Don’t Give Akpabio Ministerial Appointment

Ibom Integrity and Servant Leadership Culture Initiative has reiterated its call that President Muhammadu Buhari should not appoint former Minority leader, Godswill Akpabio as a minister in his cabinet.

The group in a statement by its Executive Vice President, Dr. Asuquo Edidem Etim said it stands by its earlier petition to the president, stressing that its complaint echoes the inner thoughts of many members of APC in Akwa Ibom and the entire South-South states.

“Our key interest in this regard is to ensure that President Buhari’s second tenure is remarkably better than the previous one, essentially, by the choice of personnel he recruits to assist him to actualize his Next Level programmes. The few controversies around his government in the first term, as we noted in our letter, were apparently as a result of the unethical or insensitive actions of some of the former ministers, whose conducts were contrary to Mr. President’s renowned discipline and conservative nature,” it said.

The group said that Akpabio came into the All Progressives Congress, APC with no recognizable political structure, “It was expected that a politician of that stature would be able to at least command the loyalty and following of at least half of the members of the House of Assembly, but he came almost empty handed with a lot of distracting noise.

“The three members that later joined him came with a huge baggage of controversy that rubbed off on the party negatively. He couldn’t even convince his own cousin who was a commissioner in the state to join him. The situation was that bad.

“So, when PDP cleared all the 13 NASS seats (including his own), won 20 of the 21 House of Assembly seats in the state and retained the governorship of the state, it became very clear that we had actually overrated his electoral value and influence. The huge repugnance against the person of Akpabio and his politics robbed the party of its popularity and victory,” the group added.