Obong Attah
Speaking in Uyo, Okon described as unfortunate the statements credited to Attah in which he allegedly described Akpabio, who is also a senator, as an imperial majesty who arrogated power to himself to determine the faith of the state.
Okon said: “In his statement, Attah painted the picture of his successor parading himself while in office as an imperial majesty who not only demanded subservience from the people but arrogated to himself the right to determine what the people needed, including his successor in office.”
The former PDP scribe said that although Attah’s indiscriminate comments on matters concerning the state were becoming too familiar to be bothered about any longer, his comment on the recent decision of the governorship election tribunal is to say the least unbecoming of a man of his standing.
He said: “At a press conference, although he gave the impression that he was not of the All Progressives Congress (APC), he gleefully proclaimed that ‘a Daniel had come to judgment.’
“He gave the impression that the incumbent governor has been sacked and there was another governorship election in the offing where the people will have an unfettered opportunity to elect a governor of their choice.
“In trying to campaign for his new-found friends, Attah made very petty insinuations unbecoming of a man of his status; trying to rubbish the image of the incumbent governor and portraying him as a stooge who was handpicked.
“What he failed to appreciate is that indulging in infantile flippancy erodes his claim of statesmanship and cast him in the mould of a political jobber.
“It must be pointed out here that even if the tribunal’s position is sustained and elections are conducted in the 18 council areas, Emmanuel is in pole position to win convincingly.”
He said that Obong Attah claims that he was retiring from partisan politics and assuming the role of a statesman but that it was long overdue.
Okon noted that having to do so now means that he has thoroughly frittered away his good will through pedestrian grandstanding which makes it belated.
Senator Okon said: “Given his disposition of jumping into every fray no matter how demeaning, the former governor would have done himself a great favour if he had taken that decision long ago.
“It is common saying that ‘an elder remain unperturbed in the house while the she-goat suffers the pangs of child-birth at the tether’; but our elder here is using his status to seek peace and unity in the state, he is rather fanning the embers of rancor and disunity among the people.
“Because of his avowed hatred for Akpabio, Attah would not mind setting the entire state ablaze. The adage that ‘you do not follow the length of the snake to set fire to the bush’ does not make sense to him,” Okon stressed.
The senator who is also a member of the Akwa-Ibom state Elders Forum stressed: “One would have thought that if indeed Obong Attah had made up his mind to quit partisan politics and become a statesman when he hits 77 years in the next three weeks, he would have used that press conference to make conciliatory statements that would attract some goodwill for him.
“But as is usual with him, he again threw away that golden opportunity and engaged in his usual diatribe. One may now be forced to throw back his own question to him: “What does Obong Victor Attah really want?”
Obong Attah had last week announced his retirement from active politics also using the medium to attack the PDP, a party on whose platform he ruled as governor for eight years.
No comments:
Post a Comment