TOWN HALL -Barbarians Inside Akpabio's Paradise

by Barr Ufok Ibekwe,

08023321413 e-mail: ukpolitics@yahoo.com

“The security and the welfare of the people shall be the primary purpose of Government'' section 14(2)b Nigerian constitution1999.

The message on the massive bill board that spans almost the entire sky line of Ikpa road junction in Uyo, the capital city of Akwa Ibom State is very brief and clear. It simply says: AKWA IBOM ADO OK. Ever since it was launched as bumper sticker, the demand for it has been amazing. It has even ousted some prominent churches stickers from strategic portions of the windscreens of cars in Uyo. Whosoever conceived this idea deserves a standing ovation. The massage is not only well thought out, the impact is very strong. Uyo Ado Ok or Akwa Ibom Ado (is) Ok.
There was a huge buy in into the Ado ok massage recently when the PDP top brass met in Uyo for the national stakeholder's summit of the party. Many of the party big wigs who attended the event openly expressed their delight at the pace governor Akpabio was transforming Akwa Ibom State into a mini paradise. First to express his pleasure was former president Obasanjo who felt vindicated that his support for Governor Akpabio to sustain his ticket as PDP flag bearer against all Odds was not misplaced. Similarly, president Yar'Adua who performed the ground breaking ceremony of the multi faceted Ibom Tropicana Entertainment Centre said that he was happy to be identified with the development driven vision of Governor Akpabio. In the same manner the former Head of State, General Yakubu Gowon while on a courtesy call on the Governor as part of the activities to mark a two day transformation prayer summit in Uyo for enduring peace, lauded the development stride so far recorded in Akwa Ibom by Governor Akpbio. In his words Gowon said, “Akpabio is in a hurry to develop Akwa Ibom''.
Obviously, Akpabio has brought so much promise into the office since he assumed position as Governor. Public confidence has been restored while hope has also risen. But in the midst of all these achievements and endless accolades, remains the disturbing and unresolved presence of the barbarians within our borders kidnapping innocent citizens for ransom. This situation indeed poses a disturbing angle to the vision of Akpabio's paradise.
I strongly believe that the guy who created the Akwa Ibom ado ok concept did not in his wildest imagination envisage the barbarians invasion of the State by the Grissom mob which has seriously dented his message now. It happens quite often these days in Uyo that when someone say, “Uyo Ado Ok”, another will retort, “Ette idoho ok”. Obviously, ado Ok message has lost some of its initial brimming effects and consequently, the market demand for the bumper sticker has drastically plummeted.
The shocking decline and eventual fall of the Roman empire in the late 5th century BC was orchestrated by people with this same vicious minds and temperament as the kidnappers of today in Akwa Ibom State. Roman historian Ammianus Marcellinus described the invading barbarians that sacked the early Roman civilization as rampaging two-footed beasts. The 6th-century Gothic historian Jordanes saw the Huns who wrecked havoc in Rome through their leader Attila as “unclean spirits, scarcely human and having no language save one which bore slight resemblance to human speech.” In the 13th century, Thomas of Spalato described the Mongols by saying, “They had no respect for the feminine sex, no compassion for youths and no mercy for the aged. A wicked set of creatures voraciously slaying everyone a long their path. They seemed to be not human beings but devils … Like savage beasts, they thirsted for human blood.” They plundered many cities in Asia in the 13th century and got their economies stuck in the sand dune. The gangs of kidnappers operating in Akwa Ibom state currently to a large extent are offsprings of the same evil motivation and satanic pedigree as the barbarians of old.
In an earlier piece published on this column, I described the kidnappers in the State as dangerous” merchants” who trade in high quality human cargoes .My conclusion in that piece may have been rather hasty when I said that: “they were just a bunch of desperate get- rich quick gangsters venturing into a realm of highly sophisticated crime that they may not have the needed technology or formidable capo régime to sustain”. Their recent and most daring operations prove also that the guys are not shaping up to turn legit, or shipping out; instead they are expanding their targets to include objects of emotional attachments, such as sweet wives and loving kids. It seems to me too that the guys are also equipped with formidable capo regimes which I initially doubted. Last month they dealt a jaw dropping round house blow on the already jittery atmosphere in the State by kidnapping the wife of Senator Aloysius Etuk. I understand the woman is a lecturer in the department of micro biology at the university of Uyo and senior Deaconess in her church .Because she cherishes her teaching job and her role in the church as a counselor, she favoured staying in Uyo than relocate to Abuja to idle about and enjoy the spoils flowing in her husband's Senate throne. Unfortunately she became the latest victim in the hands of the barbarians.
The government of governor Akpabio I hope should realize that by this last feat of the kidnappers, his security system has been thoroughly whacked. The dice is cast so to say. Let us make no pretence about it. These guys mean business. Under the current atmosphere, my thinking is that if security strategists and conflicts managers in the Government House will for once stop being boastfully presumptuous, and put on their thinking caps, very soon we should be talking about kidnapping in the state in funeral terms.
In analyzing kidnapping as a form of violent conflict in Akwa Ibom State, let us attempt to sound a little bit like a researcher by asking some hypothetical questions such as: what are the proximate factors that acted as triggers or accelerator to kidnapping as high crime in Akwa Ibom State? Who are the possible king pins behind it ? Has this act anything to do with our style of politics? Who are the god fathers and the capos? Could they possibly be enemies of Governor Akpabio who are bent on rubbishing his record as the Governor of the most peaceful state in the Niger Delta? Could it be that the kidnappers are just out on a mission to punish irresponsible politicians who escape with the people's mandate without doing anything positive to affect the lives of the electorates? What is going to be their next move and what type of early warning alert should be given out to aid in preventing it. These are not questions to just ponder on and move on, these are questions for the government people to diligently search for their answers, because they hold the key to unraveling the mystery behind the endless cases of kidnappings in the state.
I picked up a news item recently published in the Guardian news paper that said that the Akwa Ibom state governor has set up a Task Force against kidnapping. I was not only a mused, but surprised when I saw a phone number and people being directed to call the line to give information that could lead to the arrest of those behind the kidnapping act. Although I quite appreciate the concerns of the government and her genuine desire to wipe out the crime in the state, I sincerely believe that this siren approach adopted by the government cannot work. Kidnapping is another form of organized crime that requires sheer expertise to combat. No dangerous stunts, no gun boats or anti- robbery swagger cops should be applied especially when the victim is used as human shield. Good Intel gathering should be conducted before any strike, and this requires the highest degree of shrewdness, because the guys are not dumb. Their belief being that: police protection asman delucas , the anti kidnapping operatives therefore must be well trained to be very sneaky and devious. He must know how to move with the camouflage of a mossad agent and strike with the precision of the arrow of an archer. Kidnappers believe in three things: money, booze and sex. In that case, you may need a Mark Gilland girl as an under cover agents playing Delilah that will entrap mighty Sampson , and a Tom Lepsky as the well paid fearless agent that can bind Sampson and deliver him to the king. A Tom Lepsky will know where to look for the bad guys ; whether in between Dililah's large buttocks or on top of Sheba's giant breasts. Not until the barbarians have been flushed out of our land, it will be quite difficult for the truly rattled people in the state to fully believe without any jot of hypocrisy that Akwa Ibom ado ok.