In this interview former governor of Akwa Ibom State, Godswill Akpabio states that contrary to insinuations, he is the most invetsigated former governor by anti graft agencies in Nigeria. He also speaks on some other national issues.
Did you leave any debt in Akwa Ibom as governor?
There is no government without debt, even the current administration of President Buhari inherited debt, the colonial masters left debt for Tafawa Balewa. But when it comes to what they are speculating is balderdash and I am happy you asked that question. Some people said Akpabio left behind a whopping 500 billion Naira indebtedness, which is not true. What happened was that the total amount I collected as a loan from banks was 80 billion Naira. It was the first 50 billion Naira and later 30 billion Naira and the reasons were very simple. We were struggling to get Paris Club money of over 100 billion dollars, and 365 million dollars or so, if we had received that, we would have offset the 80 billion Naira loan. During my first term, I did not borrow one naira. It was when we started having dwindling revenue from oil; we were having zero allocation from NNPC. So when you hear Akpabio promised 31 industries but did not build any, it was because the money was no longer there and I was not going to build those sites, I was going make available 20 billion through the investment arm of the state every year for those four years so that people can access the money with conditions and then set up the industries, so that we can ensure that at least one person per local government was able to set up one industry. That was the way we wanted to do it and so we budgeted 20 billion, but we never touched 20 billion because the money was not there and part of what confuses people is that they dont know that budget is even an estimate, it is not realistic. It is when the incomes come, whether through IGR or FAAC, that you have the right to budget and project, it does not mean you have spent the money. And lack of funds also slowed us down in completing few of the projects we did not complete, we had over 3,000 projects completed at a time in one year. We commissioned about a thousand six hundred, when people started arguing, we put it out on the internet for people to see and name the communities. We laid underground pipes to bring the menacing issue of flooding in some part of the state to an end. We built flyovers, the kind of project we had was to turn Uyo to a small Dubai. We were even planning to work with masses energy to have a fuel depot in Uyo at the airport so that we can start flying with Emirates, that was why I started the taxi way so that when the plane, because of the large wing the 777 could have a free ride, that was why I expanded the runway from 3.6KM to 4.2KM and brought in the best lighting system. And we made sure it was in the same categories with airports in London and other advanced countries. We did underground pipe drainage system, 10.8 kilometres from the Stadium; it is this available for everyone to see in order for the road to last and that is the secret why some of the roads we commissioned in 2009, nine years after you will not see a single porthole. That is the secret of the survival of Itame junction that was flooded for 39 years and vehicles could not pass, that is the secret to make sure that area by the mega filling station that used to be permanently flooded during rainy season. So the debt you are talking about, I was privileged to see a paper from the Debt Management Office, (DMO) in 2016, the current administration when that bit of economic rush came in, when the current government started insisting that the states should comply with the government because it had just been in office for one and half years. So they had also incurred their own debt, so they added that to contractual indebtedness and outstanding obligation of my government and they brought it out and what they submitted to the debt management office was about 147 billion in December 2016, one and half years into Governor Udom Emmanuel’s administration. The total debt profile in the state contractual and otherwise was submitted as 157 billion. That is not what they said I left behind.
But what did you leave behind? I don’t think the debt profile that we left behind was anything up to 60 billion, and don’t forget that except payment for contractors, you know you pay them on milestones as they work, so there must have been some outstanding IPCs also. But what happens is that, as money comes in you settle those, and the state used to sometimes receive up to 15 to 30 billion, so it is not as if these things can cripple a state. Even if you don’t do any other thing at all you can pay all the debts in four months. Government is about being able to move the people forward not as if government cannot owe and whatever was owed by the governor was taken and brought over by the Federal Government and spread over 25 years by the Federal Government including Akwa-Ibom, so that whatever the government will pay on a monthly basis will be reduced. So that the government can move forward. So that is what they did and the state government was not paying anything above 500 million naira a month. So, the 147 billion was brought over by the Federal Government. You can get the record from the Debt Management Office; they will give you the real details. Because of all these stories, people were saying he left behind 500 billion, he did this. That was why I went to find out what was submitted as total indebtedness of Akwa-Ibom state by Udom Emmanuel government in December 2016 to DMO and I have the record for all the states in the federation. What I saw there I can’t remember off hand, was 143 or 147 billion that is all we were even among the least indebted states. Some states are owing as much as 600,300,400 billion, and for Akwa Ibom, with the level of economic income, we should be saluted. I also left behind economic enablers, that if you were able to take one of them and then privatise or sell off 50 percent you will pay off the entire debt. For instance, I built Obon Power Plant, I completed Obon Power