.
By attending Tuface’s traditional wedding in Eket and announcing the car gift, Governor Akpabio was indirectly making the musician an important ally of the state and his administration. Mr Innocent Idibia has chosen to marry an Akwa Ibom girl and courteously extended an invitation to the governor. Should Chief Akpabio have declined the invitation or attended the event without a gift? Many have noted that Mr. Idibia has many cars and so did not need an additional SUV. So the governor should have donated a space shuttle? Brands pay heavily for celebrity endorsement. Only an inept leader will fail to take a full advantage of a star wedding in his domain. This is, however, different from Governor Fashola bankrolling the wedding of Tinubu’s son or ACN governors contributing N10 billion to pay for the 60th birthday celebrations of the Asiwaju himself. These are not CSR, and that is why it is so baffling that our political pundits and investigative journalists did not beam their searchlight on it.
Since the core aim of these sponsored attacks is to ridicule the governor and make him less effective, the media should be smart enough to stay away above the fray. By falling for the manipulation of deceitful and selfish power seekers, our journalists have actually demeaned themselves. The pattern of the media commentaries clearly suggests that they are mischievous, jaundiced, politically motivated and sponsored. The Punch’s editorial was just a synthesis of bile. Last year, the Akpabio administration spent millions to support the Nigerian Guild of Editors conference in Uyo. Many senior editors from the newspaper attended and benefitted from the governor’s legendary generosity. None of the columnists that attended the conference turned down his offer. A few years ago, some Lagos-based journalists came to Uyo for a meeting. Somewhere in Abia State on their way back, they were kidnapped. It was reported that the journalists lost N3 million to the bandits. In all the extensive media coverage of the unfortunate incident, our columnists did not ask how the reporters got the N3 million cash that Sunday morning. But the governor’s donation of only N6 million for lunch for over 1,000 party delegates in Port Harcourt has become the focus of baleful editorials and columns. Are PDP delegates less human than journalists? Are the governor’s kind gestures tolerable only when our media pundits are the sole beneficiaries? When the Boko Haram insurgents bombed a church on Christmas Day in 2011 and killed several innocent and hapless worshippers, Chief Akpabio rushed there with a N50 million gift and words of comfort. Our punctilious opinion writers did not mention this. In fact, they even failed to notice that the northern governors, some of whom are now jostling for presidential ticket, stood aside unconcerned.
Akpabio’s new stature is obviously a source of discomfiture to many of his peers. His strong support for the president, himself a bête noir of a kind, has made him many enemies within his party. They are now fighting back. I understand that a huge amount of money has been voted to wage a ‘shock and awe’ media war against the governor in the next few months, ‘just to cut him to size’, as a political editor said last week. There are also plans to rehash old petitions and fabrications in order to malign Chief Akpabio and weigh him down. The media should be very circumspect in jumping into a fight they are not party to. Politicians ultimately sort out themselves after every election, but a damaged media suffers irreparable loss. No matter how big the inducements are, journalists always lose their integrity, reputation and respect when they are manipulated to publish untruths. It is so painful to see a reputable newspaper house succumb so easily to the lucre of politics. Chief Akpabio will also have to moderate his public statements and show enormous restraints whenever he handles the microphone. Every word he utters and every decision he takes will be subject to microscopic analysis for uneasy lies in the head that wears the crown.
• Etim Etim lives in Uyo.
