When the mentor and the mentee draw daggers
Chief Donatus Obot Etiebet, pop­ularly called Atuekong Don Etiebet, was one of the very few gubernatorial aspirants who bonded with Gov. Godswill Obot Akpabio from the legion of PDP aspirants of 2006. The other person, possibly, was Mr. Nsima Ekere, who later became Akpabio’s depu­ty in the second term but resigned barely one year and six months later.
In fact, Etiebet and Akpabio were so close that people wondered why Etiebet bothered to have contested the primaries, which he was bound to lose. They reasoned that, it would have been honourable to take up the vacant godfather position ab initio, since it appeared the former governor, Obong Victor Attah, who actually nurtured Akpabio politically, as commissioner in three ministries, had lost out in the instant power game, which he could have been a chief broker of.
Their relationship was so tight that both were always seen together at official func­tions, even in official church ceremonies and child dedications. Example was when a coun­cillor, representing Chief Victor Attah’s ward in Ibisikpo Asutan Local Government Area, Mr. Ndifreke Thompson, a physically chal­lenged person, dedicated his child. Etiebet not only accompanied Akpabio to the occasion, he even spoke glowingly of the governor’s be­nevolence on that 23rd day of August, 2009 at Mount Zion Light House Full Gospel Church, Ikot Annung.
Etiebet had said: “The election of Ndifreke was a big subject matter at the recent meet­ing of BOT members in Abuja. Some people alleged ‘how can a cripple have money or connections to contest an election? Ah… he was sponsored”’. Not done, he quickly ven­tured into the lingering party crisis in the state. “Some people peddled the rumour that the party positions had again been shared among some party bigwigs in the state. I heard that the state chairmanship position has been allot­ted to this person and the state secretary po­sition has been given to that person. I asked ‘which slot will be given to the governor? They said ‘the position of a youths’ leader, af­ter all, he has a soft spot for the youths. “Let me tell you plainly that all those pieces of ru­mour are lies. There are no party changes. The PDP hierarchy at the state level is intact. The purported crisis has been laid to rest. So, don’t worry about fake and baseless stories making rounds in the town”, Etiebet said then.
And turning to Akpabio, he said: “You have done well for giving hope to the physi­cally challenged. I am grateful to God for at­tending this ceremony. It shall be well with the righteous. It shall be well with those who give succour to the needy.”
Between then and the 2011 election that Akpabio got his second term, the relationship between the two Annang brothers appeared to have remained rosy.
It is not clear when the honeymoon ended, but the writing on the wall, from 2011, indi­cated that all was not well with the duo. But it wasn’t obvious till last April when the issue of zoning of the governorship slot for 2015 became, and as still remains, the only agenda in the political lexicon of the state. Etiebet took pages in national and local newspapers to express his rejection of the arrangement and even said he declined to attend the PDP State Executive Committee meeting in which deci­sions on the zoning arrangement was reached, citing procedural breach with regards to ven­ue, which was the Banquet Hall of the state’s Government House.
Apparently embarrassed, or so, by their revered kinsman’s position against zoning, which ran contrary to Akpabio’s body lan­guage, a group named, Ukanafun/Oruk Anam Constituency Youths Vanguard, hit back at their high chief as a paperweight politician prone to irredeemable electoral failure, and “a commander without troops, a leader without followers – except for his wife and children.
“Today, the people of his federal constitu­ency travel for more than 50 kilometres in search of basic healthcare, following Etiebet’s failure to complete the general hospital in Ukanafun, awarded to him by the magnanim­ity of Gov, Godswill Akpabio.
“We are aware that the Ukanafun hospital is the only cottage hospital in the state, con­structed by our dear governor that has been abandoned despite Etiebet receiving 80 per cent of the N1.1 billion contract sum. Etiebet’s ignoble action in abandoning such a lofty and essential project meant for our people has cost them so much pains and tears, while while his family members are safely tucked in some safe haven overseas,” the group alleged.
Was the group real or the hand of Esau and a voice of Jacob? It could not be ascertained, as the political culture, which started in 2006 in the start, is such that can give birth to 2000 groups within an hour.
But responding to the accusation, Etiebet wondered how he could even have abandoned a contract that he was never even given in the first place.
