REJOINDER: Hired, Faceless Wailers and Minister of the Year Laurel for Akpabio

By Dr. Jibril Tafida

It is no longer news, that men and women of good conscience in the Niger Delta have been jubilating in droves, over the 2022 Minister of the Year Award given to Senator Godswill Akpabio, the Minister for Niger Delta Affairs. What is news, right now, is the hiring of faceless band of wailers, pretending to be women of Niger Delta – whose paymasters are driven by envy, over the continued rise to the top, for Senator Akpabio. An unknown, possibly non-existent Niger Delta Women Wailers one Odighonin Nwadighi as “Coordinator”, is at the centre of the latest mischief against the Niger Delta Affairs Minister

Indeed, I did a random check on the group and was not the least surprised by my findings. Moneybag politicians of the Niger Delta desperate to divert attention and with so much to hide, crafted a Press Statement from their comfort zones and rushed to the media to have their systematic propaganda spread far and wide. The presumption of these propagandists was the type Joseph Goebbels – Hitler’s propaganda Minister – once used. Goebbels convinced Hitler that any lie told a million times becomes truth. These desperate anti-Akpabio moneybags thought the Goebbels trick of repeating a single lie many times would whittle down Akpabio’s growing public admiration across Nigeria. Why should Akpabio’s public profile be so high? They reasoned that it is possible to put the rising profile of Senator Akpabio in reverse gear. It won’t be surprising if they do so again, because this concocted Press Release could be part of a grand design to get even with a man who has outshone many of his contemporaries in the Niger Delta history.

A press statement, credited to non-existent “wailers” is dead on arrival because not every Nigerian believes what he/she reads on newspaper pages. The authors of the infantile tantrums, hiding behind the mask of Wailing Women of the Niger Delta (WWND)  have lost it already.

It is even ridiculous that the so-called WWND ended up rehashing boring narratives about the NDDC and the Forensic Audit. It has been one and the same refrain, each time the desperados go after Akpabio. The so-called WWND repeated the same questions other anti-Akpabio desperados asked in recent past: why is the Forensic Audit yet to be published? The Forensic Audit Report is a document meant to guide Nigerian government on how many billions were stolen from and how to go after the thieves. If the thieving patrons of brigands of the Niger Delta think they can get away with using Akpabio award to divert attention from their dirty little secrets, it is futile trying to do so now. There is damning evidence in the Forensic Report, enough to help the long arm of the law.

Nwadighi’s call on the managment of the Daily Independent to withdraw the Akpbaio award amounts to an insult. How can any sane Nigerian ask Daily Independent, one of the oldest and highly-respected mainstream national dailies to apologize over something they did thorough research on? Such a respectable newspaper, which has been covering news and events of the Niger Delta Affairs Ministry and its affiliates is better positioned with enough verifiable data to justify the Akpabio award than the shadowy WWND. And Nigerians know better than believe this charade, especially when it involves a highly-proactive manager of men and resources, a man whose politics and good governance records remain unbeatable in the history of Niger Delta region.

No amount of tinkering with verifiable facts and figures about the Akpabio masterstroke in Nigeria’s history would wipe out his sterling achievements or have them blacked out. The mischievous WWND shenanigans is a false revisonism that exposes the desperation of a few to unsuccessfully pull down the Minister for Niger Delta Affairs, on the pages of newspapers, after he has successfully built solid reputation for uncommon transformation. They should find a better work to do, I so advise.

Dr. Tafida is National Coordinator of Senator Godswill Akpabio for Common Good (SGACG)