When he took the oath of office as the Governor of Akwa Ibom state, Governor Godswill Akpabio and promised to transform the state from a mere pedestrian area to a destination of choice in the gulf of Guinea, people’s minds were focused on the infrastructure that could probably add to aesthetical looks of city. No one really thought of the spiritual aspect of the transformation.
It seemed to have dawn on him that the state needs cleansing so as to be delivered from the perceived causes placed on it by those who meant well for the state but were unjustly slain, when the people of the state, who by reason of the developmental strides witnessed within the last six years of his administration, tended to be more concerned with blackmails and criticising
government activities
unconstructively.
It would be recalled that in 1967, a civil war broke out in Nigeria. The war was fuelled by an attempt by the South-Eastern part of the country to secede and form the Republic of Biafra. The move was condemned by the Nigerian government which saw it as injurious to the country’s oneness and a catalyst for an extensive disintegration of the nascent republic. By 1970 when the war ended, casualties numbered well over two million were recorded on both sides of the conflict. The then Cross River State, which Akwa Ibom was part of, had her fair share of the casualties, as many sons and daughters from the area were brutally slain or dragged into the Biafran force and the Nigerian army, where many lost their lives either to the opponent or were betrayed to be killed by their fellow brothers due to conflict of interest stirred by propaganda.
Four after the war, which lasted for 30 months, the Akwa Ibom State Government under the administration of Akpabio, decided to organise a memorial in honour sons of the state, who were dastardly murdered during the civil war, and to pray for the repose of their souls and appease the land.
In what could be considered a most solemn assembly, Akpabio, together with some powerful men of God in the state went on their knees and prayed to God for forgiveness of atrocities committed by the forebears in the state, even as he later led the congregation to unveil the memorial plaques in honour of the slain heroes.
The event, according to Akpabio, was to ensure that slain heroes from the state were accorded their deserved respect and rightful place in the society they toiled for. “I invite all Akwa Ibom indigenes at home and in the Diaspora to share with us our sense of repentance and consecration in this memorial
service for our innocent leaders, who were the victims of extra-judicial executions in the Nigerian Civil War. Repentance and consecration because we have come to this hallowed spot in response to God’s merciful promise in 2 Chronicle 7:14,” Akpabio maintained on a solemn note.
Akpabio traced root of the many challenges of the state to the curses placed on the state by those killed during the Nigerian Civil War. He stated: “It is true that Akwa Ibom children are still stoning their leaders till today. All our past leaders have scars to show for it. In spite of the uncommon transformation, am I still slandered on a daily basis?
“Assassination of leaders’ character is another pressing problem facing the state and I am disappointed that some natives of the state have opened offices in Abuja as blackmail centres against me, despite my efforts at transforming the state. Every odd and negative attitude of Akwa Ibom people can be traced to the curses placed on the state by the murdered heroes before they passed on. They placed a curse on the land and on the people that murdered them.”
Akpabio who reasoned that the idea of killing innocent people, who might have taken active part in the war, had robbed the state of leaders, who could speak for them at the national level, did not only urge the people of Akwa Ibom to ask God for forgiveness of their sins and those of their forefathers for the curses to be lifted, but took the lead in doing so. “Even when they started the three Rs – Reconciliation, Reconstruction and Rehabilitation, it started from the West, where no bomb was dropped leaving us, who were devastated by the pangs of the war.
Yet, there was nobody to speak for us because we had maliciously murdered our brothers and sisters on account of the war,” he recalled.
The forebears, as noted by Akpabio, “fought for what the nation is today; they were the first set of people in the country to tax themselves and send their children abroad on scholarship.
No one bothered whose child was awarded scholarship, because every child was seen as the child of the community. The community’s interest superseded personal consideration. They were the first to build community schools for the education of their children.
They got deeply involved as leaders in driving our national aspirations”.
He lamented, “Unfortunately, at the peak of their glory, there was an eclipse, and darkness was cast over our land.
It was the fratricidal civil war. Evil men and women crawled out of their covens to unleash horror on our land. Wickedness bared its fangs and flourished in the land. The devil laid it upon the hearts of his infernal agents to destroy our leaders.
The finest men in our clime, some of the best in our country were not only murdered, some met very gruesome deaths.
“Innocent men were tied to cars and driven on the road until they died. Decency would forbid me to give you more details of how some of them met their deaths for they are indeed gory.
I fear that some of you here might become sick, and it would further traumatize their families. Innocent, righteous men were killed because of petty jealousies and envy. The devil left a trail of blood from one end of this state to the other. Our state capital became the Golgotha (the place of the skulls) of our leaders. We lost the finest crop of leaders in our clime and some of the best this country has ever had.
“What was the consequence of this? We had no leaders to speak for us when states were created in Nigeria – because our leaders who were the first to demand state creation were dead. We had no leaders to fight for us when we were cheated in the promulgation of the onshore/offshore oil dichotomy. We had no leaders to stand up and push us forward when we were consigned to the backwaters of our country’s politics. We were like sheep without shepherds, he said.
The cleric, Dr. Isaiah Isong, who delivered the homily, which he entitled, “Restore, I pray you, to them, even this day,” identified “Cainism, Saulism and Absalomism as spirits plaguing the state”, and pleaded with politicians vying for positions in 2015 to bury bitterness, hatred and wickedness to usher in another administration that will continue to bring meaningful development to the state.
The state Commissioner for Information and Communication, Mr. Aniekan Umanah, explained that the occasion signaled the end of bitterness, hatred and character assassination provoked by the roving blood of slain heroes in the land. Umanah, who described Akpabio as a man of peace, expressed optimism that the calm, harmony and peace expected from the prayers would take the state through the 2015 election. Also, the Special Adviser, Bureau of Technical Matters, Mr Etido Inyang said the governor had taken up a course that was for long ignored by past leaders in the state. He added: “Go into the world’s history, you will see that those great men who suffered and were killed when they were not supposed to die are always honoured; so, ours should not be an exception.”
During the special intercessory prayers at the Ibom hall ground, Uyo, one could easily see the seriousness, the unity of purpose and the desire to be heard by God, as people from all walks of life in the state joined the governor and senior clerics, who took the lead to pray for peace, unity and progress of the state and the repose of souls of about 31 heroes, who were brutally murdered in the state during the Nigerian Civil War
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