News

No Apology For Supporting President Jonathan

–  Gov. Akpabio

Gov. AkpabioThe Akwa-Ibom State Governor, Godswill Akpabio has been labelled as a strong loyalist of President Jonathan especially for his bid to run for a second term. Despite the controversies that are trailing his support for President Jonathan, Gov. Akpabio said he is undaunted and is ready to support Jonathan to achieve his second term bid. He spoke on this and other sundry issues.

On why he is called a gender friendly governor

In Akwa Ibom State, women have taken more than 46 percent. We have a female deputy governor; we have a woman as head of service; we have a woman senator and we have a woman chief judge. The only thing we don’t have is a woman governor because I am the governor. In Akwa Ibom, we are very gender sensitive. If you come into government lodge, you will see something called GFG- Gender Friendly Governor of Nigeria.

His Takes on Elections

Whatever you do, elections are won in local governments and not in Abuja. So, if there is any politician here who feels he could win election in Abuja, he should know Akwa Ibom is different from Abuja. National Chairman, one of the things you should watch out for, not just for Akwa-Ibom but for all the states, is the ones they call Metropolitan politicians who come here with stories and they will tell you they can deliver everything; that they own the whole state.

They will tell you to forget the governor, forget chairmen of councils and forget everyone, that they can deliver everywhere. First, look into their history and find out where they have delivered before because some of them cannot deliver even their families. We are not the kind of politicians to come with elders who had been Ambassadors or who had been High Commissioners to the United Nations. Those ones don’t win election anywhere; they only win offices of the United Nations.

See also  Stella Damasus Exposes Pastor Biodun Fatoyinbo

For us to win the presidency, we need the grassroots. Elections are done in the wards, in the villages and in the chapters. Elections are not done in offices, in NWC in Wadata House neither do we do elections at the villa. So, those who have access to the villa and who have access to the offices here are not necessarily those that will get the votes that will put PDP in power in 2015.

His position on support for Jonathan

One thing I know about in party politics is loyalty. You cannot be disloyal to the leadership of the party and the system and expect to come through the window to take power. It is impossible and that is what the NWC must help us to work against.

I am very loyal to the leader of the party at the national level, Mr. President, and you can all attest to that and I don’t make pretences about it. So I will expect the same loyalty to be extended to me at the state level. Whoever wants to stay in Abuja and jump through the office of NWC to take power in Akwa Ibom, I say Tufiakwa, it is impossible.

In 2015, I assure Mr. President that Akwa Ibom will do it again. We were the first set in 2010 to announce that we will support him to go for first tenure in 2011, we did that and other states followed. We are again the first state in 2014 to urge Mr. President to go back for a second term in office. We believe strongly that the transformation agenda he has put in place in Nigeria- in power sector, in agric sector and other sectors- will deliver good dividends of democracy to Nigerians and will lead this country to higher level and that is why Akwa-Ibom took the lead. We will be the first to also come with INEC result to you. We will make sure that we will position a plane and once INEC announces the result, we will give you to hand over to Mr. President. And if they do the primaries, Akwa-Ibom will give you to hand over to Mr. President 100 per cent delegates votes. I said it in 2010 that we would give Mr. President 100 per cent and we did it.

See also  Toyin Lawani Reveals Best Kept Secret

He nurses no fear for the opposition

We are a monolithic group. Yes, you may have one or two people who want to test the political waters here and there.  Like I said, elections are normally done in the wards and in the local governments and elections are done on the ground. Elections are not done in Abuja except the election for FCT. I don’t want people to come here and concentrate all their energies on the pages of newspapers in Abuja. Let them come to the grassroots and tour.

The grassroots people of Nigeria are still rooting for PDP because of the monumental achievements of the various administrations of PDP across the states and I can speak for Akwa- Ibom. I speak with boldness that yes, indeed, we have answered to the yearnings of our people; we have risen to the occasion and if you are in doubt, you can come to Akwa-Ibom and see what we have done. That is the simple truth and PDP is safe in Akwa-Ibom State and the leadership of the PDP is also safe in Akwa-Ibom State. It is important to know that one of the first states that will be delivered to PDP come 2015 is Akwa-Ibom State.

Views on party manifesto

There are two major areas. One is for us to strengthen the idea of food sufficiency in Nigeria. There is no nation that can boast of greatness if the people cannot feed themselves. We must have food on the table of Nigerians. The second aspect is the area of ICT. The world is moving, the internet is growing and therefore for the party to do well, we must also emphasise the need for state governments to invest in the telecommunications and the ICT industry and also in the area of agriculture. So, it is not just enough to do infrastructure.

See also  Pastor Sells Miracle Pants And Bras To Ladies

The human capital development, the mental development is very important going forward as Nigerians and going forward as a party. Those are the two areas I think we should concentrate our energy so that when you are voting in the PDP government, you will know that you are voting in empowerment; you know you are voting for food on the table of your children and ensuring that there will be food sufficiency in that state in the area of agric revolution.

The APC filibustering directive

That call is unpatriotic; it is unwarranted and I expect that even those in the National Assembly should know that reasonability comes in and they should do their constitutional duties. There is no way you can tell somebody to ground the federal government and the democracy because you are a political party and you think you have the power to do so. It is undemocratic. It is unpatriotic and I don’t think the members will follow such instruction.

The G-5 Governors

Most of us are outgoing governors, so whether they come back or not next year, we must leave and our places others must take. I think we should concentrate more on those ones who will take over from those governors and ensure that those states remain PDP.

– THISDAY Newspaper