Senate President Godswill Akpabio has again accused Godwin Emefiele, the embattled former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), of leaving behind a “foamy economy”.
While urging Nigerians to be patient with President Bola Tinubu’s administration, Akpabio alleged that Emefiele “left a very big hole in the national treasury”.
Akpabio stressed that President Tinubu inherited a battered economy which he is currently trying to rally cash and deploying his knowledge to salvage and navigate away from the stranglehold of sleaze and corruption.
Akpabio stated this at Ikot Ekpene Stadium over the weekend when his kinsmen from Akwa Ibom North-West Senatorial District hosted him and his National Assembly colleagues in a reception since he became the president of the Senate last year.
On his earlier remark about Emefiele being responsible for Nigeria’s economic woes, Akpabio said, “I still stand by my position”.
Expressing optimism and confidence in the economy bouncing back stronger, Akpabio assured that President Tinubu has the magic wand to retool the economy back on the trajectory of growth as he did as Governor under which Lagos became one of the most buoyant economies in Africa.
He stressed that with three former governors, Tinubu, a former Governor of Lagos State, as President; Kashim Shettima, former Borno State Governor as Vice President, and himself, former Akwa Ibom State governor, their knowledge and ingenuity in politics and socio-economic governance would be aggregated and galvanized to rescue the country for the greater good of Nigerians.
Akpabio assured the people of the state, the South-South region and the country of all-round federal presence, adding that the coastal road coming all the way from Lagos to Calabar would cut across various states in the Southwest, South-East and the South-South political zones, with attendant socio-economic developments.
The Senate President also assured the host governor, Pastor Umo Eno of the Deep Seaport, and other federal government projects, and urged him to liaise with the Managing Director of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Chief Samuel Ogbuku, to extend the ongoing road project from the neighbouring Abia State to Ini, Ikono, Ikot Ekpene to connect Uyo, the state capital.
“You have asked of seaport, you will not only get Seaport, you get roads, flyovers, and other federal projects, and we are going to do this because of you,” he stressed.
In his remarks, Governor Eno pledged to work with the Tinubu administration in spite of political party differences to bring development to the state.
He appealed to the Senate President not to truncate the governorship succession plan laid down in the state by successive approximations since the return of democracy in 1999, by allowing him to see through his eight years as was the case of Obong Victor Attah (1999-2007); Chief Godswill Akpabio (2007 -2015) and Mr. Udom Emmanuel (2015-2023).
Deputy Senate President, Jibrin Barau, and the Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Benjamin Kalu, also extolled the leadership virtues of Senator Akpabio, noting that as the National Assembly Chairman, he has been a stabilising influence and ‘Unifier-in-Chief’ who is engendering the executive-legislative harmony.