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17.09.2014 Opinion

Isaac Gabriel Achong: A Threat To Democracy In Akwa Ibom

By Odudu Abasi Nick Edet
Isaac Gabriel Achong: A Threat To Democracy In Akwa Ibom
17.09.2014 LISTEN

Mr. Gabriel Achong; ( that is the name which he penned when he lied under oath to help the corrupt, murderous and cultist-infested government of Godswill Obot Akpabio obtain approval from a United States District Court in Georgia to depose the innocent; a case which they abandoned for reasons only known to them); may think that he is above the law. In Nigeria, he is; but before God, he is not! And before a determined people, he will not be!!

The likes of Gabriel Achong now prosper unimpeded in Nigeria because the Federal government of Nigeria is composed of men and women whose sole aims in life are the acquisition of wealth, at the expense of justice, at the expense of truth, at the expense of safety for the oppressed and the downtrodden of Nigeria, at the expense of democratic freedom, at the expense of security for the nation, and at the expense of all that is good and fair; AND at the expense of their good reputations; and need I add, at the expense of their own souls. We, the people of Nigeria (people of Akwa Ibom State, in this case) cannot continue to throw up our arms in defeat. In the first place it is we, the people of Nigeria, who have allowed these kinds of men and women to continue to wallow in impunity and corruption.

It is now left for the people of Akwa Ibom State to organize and throw out Gabriel Achong from the State by first appealing, PEACEFULLY, to President Goodluck Jonathan, through the Inspector General of Police, to remove Mr. Achong from Akwa Ibom State, FOR THE SAKE OF PEACE; if such an appeal fails, then they must resort to whatever means necessary to see Achong's ouster from the State of Akwa Ibom. Go he must; and fast too; before the anticipated campaigns for elections in 2015. 2015 anticipated election is the sole reason Godswill Obot Akpabio and his collaborators engineered corrupt Gabriel Achong's reemergence in the State. Citizens must fight that injustice today, right now.

We must remember that it was the common citizens who risked death to force the eventual execution of Nicolae Ceausescu, the despotic ruler of Romania, and his wife, by the Army. It was the same Romanian army that had been executing citizens of Romania under orders from Nicolae Ceausescu. Does that case sound familiar, particularly in what Gabriel Achong and his collaborators did in Akwa Ibom state a few years ago; at polling booths, at hamlets, in the streets, and at peoples' homes – kidnapping, stealing, extorting, and murdering at will?

The lesson that I am trying to impart here are two fold - (1) though the Nigerian Army, the Nigeria Police Force, and other Armed Forces of the federation are seen as corrupt and oppressive; (as Gabriel Achong and co. have so unashamedly presented themselves to be as Officers within the Armed Forces of the Republic!!!); there are still elements within the units of the nation's Armed Forces who do not like the way the country is being run by the corrupt; just as some Army officials in Romania did not like the way the Romanian nation was run by Ceausescu and his collaborators; AND the people gave the few men and women in the Romanian Armed Forces the reason and the courage to get rid of a corrupt despot.

To survive and to be free, we must adapt and copy from others – Britain did when it stood alone against Hitler, before other nations joined them; Nelson Mandela's South Africa did before the conscience of the world was sufficiently aroused to help Black South Africans overthrow apartheid; Martin Luther King did along with a few honest white men and women, before the American conscience was pricked enough to end segregation and injustice; so can we – Akwa Ibom State can set the stage for a revolution in Nigeria by opposing evil ruler ship; ruler-ship such as men like Gabriel Achong and Godswill Obot Akpabio have engineered in the state.

Lesson number 2: The people must agitate for their RIGHTS vociferously in order to engineer change. It is as simple and as difficult as that. Difficult because organizing against injustice such as men like Godswill Obot Akpabio, Gabriel Achong, and indeed President Goodluck Jonathan, in positions of authority and power, have inflicted upon the common citizen, is difficult to overcome; BUT IT IS NOT IMPOSSIBE. The difficulty lies in being afraid; and in being greedy for the corrupt droppings from the tables of the corrupt!!!

History is dotted with cases where insidious men like Gabriel Achong, along with their corrupt masters, collaborators, and comrades-in-evil have been defeated by the determination of the masses to defeat them. It is easy when the people unite to fight a common enemy - the corrupt; AND Gabriel Achong and Godswill Obot Akpabio are the common enemies of the people of Akwa Ibom State, including those who are currently benefitting from the evil and oppression spurned by the duo. One needs no further confirmation on this fact than to cast a look at what has already happened between the CORRUPT GIANTS Of Akwa Ibom State politics - Godswill Obot Akpabio vs. Aloysius Etuk; Imeh Umana vs. Godswill Obot Akpabio; Umana Okon Umana vs. Godswill Obot Akpabio; Bassey Albert vs. Godswill Obot Akpabio; and numerous other cases of resentment, hatred, animosity among the corrupt who were once friends in corruption, in injustice, in cheating the downtrodden, in evil, and in hatred perpetrated against the unsuspecting and the innocent.

For so, so, so long have our pleas for help against desperadoes like Gabriel Achong ended with no favorable resolution before men and women in positions of authority and power, politically and legislatively; – a case in point – Godswill Obot Akpabio did not win the election of 2011, but despite the bloodshed which that election witnessed, and despite the evidence gathered during that election to prove fraud, election laws maladministration, bribery and corruption, practiced right there at polling booths, Godswill Obot Akpabio still remains Governor. It has been so because the Federal government of Goodluck Jonathan; (under whose portfolio is the dissemination of justice through the nation's investigative units and the nation's courts); has taken a deliberate decision to turn blind eyes and deaf ears to the sufferings and injustice inflicted upon the masses in Akwa Ibom State.

Let us not throw up our arms in helplessness, or in disgust, or in anger, this time around; despite past injustices by the Federal government of Nigeria. We can remove Gabriel Achong despite the deafness of his superiors to our pleas – we must act; and that is the only language that will remove Gabriel Achong; for it is the only language that all corrupt and insidious persons, governments and entities understand!!!!!!!!!!

Odudu Abasi Nicolas Edet
Dallas Fort Worth, TX

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