By Moffat Ekoriko
Nigeria’s Senate President once famously said that he would have been a comedian and a successful one at that if he had not chosen the path of politics. The comment betrayed the essential Godswill Akpabio: a man who sees the humorous side of life and pokes fun at the foibles of men. To him, life can be a joke or at best too playful to be taken seriously. His childlike disposition is uncommon with politicians. Akpabio is the only politician I know who holds his own phone and will pick the call of even an 18 year old constituent.
Much of his character has to do with his background. Akpabio grew up a catholic. He cannot forget his bible lessons where it is said that for any man to enter the kingdom of heaven, he has to be like a child: loving, caring and forgiving. The last trait played out in January when he went to church on New Years Day.
After listening to the homily from the priest, he grabbed the microphone to say the message of forgiveness was for him. There and then, he instructed his lawyers to withdraw all the cases he has filed in court against those who maligned him. It may sound a simple act of piety until you realise that there were up to nine cases against persons who bore false witness against him. Some of those false accusations went to the root of his survival as a politician. The Christian in Akpabio was at play. He had forgiven them. It was the biblical case of turning the other cheek. Akpabio is perhaps the only politician capable of that.
Last month, he gathered all the political stakeholders from his Akwa Ibom Northwest Senatorial District for a meeting. Among the guests were all those who dragged the Senate seat with him and men (and women) who signed a declaration opposing his bid for the Senate. Akpabio stood up, surveyed the audience and declared he has forgiven all. He encouraged the stakeholders to also forgive those who wronged them. Some in the audience could not comprehend his words.
Aniekan Akpan, the Akwa Ibom State Chairman of the PDP, who was at the meeting said Akpabio has acted like the Biblical Joseph who forgave the same brothers that sold him into slavery.
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