It was exactly two years ago, at a dinner held at Banquet Hall, Government House, Uyo to mark a Democracy Day like this, that Chief Godswill Obot Akpabio uttered these words: “I want to pay special tribute to my dear wife, Unoma, for the important role she has played in the development revolution we are witnessing in this state today. I couldn’t have done it alone. She is a pillar of support to me and to this government...She has on her own been working tirelessly to ensure that the women, the children and other disadvantaged persons in our society are well cared for. What her NGO is doing is very important for this democracy and I must commend her and her team.”
Naturally at the time, the real import of the governor’s commendation was almost drowned in the applause that usually greets his fantastic oratory on such occasions. But recently, shorn of the heady layers of rhetoric, I have had time to give some deeper thought to the significance of those glowing remarks. They were a heartfelt expression of gratitude and recognition from a high performing chief executive to a spouse who has in word and deed epitomised the saying: “Beside every successful man, there is a supportive woman”. Coming from the governor of Nigeria’s fastest growing state, widely famed as “the land of uncommon transformation,” those words are not to be taken lightly. He should know.
No sincere observer can deny the sterling contributions of Her Excellency Ekaette Unoma Akpabio to the growth of democracy in Akwa Ibom State and to the uncommon transformation the state has witnessed during the Akpabio years. Beginning from her husband’s trying days of ascendancy to Hilltop Mansion in 2006/2007 through a rigorous but successful second term bid in 2011 and up to the present, she has played an unobtrusively supportive role in the political career of her husband and in the promotion of democratic ethos in the state. In fact, ahead of the 2011 elections, she had so effectively deployed her civic advocacy and political mobilisation skills that she earned for herself the sobriquet “Campaigner-in-Chief.”
At a vocational level, Mrs. Akpabio is giving democracy real meaning, one family at a time, in the lives of those who populate those constituencies that could be easily overlooked or forgotten by the formal establishment. This she is doing through the channel of her non-profit, the Family Life Enhancement Initiative (FLEI).
Through FLEI’s Shelter for Widows Programme, she has provided more than a hundred fully-furnished two-bedroom bungalows along with micro-grants for poor widows who had been dispossessed after the death of their husbands in all parts of the state. The scheme has now become a model, so far replicated in at least four states.
FLEI’s innovative Multiple Birth Programme is complementing the state government’s strides towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) number four and five on maternal and child health. The programme has so far delivered health education, mother-care kits and micro-grants to more than 4,250 at-risk families with twins, triplets and other multiple births. FLEI has also provided business start-up capital, skills training and equipment to upwards of 3,400 families, mostly female-headed households, persons with disability, orphans, widows and other vulnerable groups. The Green Brigade Programme, implemented in partnership with the Ministry of Environment, employs more than 2,000 women and young persons, a veritable boost to job creation efforts and urban sanitation. The Women Agro-Entrepreneurship Development Programme (WAEDEP) which is delivered through the Agriculture Ministry has provided agro-input financing for more than 4,000 women farmers, even as women constitute over 80 percent of the state’s agricultural labour force and remain a key to the success of the state’s food security policy.
Through Mrs. Akpabio’s intervention, not less than 2,000 children and young people who had been trafficked into domestic labour and sex slavery in big cities in Nigeria and along the West African coast have been repatriated, rehabilitated and reintegrated with their families to benefit from the state’s free and compulsory education scheme. Also complementary to the state’s education policy is FLEI’s annual essay contest for public schools through which winners of the last two editions have been sponsored to leadership camps in South Africa and China, besides cash scholarships and other fantastic prizes.
Her intrepid advocacy has also resulted in a number of progressive legislations in the state, notably the Child Rights Act in 2008 and the Widows Protection Act in 2013. Currently, she is strengthening the implementation of the Child Rights Act by undertaking a faith-based advocacy campaign on the role of parents and community members in combating child theft and trafficking. Ahead of the 2015 elections, she has also launched a civic awareness campaign for women to get their permanent voters registration cards to avoid disenfranchisement during elections.
One area where Mrs. Akpabio’s impact appears to be most significant is in the empowerment of women. There is no doubt that finally, Akwa Ibom women have come into their own in politics and public life, and there is no denying the pivotal role of the governor’s wife in this revolution. She has not only succeeded in getting more women into elected and appointive offices through her 35 percent Affirmative Action campaign, she has also raised the consciousness and leadership competencies of the womenfolk to unprecedented levels through strategic exposures and capacity building opportunities for them, especially those at the grassroots. The girl child is also impacted through a year-round leadership, life skills and mentoring programme.
Mrs. Akpabio could easily have elected to nestle away within the warm and protective confines of her comfort zone, far from the sometimes harsh glare of the limelight. But I am persuaded to think that in her view, that would have been self-serving. Instead, as we can see from the foregoing, she chose to step into the fray and take the challenge of public stewardship as an agent of social change in her own right. These are legacies that the eyes can see. But the true value she adds to our democracy can only be completely fathomed when we begin to recognise those contributions that are hardly visible.
Whether it is a Patience Jonathan, an Ekaette Unoma Akpabio, a Bisi Fayemi, an Abimbola Fashola, an Obioma Liyel Imoke or a Yemisi Suswam, we cannot afford to discountenance the behind-the-scenes sacrifices that wives of busy public executives in general make to ensure that politics and governance work together for the good of their fellow citizens. They give up their privacy for the rest of us, allowing politics and statecraft to invade the sanctity of their kitchens and bedrooms.
For reasons of security and state protocols, they cannot, for instance, just stroll into a market and enjoy the simple excitement and anonymity of haggling over prices before a good buy as any regular woman would. They and their children have resigned to not having the luxury of an everyday daddy, due to the herculean demands of state duties. Professionally, most of them sacrifice their own careers to devote time to a vocation that is more directly complimentary to their spouses’ role. At a spiritual level, they are permanently on their knees, as it were, invoking divine protection and guidance for their husbands, and invariably, for the state.
They also have no choice but to put up with the loads of critical barbs that are aimed on a daily basis at the principal, sometimes constructive (which doesn’t make it hurt any less), but often as mischievous as it gets in the nature of politics. Sometimes, these barbs bypass their real targets to land on them personally, and they are compelled to take the collateral damage with the long-suffering grace and comportment expected of a wife associated with such high office.
At the end of each day, they are the emotional pressure cookers who have no choice but to bear and manage the steam, frustrations and complications that are an inevitable component of the chief executive’s frenetic day. And, all chips down, it is their role to make sure that he is physically, spiritually, psychologically and emotionally fit for state duties the next day. The Mrs. Akpabio I know is all this and a bit more.
Whether it is in channelling her executive access and goodwill into social causes that add value to citizens’ lives, in playing the efficient state hostess for one of Nigeria’s most visited states, or in providing the domestic, moral and emotional backstopping for the state’s chief executive to deliver the high-octane democratic dividends we are witnessing today, the legacy of Her Excellency Ekaette Unoma Akpabio is undeniable. Indeed, we would leave a huge vacuum in our Democracy Day conversation if we forgot to acknowledge her unique contributions to our contemporary democratic experience in Akwa Ibom State, and indeed, Nigeria.
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