Plant people were offering me as much as 190 million dollars to sell sixty per cent or 70 percent but I refused. I said if we expand it, it will bring in a lot of revenue to the state. I also built a gas plant in conjunction with a company from the United Kingdom, I brought in a gas processing plant built it in Isereke and this is 69km of gas pipeline and I made sure the state holds significant stake that will buy the gas by two dollars by the time they completed the gas it was going for 2.8 so that is also another income to the state. And then we did 50 kilometres of gas pipeline from Eserege all the way to NNPP in Calabar, we are the one supplying NNPP in Calabar. I left behind economic enablers like hospitals, I built hospitals in Obolo and other places and these places are generating revenue, I built state of the art international hospital in Utame Junction. We invested over 250 billion on federal roads but the government told us they are going to pay in one way and all that and what the federal government accepted to pay at my time was 145 billion and before I left office, President Jonathan said part of it should be paid. I told the government after I handed over to pursue it. A month ago, they brought it to parliament because they wanted to use part of the borrowed money from China to offset some of the domestic debts. What was put in for Akwa Ibom was 178 billion and now from the 175 billion to be refunded to Akwa Ibom and the Paris club money that I did not collect. So you can see that from the Paris Club refund alone whatever I might have left as debt has been wiped off. We left a lot of economic enablers. So when they talk about debt, I laugh. When a government of that nature, for a government that completed over 3,000 projects, and was able to carry out such quantum of developments that was applauded even by the United States conference, talking about 145 billion was debt, when the state is expecting 175 billion from the Federal road refund, talk about the international prison that we built, over 3.7 billion is going to be refunded to the state. The airport itself is an economic enabler. We were able to carry out free and compulsory education not to talk of 100 to 300 billion Paris club refund left behind. I left the state far richer than I met it.
What was really the issue then with the EFCC trying to get the state government to open its books to investigate you?
Those were baseless and unfounded stories. The job of EFCC was to investigate petition, so there was a young boy, a lawyer, who had a personal disagreement with me then, I met him and I assisted them in the law school, I paid his law school fees. Somehow, he had a personal disagreement with some of my staff and he has also come up to say he was also used by people I relieved of their appointment. He said so in an affidavit in the court of appeal voluntarily. So the EFCC has the right to look at that petition. But when I came back, I had an accident in 2015 I still said I must go because I was not around when I was invited. So I went to the EFCC personally to ensure that I answered to the petition and I answered them. I am the most investigated former governor in Nigeria. Go to anywhere in the world; I don’t have a single house that I could sell, whether in the United Kingdom or Dubai. So, forget about the contrived negative story that you heard about Godswill Akpabio.
When we were talking earlier, you mentioned the current governor in Akwa Ibom state; you said he is not experienced?
How can I say that? He has been in government for three and a half years, how can I say that he is not experienced? Okay, do you really think he is doing well? History will judge him, not me
What I am trying to get at is that are you the person that gave this governor to Akwa Ibom?
No, the Akwa Ibom people voted for him. Yes, they voted for him, but you facilitated his emergence? There is something that you need to know, I met the governor in a church in Surulere, Qua Ibom Church and I was told that he is a deacon in the church and also a Deputy Director in Zenith Bank. For me, I believe in getting the best person for my people, there were almost twenty-eight people who wanted to be governor of the state, but later twenty-three of them bought the governorship forms. One left to APC and it remains twenty-two aspirants. We have some of my commissioners and lots of people who have worked with me. It was not an easy task for me then, but I concluded that I will see my people if they will accept a peacemaker in form of a neutral person that they dont know, that was how His Excellency Governor Emmanuel’s name was chosen. When he came, the people love him, and I love him too but the other twenty-two candidates form an association against him. Even some elders went to court to testify against him then. I thank him because later he reconciled with all of them, he invited them one after the other, and he also honoured those elders that testified against him before in the court of law. I think in my own way that it is Godly for him to have forgiven them.
What is the disagreement you have with the governor now?
I don’t have any disagreement with him, just that we are in different parties now. The only disagreement I had with him is that he said I came in a night bus to become a commissioner in 2001/2002 which is not true. I actually came in through Port Harchourt before my cousin took me up. Then again he said I came with a chartered plane to become the governor but he has forgotten that it is the state governor’s plane that he is still using that brought him. I carried him with the state plane he mentioned, which is Gulf Stream 450 and that was what he is still using till now. The disagreement is on the mode of transport and not on his performance.
Is it true that you heard that the governor was going to move to APC, and you told him to wait for a while before you now made your own move?
It is not true; there is still room for defection, even till today.
Akwa Ibom state has a lot of people thinking that it will become a battleground because of your defection to APC. Are you comfortable with the insinuation?
