Asan Ibibio, Udom Emmanuel: If I can Remember.

Ntisong Sebestan Umoren, prior to 2011 governorship poll, once warned Ibibio paramount rulers not to endorse Akpabio at Asan Ibibio in
2010. They failed to heed and did not only endorsed their colonial master, but furnished him with a sword against their own. What followed was series of unwarranted politically motivated assassination, kidnapping, rape and murder of
Ibibio wives and mothers.

The sour taste of that evil regime which sent most of the best brains
Akwa Ibom produced to their early grave and others, on exile, is still lingering in the mouths.

Chief Godswill Akpabio secured a second term however he did it. But to compensate the Ibibios for their folly and greed, he left a slanted civil
service where in the next two decades, according to authorities in the service, it will be a near
impossibility for an Ibibio or Oron man to rise to the pinnacle of the job.

Sia owo Anang ade owo uko, Akpabio had ensured that senior civil servants in the state who are from other ethnic extractions
outside his own, are either forcefully retired or suppressed and junior officers of even low academic pedigree from his ethnicity are promoted under the strategic hidden agenda of taking over the state civil service and keeping the majority out
of it if not forever but at least, for a long while.

Akpabio did not end his narrow imperialistic bias at the civil service. He extended it to Federal
appointments due for the state by making it the exclusive reserve of his section of the state.

We all saw it and have remained helpless till date. I am told that on Monday, which is Ederebo, that
Ibibio people, shall converge at Asan Ibibio to receive Governor Udom Emmanuel after two years of exploit as executive governor of Akwa Ibom
State.

I don’t know who is behind this convention but I know certainly that it is not a call from Obong Victor Attah who was coroneted on 6th September; 2014 as the international leader of Ibibio people.
That is an issue for another day.

For now, I need somebody to tell me how and what, in the last two
years of Gov Udom Emmanuel's rule, he done to correct the anomaly, the slanted civil service arrangements against a larger section of the state.

I need to know this just so that, if I attend his reception at Asan Ibibio on Monday, I shall be courted by that feeling of security that my race is protected in the strata that will emerge in the Civil Service in the future.

I’m not done yet. His Excellency, Governor Udom Emmanuel came under the infamous zoning
arrangement which translated literally and politically speaking, means “it’s our turn to…” and
the agitation to for an Eket man to develop and empower his race.

The agitation was founded on
the well established premise that Akpabio had rendered the largest ethnic group in the state
ineffective majority because of how financially buoyant he had made his people to be in less than a regime.

Akpabio trod the state like a colossus with recourse to no one apart from Abuja PDP cabal he traded with to our chagrin.

How independent is Gov Udom Emmanuel and to what extent has he empowered his people in line with
the agitation that brought him to power so that he does not become a wasted opportunity to my race
in particular and my State in general? I need to know this so that if I attend his reception at Asan
Ibibio on Monday, my mind will leap in joy that yes, we are not running in circles with a pliant surrogate drafted to keep us in perpetual slavery to an ethnic bigot who came with anger to correct a purported mistake of the past so that by the time he leaves office, there will be no majority or minority in Akwa Ibom State again.

Ibibio My Race, if I can remember, is this still that wandering of a wasted generation? How soon do we forget the ignoble plot against us at the sound of “rascal counters” in the hands of our oppressors who find themselves in power and disrespectful of our identity as a people? Do you remember where
SSG Udom Emmanuel, now Governor Udom
Emmanuel, went to on the 6th September 2014 when the low, the high and the mighty from far and
near, converged at Asan Ibibio in a grand reception for Obong Victor Attah? That is the day the entire
Ibibio race defied political affiliations to crown a worthy King for themselves and everyone who
understood the plight of the Ibibio race, wished her well, were in attendance except Mr. Udom
Emmanuel. Reason? He is a direct opposite of the aspiration of an Ibibio cum Akwa Ibom man to be
liberated. He worked for and still works for the cabal who had wished the state be kept as their conquered territory.

Thus, he rebelled against the people, set up a counter convention of all socio- political groups in the state, paid them money handsomely and mobilized them to Ibom Hall on
that same day to make sure the event to crown Obong Attah King and leader of the race for direction, was frustrated.

That was a big slap which only a prodigal son can generate. When his
boss, then governor Akpabio reacted, he described Obong Attah as an ethnic champion which he does
not wish to be.

He went further to brag that after
his government, the entire Akwa Ibom State, shall converged to receive him and not his ethnic divide
alone. Great were the abuses that Akpabio spewed but see how God can bring down the arrogant.

Two years after leaving power, not even the stooge he planted against the people, had thought of
organizing any statewide reception for him. His son is afraid of bringing the state together to praise a man who has been "declared wanted" by the nation after squandering the state fortune.

His stooge is afraid that doing so may expose him to hatred he is too fragile to manage. As "evil men", the two worked tirelessly to frustrate the
Asan Ibibio Convoke when a man who represents the essence of Akwa Ibom State was to be honored.

Both men stayed away. We took notice and knew clearly that they are against us. None of the two sent even a goodwill message either
directly, assuming they didn't have money to pay for a newspaper advertorial, or through other
means.

We saw Senator John James
Akpanudoedehe, former Minister and opposition Leader in the state, now Dr of Sociology at the event. Obong Umana Okon Umana who later
became gubernatorial candidate of the All Progressives Congress was there. Obong Bassey Albert who later went to the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria was also there. Every one that mattered in Akwa Ibom State paid respect to the
Patriarch except Mr Udom Emmanuel and Senator Godswill Akpabio. Reason? Because they are the common enemies of Akwa Ibom State and lbibio people in particular and totally adverse to any
arrangements that can mobilize the people to liberate themselves.
Have they changed? I don't think so. I am seeing the dance of the chameleon.

The chameleon is trying to change his spot to blend with the
environment. It is only a fool that will think that the chameleon that is green in the field, is green by nature.

My worry is that those who are
organizing the “desecration” of Asan Ibibio in the name of reception for his Excellency, Governor Udom Emmanuel, have invited Obong Victor Attah to the event. Do they really expect Obong Attah, the crowned leader of Ibibio race to attend that event? I don't think so because reasonably speaking, Obong Attah cannot and should not be seen there.

The leopard hasn't changed his spot. If I can remember, Governor Udom Emmanuel has not solved any of the problems Akpabio created for
the state in general and Ibibio in particular to deserve any serious attention that a reception can
confer.

When he does it, I shall join the fray to clap for him.