Like the grave, human beings cannot be satisfied. They chase after colour black with insistent ardour, when they get it; they labour all their lives to get white, which they think is better and shortly after achieving that, they begin the hustle for red. The popular song by juju musician, Chief Ebenezer Obey, about a man, his son and a donkey and the untiring complaints of the onlookers will always be evergreen, especially whenever a discourse is to be undertaken on the impossibility of satisfying human beings.

What had started like a beer parlour talk, whispered by political busybodies and people loyal to opposition politicians in Akwa Ibom State that the Secretary to the State Government, Mr. Udom Gabriel Emmanuel, was not cut out for politics and was inaccessible, took a different turn last week. Obviously, the few self-conceited politicians had remembered the opposition’s stock-in-trade of media bashing and as usual had paid some hatchet job specialists in the media to put a garb of credibility on their obnoxious story. Reading through some of the commissioned reports last week, and it was not the first time I would be reading such reports, all I saw were lines after lines of chicanery, bad-belle and needless accusations about a man who has done nothing but do his job as SSG of the Land of Promise, Akwa Ibom.

For instance, some of the reports had accused Emmanuel of parading himself as ‘governor-in-waiting,’ while some have gone as far as saying that the SSG is cocky and arrogant and that he had been campaigning. But looking at the ex-banker and the way he has comported himself ever since he assumed office as well as how he has gone about his job as SSG, one can only see through the cloud of lies being peddled. While the SSG has never declared an ambition to contest the governorship election, his composure and carriage appeared to have been posing a threat to the sponsors of these tissues of lies. But everyone close to Akwa Ibom State knows the governor, Chief Godswill Akpabio, will not condone public servants neglecting their jobs to go about talking about 2015 and it would be recalled that this decision led to the exit of Emmanuel’s predecessor in office. The governor’s focus had always been on sailing the ship of the state to fair haven, with seven years of unprecedented human and physical developments being proofs of that focus.

Not only was that focus the main reason Akpabio appointed a man who had seen it all as a professional in the banking sector as a partner in progress for the transformation of Akwa Ibom, it is the greatest drive for the development of Akwa Ibom and the needed bridge for the post-Akpabio era. Without doubt, young and old in Akwa Ibom and indeed the entire country had begun to pay special attention to the state ahead of the 2015 election, with that attention always directed at states whose governors succeeded in serving for two terms or had been extraordinary. Words have traversed the state about the need for a credible and worthy successor to Akpabio, so as to continue the good work, with talks about zoning and merit taking centre stage in political discourses about Akwa Ibom ever since Akpabio won reelection.

Therefore, if some people have begun to fear Emmanuel as the possible successor to Akpabio, leading them to rake up baseless allegations, one can only begin to imagine what capabilities they must have seen in the calm and easy-going SSG. Emmanuel, who spent decades in the financial sector and had risen to become an Executive Director in Zenith Bank, is a competent son of the soil. An Ibibio man of repute from Eket and a man diligent in his works, who is fit to stand before kings, Emmanuel would no doubt be any sane society’s pick to succeed a governor like Akpabio and can only be adjudged a misfit by Banana Republic citizens, who revel in the leadership of rogues and charlatans. Emmanuel’s wealth of experience in financial management, his economic savvy as well as his commitment to development should have been considered as positives for a fast-developing state but busybodies see differently. To them, Akwa Ibom will not do well with a banker as governor, they want someone who can make the state bankrupt; they are not comfortable with a “man that is more or less a total stranger in Akwa Ibom PDP politics,” they want long-timers in politics even if they don’t mean well for the people. Emmanuel’s credential and credibility must have been seen as towering, hence the need to pull him down before he even say a word.

But Akwa Ibom people know better. They know the leaders that care and have their interests at heart and when the time comes to make a decision about who will succeed Akpabio, their judgement and not lies peddled by deceitful politicians and publicised by paid spinners, will be the final verdict.

•Bassey is an Abuja-based public affairs analyst. Photo shows Akwa Ibom SSG, Udom Gabriel Emmanuel.

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