By Solomon Johnny
Dear Efanga Ukoh,
No matter how realistic and optimistic we are, if APC goes to the poll in 2019 with a divided house, she will suffer yet, another round of massive and embarrassing defeat. It has nothing to do with the arrogance of being the party in government at the center.
On forgiving? Trust me, I hold no grudge against anybody. I have forgiven Chief Goodwill Akpabio for carting away 7000 copies of Global Concord Newspaper at Noble Press at Nwanaiba and arresting the printers that night and frustrating our business all that long. He used operation Aduma in five Toyota Hillux van during the operation.
He exposed us to danger as he described us severally as the Egyptians you see today that shall not be seen tomorrow. We have long forgiven him of all the attacks.
I have also forgiven Obong Umana Okon Umana who used thugs led by Boniface Nyong to cart away 5000 copies of Global Concord Newspaper at Udo Street while he was an SSG.
After that operation, Nyong spoke with Unyime Ekwere who published the edition urging him to be calm because he was going to be compensated for the copies only if he agrees work for Umana and not editorialise against the PDP, state government and Obong Umana Okon Umana in the future.
He confirmed that he was behind the raid when he spoke with Thompson Essien, leader and convener of Ibibio People's Union, also on the matter on phone.
I have forgiven Akpabio for arresting Thomas Thomas and putting him behind bars for 37 day for writing against an alleged plot to assassinate top lbibio paramount rulers.
I have also forgiven these government people for a failed attempt to kill Unyime Ekwere when they rammed on his brand new Peugeot 505 car by NCI. unyime Ekwere escaped unhurt but shall never however be able to take any scrap of the car! We have left that behind.
We have remained the most hunted group of Newspapers in Akwa Ibom State and our crime? Holding and propagating progressive idologies which served as the foundation for the popularity of the defunct ACN and APC in Akwa Ibom State.
Doing so was moving directly against a dictatorship that was in place then. But for God, Ahmed Bola To u but and other Well placed progressives Nigerians, we would have been forgotten today.
We were trailed with DSS, Police and thugs by the PDP government of Chief Goodwill Akpabio. Because God was on our side, we survived them. We were largely thought to be invincible and living in Lagos and Abuja...
We were never invincible. Only God and the masses protected us and the people knew we were advocating for a state where democracy and social justice are the bedrock of agitation and will.
If we did not forgive them, they would not have had a field day to blackmail John James Akpanudoedehe out of favor and clinch the ticket of the party in 2015.
By living in the cold while they hold sway, we have paid dearly for allowing them to pull down our icon but momentarily. That forgiveness has been too costly. It has paid us in a bad coin. We are left in the cold while they junket with the party of our sweat and blood.
They are still the machavelians they were while running a Mafian government that led many to their graves. I'm sad about that and the confusion they continue to create for Akwa Ibom people.
About Akpanudoedehe? Don't worry about him. Go and write this down. He is going to become the Donald Trump of Akwa Ibom State! Do you know the story of Donald Trump? I guess you do but the aspect I'm interested isn't that he is the President of United States.
No. My interest is drawing your attention to the fact that he, like what John James Akpanudoedehe is subjected to now, was the most vilified, scandalised and blackmailed Presidential aspirant/ Candidate in the just concluded Presidential election campaigns in the United States of America. T
he forces of state led by Barrack Obama, then sitting president of America rose against him.
Everyone that mattered except ordinary Americans wanted him out because he was never part of the ruling clique and was not beautifying bad situations as they were doing. In other words, Trump was too raw and not diplomatic as Hillary Clinton was.
But Americans knew what their problems were, who has the right gut, answers and despite the gang up, they made their voices heard.
If blackmail, scandals and hate campaigns had ever stopped an idea whose time is ripe, it would have stopped General Buhari, who today, despite being painted as a religious bigot and sectional leader who did not go to school, just as Akpanudoedehe is still the "motor park tout" even after being a senator and Minister of the Federal Republic, is the President of Nigeria and performing well.
That is why I have told you and others not to worry about John James Akpanudoedehe! History is ready to favor him.
Be busy packaging your past because even though we have forgiven these people, we shall never want them to take the lead over a project they have no idea of the foundation and have opposed it without restraint or a second thought.
We shall ask them for explanation of the dirty past that is bringing our state down. We cannot continue to vilify Akpanudoedehe while pomping accolades on those who even stage managed the coup against the state and her people.
I stress once again that Senator John James Akpanudoedehe, PhD, founder and convener of APC in Akwa Ibom State, is not the Ali Modu Sheriff your team is painting of him. He is not against any of the defectors being in the party.
He is not out to sabotage APC as you most oftenly claim. The unjustifiable humiliation and exploitation of the conscience of our party has push Dr Akpanudoedehe to become the Donald Trump, the Buhari we shall have in 2019. You may continue to launch your hate campaigns.
We don't care. You may continue to plot your graphs, but in the midst of all the aspirants, I see him as one who has paid the highest price for the status of our party and deserving of the consideration and support of the stakeholders to secure the ticket of the party as well as winning the election.
As we forgave Akpabio and Umana for all they made us pass through, let Obong Umana Okon Umana, Obong Nsima Ekere, Chief Don Etiebet also forgive Akpanudoedehe, assuming without conceding, they have been offended by the senator. If not for anything, they all came to the party and met him already as the leader of the party who has invested so much to keep it.
Would it not have been fine and fair for Obong Umana to empty his support for Akpanudoedehe ahead of 2019 since he is not contesting the governorship poll again? Akpanudoedehe did same when he contested two years ago! Would that not have brought peace and unity in the party than trying to play a fast one just to make sure that everyone connected to ACN and Akpanudoedehe is pushed away from the party? I think Obong Umana Okon Umana must start the peace and healing process in the APC by also forgiving us for working against Akpabio and the PDP while he was the SSG.
That is the starting point of the healing process for our great party. The ball is in their court not mine
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