Engineer Patrick Ekpotu, a former deputy governor of Akwa Ibom State, in his re-electioneering campaign message, said “Let’s Turn the Page”. I’m borrowing the caption of this piece from that slogan.
The life and times of every man, every group, every administration, every era, every mile-stone are like pages of a book or papers. Each page is differently numbered and with different contents. Since life, like a roller in the ocean, is not static but motional, we do not have to dwell on one page in perpetuity. That is when “turning over a new leaf” just like “turning the page” comes calling. Yours Very Aniefiokly does not know what your resolutions for the New Year are. But as a State, as a people, let us collectively resolve to change for the better, not for the worse, so that, this New Year, we can thump our chests and say “Yesterday ended last night” or “Indeed, old things have passed away”. Of course, no material thing lasts forever. Time changes everything, including mountains and kings.
Akwa Ibom, our own dear native land, for the past near-eight years, had been ruled and ruined by an insensitive, unconscionable government. Our commonwealth is plundered with impunity, our State deep in debts, her coffers empty, and the citizens are whining and wallowing in penury and pains. My beloved people, the Ibibios, are pathologically hated, stabbed in the back and kicked in the teeth, unemployed, kidnapped, killed (more on death-row), raped, falsely incarcerated...insulted all-round, while our respected Clergy and royal fathers, lured by pecuniary reasons, remain deaf-mute. My heart bleeds that, even our top military men, whom we should be boastful and proud over about, have cowardly turned to Boys Scouts and shrinked like snails or Mfefehe-iko, thereby giving room to a monster-an “Emerging Tiger”. Efik mbon ete “mkpokporo k’odok eto, owo imenke mkpo itop”. Ibibio nnyin ete “Idaha edim adoho etok-etok, Abia Ifiadda etap”. There was no preparation for an unexpected. Today, the tiger, despite brainless blunders, has become a god while we, wretched creatures, must bend our bodies if he carelessly but nod on us. He bestrides our narrow world like a Colossus, and we petty men walk under his huge legs and peep about to find our-selves dishonourable graves. This god feels larger than life. Then I pause and ponder: Ndi mme enyene ibuot owo iduhe ke otu nnyin? Why are my people, particularly the populous Ibibios, so timid, so docile? This is mad, sad, crude and utter disappointing of us. For this magnitude of cowardice. I am afraid our forebears are turning in their graves. Shame without borders! Shame unlimited!
The last script last year, in this column, was “CHRIST, COME QUICKLY”. Therein, I pleaded with the Justman of Galilee to come to Nigeria, with Akwa Ibom as first port of entry, because danger is lurking in the land and the citizens’ cup of sorrows is full. I prayed that He should rush to our recue because our heaven-on-earth environment has become a boiling cauldron at the brink of destruction or the verge of explosion. Interceding with a humble heart on bended knees, I invited to our dear State God the Father, His Son and His Spirit-the Trinity in Perfect Unity. My special invitation went to the Christ Himself - our mediator, our advocate, our redeemer - because it is he alone who changes hearts and he alone who can restore our misgoverned State and sullied glory. Are you praying too?
As the next elections come closer, we must continue to P.U.S.H (Pray Until Something Happens). We must pray, with work and faith, until we turn the page of our dirty history. First and foremost, we must ask God for grateful hearts, because ingrates are never winners. Gratitude is not only a matter of manners; it opens the floodgate of heaven. It’s far better than grumbling. If we are not thankful for what we’ve got (like the money-rain that Obong Attah brought into our State), we are not likely to be thankful for what we are going to get. So, we must acknowledge the contribution from God, from others, from life. I am pretty sure that you were in church yesterday (the first Sunday in the first week of the first month of 2015 A.D) for thanksgiving. Yes, we have to thank the Sole Provider for everything, even as He says “the good and the bad work together for good”. When we thank Him for the “Little” we receive, He will give us enough and more.
The outgoing government has taught us the lessons of our lives (give them a clap offering). A government we heartily embraced at inception! Wonders, they say, shall never end. But, in spite of whatever evil they want to befall us with, I say, let us give thanks and praises to God. While they give us hatred for our love and while they impoverish us and have much comfort in their homes, let us have but too much gratitude in our hearts. This as I see is the sacred and secret power of good over evil.
Selfishness and greed have eaten deep into our social and economic fabrics. Our politicians want but money and more money; none of them is patriotically equipped to serve and save. With insatiable appetites, they want to take over the earth and rule world-without-end, till deaths do them part. The Lucky Emperor has all it takes to beat us to submission –the money, much more money, the army, the navy, the air force, the police, stock-piled armory, thugs and trigger-happy snipers who delight in killing for fun or peanuts - what have we? Nothing, except God. Very humbly, my brothers and sisters, I am pleading for our re-unification and co-operation for a common success. Let us turn over new leaves. Remember my old write-up, “Funerals: RECIPE FOR CHANGE” let us bury all those known and unknown sins that retrogress us. Let us forget our bastardized judiciary and other corrupt agencies and leaders. Our arsenal must be spiritual not carnal. Luckily, God is standing by.
Yes, those who want to sing always find a song. As the first-born of the tripod (special reference to my Ibibios), if we want to be head, let us hate being the tail. In each of us lies a hero. As William Shakespeare, the literature maestro saw it, “Every bondman in his own hands bears the power to cancel his captivity”.
Idung nnyin, mbok, ibuung ifia-o, mbak ekarika ame adi! My little brain is puzzled why brothers should love money more than their fellow brothers. Are your times in your hands? Brethren, let us join Engineer Ekpotu and other men of goodwill to turn the page. Let us cultivate positive attitudes and stop the “I am better than thou” or “I want to be the only cock to crow” attitude. Phd (Pull-Him-Down syndrome) is not a good certificate or degree to be attained by brothers. If we and posterity do not want to perish or be doomed for life, there’s no better time to love and unite than now. I hope I am not talking or writing to Killjoys. Unity, I repeat, is the sine qua non. A word to a witty head is superfluous (owo eke enyenede utong ndikop, yak okop). But, cheer up, my misused and underestimated people, for God will restore the years that the locusts ate. The end, they say, justifies the means, not the meanness. And everything, including this misrule, has a time frame and a price tag.
Happy New Year!
Essah, can be reach on – 08020945205
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