BY ABUBAKAR YUSUF

In the history of Nigeria as a country , I have not come across an unrepentant nationalist directly or indirectly like Senator Godswill Akpabio, Nigeria’s Senate President, the uncommon enigma who has made his impact felt both at the state , national and international level as a good ambassador in all spheres.

His state manhood, nationalist tendencies brought him to the fore of national politics soon after his well thought out eight years stint as Governor of Akwa ibom state, were development was taken to the highest pedestal at the state level , after holding forth as commissioner at the state level.

Senator Akpabio mien for good governance and leadership with distinct values brought him to represent the good people of Akwa ibom North West at the 8th Senate , were he displayed utter representation, constituency development, plenary presentation and active participation in adhoc , committee assignments as a first timer, owing to his flare for robust legislation and representation .

Because of his leadership acumen at the 8th Senate , Akpabio was appointed Minister in the Muhammadu Buhari’s administration to supervise the leadership at the defunct Niger Delta Ministry for consecutive four years, were development at that level was uniquely uncommon and commendable both at the development of infrastructure, human and advancement of both the country and the Niger Delta in particular.

His Ministerial stint saw a lot of initiatives and innovations to the hitherto agitated and denied Niger Delta people, that had brought a lot of succour to the good people of the area.

He revolutionised leadership and development to a high pedestal and improvement to his giant contributions to the development of both rural and urban areas of Akwa ibom state, with uncommon passion for uncommon development that earned him an ‘uncommon enigma’.

Senator Godswill Akpabio who returned to the 10th Senate after a break from national leadership from the 9th Senate , was highly favored and became the Senate President who is presiding over the 10th National Assembly leadership in 2023 till date with human face and high tolerance.

His incontrovertible leadership in all ramifications is been displayed in the 10th Senate from robust leadership, Legislative and Executive synergy and non- discrimination between Senators of various political parties that constituted the 10th Senate, that had been the bane of the thriving 10th Senate leadership and the current dispensation.

As Chairman of the National Assembly and Senate President, Godswill Akpabio has ensured a smooth and serene relationship between the other arms of the executive which consisted Ministries, Departments and Agencies that had ensured the smooth running and execution of programs under the Renewed Hope Agenda of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu in the last 21 months.

Senator Akpabio has displayed leadership with maturity, exposure and experience both at the National Assembly, international spheres and National Development.

As President of the Senate and Chairman of the National Assembly, there is no denial for a possible distraction from time to time , but his zeal to sustain the good leadership tempo had been on the high pedestal.

Therefore, Senator Godswill Akpabio is already tested and trusted administrator with high standard of both administrative and political experience, that had contributed to the growth of the country in all areas.

Written BY ABUBAKAR YUSUF on yus.abubakar3@gmail.com.

Olajide Adediran, popularly known as Jandor, has said that but for the “Peter Obi effect”, he would have defeated Babajide Sanwo-Olu in the 2023 governorship election.

Jandor, then-candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Lagos State, stated this on Channels Television’s Politics Today programme on Tuesday.

“The 2023 election came with this Tsunami that nobody ever expected and it was there for everybody to see,” he said, stating that after Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP) won the February 2023 presidential election in Lagos, the dynamics changed against the PDP for the governorship poll that was conducted weeks after.

For the governorship election, the electoral umpire INEC declared incumbent governor Sanwo-Olu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as the winner. He polled a total of 762,134 votes, defeating LP’s Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour who scored 312,329 votes, followed by Jandor with 62,449 votes.

At the presidential election which was held earlier, Obi defeated APC’s Bola Tinubu in Lagos State. Obi polled 582,454 votes to trounce the strongman of Bourdillon who scored 572,606 votes, PDP’s Atiku Abubakar who got 75,750 votes, and Rabiu Kwankwaso of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) who polled 8,442.

However, Jandor said the election came with peculiar dynamics. “Before the February 25th general election, we were on the streets of Lagos and the ruling party was nowhere to be found. We had several debates and he (Sanwo-Olu) didn’t show up and he did say he didn’t want to share a stage with me,” he said.

“The 2023 election came with its dynamics, and it was a two-horse race until the presidential election. If you look at what happened in the presidential election, Peter Obi came first (in Lagos), Asiwaju came second, and Atiku came third.

“The moment that happened, there was this belief that if we do this, we can get this state off XYZ. So, we were victims of that.

“Each time I address my people, I tell them: look, we did everything but that wave came and swallowed the whole thing; nobody saw that coming.”

He said if not for the Peter Obi effect, “I probably would have won the election” at the governorship level, adding that he believed that it wasn’t God’s time yet for him to become Lagos governor at the time.

Jandor’s political history started with APC before he left the party with his Lagos4Lagos Movement, a bloc within the ruling party in 2022. He joined the PDP before the 2023 election and emerged governorship candidate in Lagos.

He, however, dumped the PDP recently after he accused some leaders of the party of sabotaging him. “We were waiting to see if the party at the national level governed by the constitution of the party would look into the provisions of that constitution and say that for engaging in anti-party activities openly, this is the sanction.

“We waited patiently for two years and see whether that would happen, instead of that, the same person was appointed Vice Chairman, Disciplinary Committee by the national,” he said.

Jandor, however, said he would consider joining any of the available parties to realise his 2027 governorship dream.