In a text message he sent to our corre­spondent on the issue then, the politician said: “How can the state government say I handled a contract badly when it didn’t award any con­tract to me? I think it is part of the campaign of calumny and blackmail against me because I disagreed with them on some of the PDP SEC meetings’ resolutions they put up after a meet­ing in the government banquet hall.
“Please, go to them to tell you who the con­tractor is so that you can go and talk to him. Since then, they have used all kinds of face­less groups and habitual sycophants to abuse me on the pages of the papers and social me­dia.
“They should bury their faces in shame to say that they awarded a N1 billion hospi­tal contract project to Atuekong Don Etie­bet, CON and he handled it badly when they awarded N30-50 billion contracts to their friends without paper drawings and specifi­cations according to Commissioner (other names withheld) and are going for revalua­tions. Thank you.”
It seems Etiebet had since then been watch­ing Akpabio’s every action and utterance. On September 21, 2014, he probably got what he needed to get back at Akpabio. It was the speech the governor made during the Akwa Ibom 27th anniversary church service at Ibom Hall Grounds.
Akpabio had advised the youths to take up responsibility and not to continue to look up to elders. But Etiebet gave it his own interpreta­tion. He said it amounted to “a call to arms and an incitement of the youths of this state against elders.”
He equally accused the governor in the 13-page press text delivered at the NUJ Press Centre, Uyo on Monday, of lying against the elders, that they refused to attend the church service because he (Akpabio) had refused to share the resources and allocations of the state to them.
“Just because we elders have counseled him against extreme profligacy, arbitrary and non-budgetary spendings (sic), award of in­flated contracts and without due process, lack of accountability in budget implementation, lack of information and transparency in total receipts of revenues from all sources and other financial recklessness, covered up in a blitz of uncommon propaganda for the uninformed, he has to lie against us.
“His Excellency should know that we all know who he was when he left one of the companies I have interest in, Emis Telecoms, to be appointed commissioner in the state to what he is today to himself and family mem­bers,” Etiebet quarrelled.
Turning to the PDP and party politics in the state, Etiebet, who in 2009 tended to have accepted Akpabio as the grand commander of the party in the state, based on his speech in the church, now says: His Excellency, Governor Godswill Obot Akpabio, CON, my brother Annang man wants to be the only cock that crows in the party and in the state, dictating everything and boasts of it always. In doing so, he has antagonized all his original followers, supporters, friends, party men and women and believes that he can do it alone by rigging the party congresses and primaries and become a monarch through intimidation, vindictiveness and disenfranchisement.”
He lamented that many leaders, including himself, have been frustrated and shut out of the party activities, and prayed that such lead­ers would not leave because of the impact it would have on PDP in the state.
Etiebet also said the state has, in recent years, experienced serious ethnic tension. “Never before in our history have the people of Akwa Ibom State been so divided through orchestrated acts and strange values of this administration. Recently, we have noticed tar­geted killings and armed robberies, calls to our youths to rise and attack and disrespect their elders, which are very unbecoming of our tra­dition.”
The state government appeared to have been surprised at Etiebet’s recent outing, which, expectedly, was in company of Senator Aloysius Etok, Akpabio’s political archrival for the coveted Ikot Ekpene senatorial ticket. Etok has held that position in the last seven years and is still interested in third term. In its reaction through the Commissioner for Infor­mation and Social Re-orientation, Mr Aniekan Umanah, government said it was “outright falsehood and misplaced thought” for Etiebet to have said that Akpabio called on the youths in the state to take up arms against their elders.
“Claims by Etiebet is, to say the least, pre­posterous, spurious and attempt by Etiebet to act out a written script by the opposition in the state to set the youths of the state, who have been so supportive of his administration against the governor.
“I wonder how a message by the governor admonishing the youths to take their destiny in their hands, by ensuring that they show more than a passing interest in the affairs of the state, could be twisted by Etiebet and his co-travel­lers to mean instigating the youths against the elders.”
Umanah also defended his boss on the al­legation of profligacy dropped by Etiebet. “It baffles every right-thinking person on why those who, seven years ago, sang the praise of the governor on his uncommon infrastructural renaissance and prudent management of the state resources, have today, eaten their words, because of succession and selfish interest”
What the people of the state are saying is: Is this battle between the political mentor and his mentee necessarily in the general interest of the state or is it a selfish battle due to one feeling short-changed in the relationship? The people are watching; and the winner seems to be emerging.

Etiebet vs Akpabio