Senate Presidency: Akpabio Holds the Ace, Secures over 70 Elected Senators’ Backing

Ikenna Ukwa

The number of elected Senators that have expressed support for the Senate Presidency ambition of former Akwa Ibom State Governor, Senator Godswill Akpabio has risen to more than 70.

A reliable source who disclosed on Saturday, revealed that members of the Akpabio’s camp have been engaging their colleagues on the need to support the former minister, in line with the direction of the leadership of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

Senator Ali Ndume, who is the chair of the Senate Committee on the Army, had last Thursday, revealed that approximately 64 senators were now supporting Akpabio’s campaign for the Senate Presidency.

In an interview on Arise News Channel, Ndume had pointed out that despite the fierce competition, Akpabio would prevail because of the size of his support base in the red chamber as well as in the ruling APC.
Given his prominence as a senior senator, Ndume’s support for Akpabio’s campaign is a significant help to his cause.

With the increasing support for the former Akwa Ibom governor, Akpabio has a good chance of winning, and Ndume’s confidence in his triumph was well-founded and may have an impact on the Senate Presidency election’s result.

However, Ndume pointed out that Akpabio is not the “anointed” candidate of the APC for senate president of the 10th national assembly, but the preferred choice of the party.

According to him, describing Akpabio as the anointed candidate would connote a “fait accompli”, adding that the label does not represent the situation.

“I don’t think anointed is the right word to use. The APC has Akpabio as its preferred candidate, that would be a better word,” he said.

“Not anointed but preferred candidate. Because if it is anointed then it is fait accompli, which is not the case. We have to go into the chamber and vote, and it can go anywhere.

“Akpabio is going to be first among the equals as president of the senate. It is going to take the remaining 108 of us to restore integrity to the senate.”

Akpabio has without question emerged as one of the iconic political leaders and nationalists of Nigeria’s contemporary era.

According to Albert Akpan, the former Akwa Ibom governor is a true Nigerian patriot of South South extraction, with direct marital ties to the South-east and career roots in the South-west.

He has in the past two decades, especially in the last eight years, as Senator, Minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and presidential aspirant displayed his brand of leadership and nationalism on the Nigerian psyche.
“Akpabio’s forthrightness and zeal for service delivery grabbed national attention in his time as Minister for Niger Delta Affairs, during a House of Representatives’ Committee Probe on Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) activities.
“Those signature attributes typified and have continued to define the then federal minister’s passion to make a difference in every assignment.

“It is noteworthy that in his eventful tenure at the helm of the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Akpabio, among other accomplishments, achieved the long overdue forensic audit of the NDDC and the completion of the NDDC corporate headquarters, a quarter of a century after the project was commenced,” Akpan added.
In Akwa Ibom, from 2007 t0 2015, during his tenure as two term Governor, he patented the phrase ‘uncommon transformation’ by his unprecedented governance deliverables in human and infrastructural development.
He initiated and completed landmark infrastructure projects, including the GodswillAkpabio International Stadium, also known as Nest of Champions, one of the best such facilities in Africa. He constructed strategic flyover bridges, the pipe jacking drainage system in Uyo Metropolis, the Four Points by Sheraton Hotel, Ikot Ekpene and a labyrinth of urban, semi urban and rural road network, all of which added to the transformation of the state’s development landscape.

He consolidated state government’s investments in the Ibom Le Meridien Hotels and Golf Resort and the Victor Attah International Airport and lifted the standards of these facilities to new levels.

He pioneered the free primary and secondary education policy in the state as well as the free health care policy for pregnant women, children and the aged. Akpabio also advanced the IbomDeep Seaport project, re-conceptualised and established the Akwa Ibom State University. He prioritised educational support for Akwa Ibomstudents and manpower development, within and outside the country, for Akwa Ibom public servants.
Meanwhile, a group of professionals under the umbrella of Senator Akpabio Vanguard has declared support for the Senator-elect representing Akwa Ibom North-West senatorial zone to become the president of the 10th Senate.
The group of professionals numbering over 40 from different works of life described Akpabio as the face of the youth and less privileged in the next dispensation.

The professionals led by their leaders Islameen Etudiaye, Chief Executive Officer of TechBuildaz, and Engr. Jeffery Udende, Chief Executive Officer of Troika Tech, during a visit to the former governor applauded the leadership virtues of Akpabio to lead the 10th Senate of Nigeria as the President of the Senate.
The group said with the enormous votes the South-South zone produced especially in Akwa Ibom State, Akpabio deserves to be president of the Senate unopposed.

They described Akpabio as the only candidate that can complement the efforts of President-Elec, Bola Ahmed Tinubu when sworn into office on May 29th, 2023.
In his response, Akpabio said he was happy that young Nigerians came together to project his ambition to become the Senate President.

He noted that with over 23 years of experience as a public servant, he was committed to helping the president-elect, Bola Ahmed Tinubu in formulating good policies and laws that would be impactful on the lives of Nigerians.

The senator further said when elected as president of the senate, he would work hand in hand with the presidency to ensure that poverty, insecurity, and other social vices are flushed out, while also promising to build youth and women of integrity that the society can reckon with.