Mr. Amanze Obi’s article, “The Trouble with Akpabio’s Senate,” is not a critique of governance—it is a protest against reality. A reality in which a man from Akwa Ibom State now holds the Number Three position in Nigeria. That, more than anything else, is what truly troubles him.
For too long, a segment of the Nigerian elite has clung to the belief that leadership is the exclusive preserve of a few familiar zones. The emergence of Senator Godswill Akpabio as Senate President has shattered that illusion. Unable to reconcile with this new reality, Mr. Obi resorts to the oldest tool in the arsenal of a rattled establishment: mockery masquerading as analysis.
But while Obi pens columns, Senator Akpabio delivers governance.
Under his leadership, the Senate has passed some of the most impactful legislation in recent years—acts not only historic in nature but transformative in scope:
• The Regional Development Commission Act, designed to spur economic growth at the grassroots.
• The NELFUND Student Loan Act, a lifeline for underprivileged students seeking higher education.
• The National Minimum Wage Bill, boldly raising the wage floor to ₦70,000 to reflect today’s economic realities.
• The Death Penalty for Drug Traffickers Bill, tackling Nigeria’s deepening narcotics crisis—a bill Mr. Obi, if truly concerned about his region, should laud.
• The Petroleum Industry Reform Act, a landmark move that broke the logjam of legislative inertia in the oil sector.
Moreover, under Akpabio’s watch, Nigeria reclaimed a long-lost seat on the Executive Committee of the Inter-Parliamentary Union—our first since 1964. A diplomatic and symbolic triumph, but to Mr. Obi, it is merely an inconvenience. Why? Because it clashes with his prepackaged caricature of Akpabio as a provincial interloper. When facts disrupt fiction, he chooses to ignore them, rummaging instead through the attic of prejudice, searching in vain for reasons why Akpabio should not be the Senate President.
These are not symbolic motions—they are reforms that touch the lives of everyday Nigerians. But Obi refuses to acknowledge them. Why? Because in his view, Akpabio is not the “right kind.” Had that Senate seat gone to a Southeasterner or elsewhere, Obi would have called it “strategic zoning.” But for Akwa Ibom? He calls it “desecration.”
Even his outrage over Akpabio’s so-called mockery of Peter Obi reeks of selective sanctimony. When did political satire become off-limits? Public figures, including Peter Obi, are fair game. If one aspires to national leadership, one must be able to withstand scrutiny—and satire. Politics is not a sanctuary for the overly sensitive. The truth is Peter Obi must keep his house in order to project leadership and capacity to manage a nation such as Nigeria.
However, this obsession with geography over governance is toxic. Mr. Obi must upgrade his political software to match a Nigeria that is moving forward. The age of regional entitlement and aristocratic gatekeeping is over. Competence, vision, and results must now define leadership—not lineage or postcode.
Let us dispense with Mr. Amanze Obi’s pretensions. Mr. Obi’s real grievance is not with legislative conduct or parliamentary performance—it is with geography. In his worldview, Akwa Ibom is a place for the hired help, not for high office. That a son of this once-marginalized state now occupies a position of national prominence is, to him, what sunlight is to a vampire—blinding, disorienting, and offensive. His discomfort is not political; it is feudal.
Had the Senate Presidency gone to someone from his preferred caste, he would have sung hymns to “national unity.” But since it went—constitutionally and deservedly—to a man from Akwa Ibom, he reaches for the smelling salts.
Fortunately, Nigerians can see through this masquerade. They know that under Senator Akpabio’s leadership, the Senate is doing the people’s work. And in the end, that is what truly matters.
Respectfully,
Sir Ukpong Ekam
A Writer; Public Affairs Analyst
Email: [email protected]
+234-803-661-1170