The APC have taken over Akwa Ibom even before I joined them. Do you know why a leader should move with his people? A leader should always look back and see if his people are following him. Even if they are running away from him, he will still hear footsteps, and if they are not following, you will definitely hear footsteps too. By the time I decided that I was going to APC, by the time I landed at the airport, the whole airport was APC. The whole of the airport to the town was APC. The whole of the plaza in UYO was APC, the jubilation was too much. Women and men were bringing their brooms from under their bed, which means they have been hiding them because of me and they were sweeping the roads. A distance of twenty minutes took us over two hours to cover because of the jubilation of Akwa Ibom people that came for the jubilation. I was now saying that so all these people belong to APC. When I asked them they said sir, after you left office, it wasn’t the same again. We have moved to APC, and I asked them when, and they said since 2015. Normally, every family has a civil servant, and in Akwa Ibom, the head of civil service command about sixty-four thousand workforces not to talk about the local government service in the thirty-one local governments of the state. In some local government, we have up to six hundred or seven hundred staffs, so you should be looking at twenty-four thousand people in the local government workforce. When you add that to the state civil service workforce, you will be looking at close to one hundred thousand people. Because you will also add the state assembly staffs, the NUT etc. Those people too have adult children who live on them. What really plays a major role in Akwa Ibom is that when the civil servants are happy, it reflects in their homes, in the churches. When a civil servant says there have never been a pay slip to even show what he collects on a monthly basis. Many people have died without collecting their gratuities. Eighty per cent of the people in the civil service are now in APC. By the time they got to know that the leader who kept them together have decided to share their own view, the result was amazing. A woman while struggling to get registered had her hand cut off. She brought out hand in a coaster bus, and her hand was chopped up by the gate, and the hand fell on the floor. Up till today my wife and I have been taking good care of the woman. It was an incident that makes me weep. If you ask the APC headquarters, they will tell you that we have over three hundred thousand card-carrying members within six weeks. When I hear that Akwa Ibom is going to be a battleground, I laugh because there is no battleground in a state that has already shown direction. The Akwa Ibom PDP members in the state know that they will not be given money at the headquarters in Abuja to share if they are not talking as they are doing now. I can confidently confirm to you that the first state President Buhari will win within three hours of voting is Akwa Ibom. It is not because of me but because of the change that the federal government has started. The reason I am being attacked is just because I am a leader here and a lot of people came out boldly to associate with APC when I joined, but people have rejected PDP before I declared for APC.
Who is the leader then in Akwa Ibom?
We have a leader in the person of Don Etiebet but they don’t probably know the numbers of followers they had then until when I joined. I was in London on Monday, and I joined on Wednesday. I couldn’t even move with my car and I have to trek. Even when I was coming from Enugu from the burial of my wife’s grandmother I was called on the phone that the youths from my senatorial constituency want to hear from me directly about my defection to APC, and the reason I moved to APC. They actually applied to the local government chairman to get a hall for the reception, but they were refused to use the hall by the chairman. They forcefully found their way into the hall but the chairman did not put on the generator set for them. I was shocked when I saw the crowd because it was raining on that day, and there were about forty-five thousand youths. You need to do your independent investigation about what I am telling you in Akwa Ibom. They said they will go anywhere I move to and I promise to take my people to the centre.
It was alleged that at your first appearance at the National Assembly, you gave so much money to members to become a principal officer of the Senate?
People don’t like to give credit to whom it is due. There are people who shy away from the truth. The people of the South south are very proud of me because I changed the story of the South south. A lot of people say that lots of money goes to the South south, but there is little to show for it but for the first time I became a governor, that insult vanished because of what I achieved. Because if you come to Akwa Ibom; you will see some of my achievements. There is nowhere you come from across the world and you come into the Godswill Akpabio stadium in Akwa Ibom and you walk into the VIP stand with two hundred and fifty bulletproof seats that you will not commend me. When you walk into the governor’s office constructed under my regime that you will not marvel. It was constructed with ICT compliance. When the position was zoned to the South south, the people from the South south in the house said as their leader I should be the best person for the post. When they approached me, I refused and told them that I have never been on leave for eight years, and I need to rest. They insisted, and I have to honour them by taking the post. Don’t forget that I have been the chairman of PDP governors forum in Nigeria. I also owe the South south senators an apology for going to APC without informing them, because, after my meeting with the president, the story was already everywhere in the world, so I believe that even if I call them then, they will be looking at me as an APC person. I owe them an apology for not informing them. Some people were saying that I left without any followers but what about the forty-five thousand people at the stadium. When the president came and you saw over seventy thousand people at the stadium, some people don’t even have seats to seat in the stadium in a South south state. It is only God that can enthrone kings so I don’t want to brag. I have done over seventy-eight jobs in the states in Akwa Ibom. I have been a governor of the state for eight years, and I will always serve them till I die. I am collecting the pension as a former governor of the state.
Some of you in the Senate are receiving pensions as former governors and also receiving your salaries as senators. People are saying that you should leave one of those allowances?
Nothing like two salaries, because we are collecting pensions as former governors and as a serving senator, we must be paid our allowance when due. At least we must maintain our office and as a former governor, we must get the pension for working as a former governor of a state. People don’t understand because you can only receive only one pension as a former governor, and a serving senator, you must get your allowance.
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