The Akwa Ibom State Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice Barr. Uwemedimo Nwoko needs no introduction. Following the collapse of the Reigners Church last December several Nigerians (including governors of APC states) and well meaning Akwa Ibomites have visited the Governor Udom Emmanuel to commiserate with him and the entire state on the disaster. Surprisingly, no chieftain of the APC in Akwa Ibom saw reasons to sympathize with the Governor on this calamity and Barr Nwoko is furious with this attitude. This is captured in the excerpts of this interview with Sampson Akpan on Akwa Ibom Mandate Radio programme:
HOW IS GOVERNOR EMMANUEL ABLE TO SEPERATE GOVERNANCE FROM POLITICS?
Politics will be played when it comes to time to be played while governance should take the centre stage and a larger time spent in government house. Having gone through politics, having won election, His Excellency has dropped the toga and psychology of a politician and became a stage man. He became a stage man in the sense that he is now interacting from the presidency as someone who is highly respected. Even when they are setting up committees or structures at the national level, which the majority of the members are members of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Governor Udom Emmanuel would be drafted in. He will always be taken in because, they know he is intelligent, they know his capacity, they know he is stabilised in nature and they also know that he is bi-partisan.
Why is it that a lot of Akwa Ibom State politicians don’t see it that way? Is it that politics has registered an empire of hatred even with the citizenry? For instance, during the festive period, those who come to the radio to talk have all absconded because they don’t want to give even rice to their supporters. They never made any courtesy visit to the State House to console with the Governor neither have they gone to the church or the family members to do that. What kind of politics do we play in such that we would lose our relationships and corporate assistance? This is very alarming.
Why is it that Nsima Ekere, Umana Okon Umana, Ita Enang and Udoedehe including Obong Victor Attah did not go to see the Governor since the Reigners Church ill-fated incident? What level of separation are we nursing because of the political impasse? Can’t we get out of this and face governance just like His Excellency has done?
Well, I’m actually tired of talking about some characters in Akwa Ibom State politics and I prefer spending my time and energy on things that are very productive. I have the privilege of being called by a focused, forward-looking and serious-minded Governor to join him in seeing how we can lift the standard of lives of Akwa Ibomites who gave the mandate to the Governor, and I prefer being focused on that. Governor Emmanuel is not disturbed the nature of people that are around the communities of Akwa Ibom where he is governing, and I think that if you meet a man on the road and he puts up a smile, you take that smile that he is putting up that he is smiling at you; but his heart is known to God and it’s only God that judges each and every one of us. We are not in the position to judge people. Having said that, it won’t be out of place if I should say that politicians in Akwa Ibom State should learn to play politics devoid of bitterness. They should learn to play politics, knowing fully well that the platform on which you stand to play politics is a platform of the community that you stay. And it is not an empty platform. It is platform that is made life and has given life and by the lives of people that you meet in that place. If Akwa Ibom State should have the misfortune of facing a public calamity that took 26 lives - Akwa Ibom people, I think that simple human and Christian nature, which we all profess to be, should have been enough to drive people to show concern – put calls to the Governor to sympathise with him being the head of the state as it is being done by people across the globe. But when we play politics that we sit and say ‘why didn’t the governor die?’ because that is the anger of those who have refused to show concern. They are angry that God saved the Governor from death. They are angry that their brother is still alive and they are also angry that the death toll did not get to 300, which would have become a reproach and flow of more blood which would thereby be used for politics.
I wish we divert from this issue because these are people that have issues that would be discussed with their Father in Heaven at the judgement gate when they get there. If your brother or neighbour dies and it doesn’t concern you, if somebody from your state dies and it doesn’t bring sympathy and politics overwhelms that in you, then there is something wrong with the way you thing. I see that as being a diagonal way of reasoning. It’s a banana think and it doesn’t go straight. As a Christian, each and every one of us has issues that will be sorted out when we get to the point of our Creator. Governor Udom Emmanuel is a practical Christian and I know that God has a covenant of life with him. No matter how bitter they think, no matter how evil they wish, it will not happen because God has a relationship with the Governor. He has been protecting and will continue to protect him, and if that will lead to more bitterness, they should be ready to be bitter.
The governor Sokoto State made a statement: “You have made Akwa Ibom State accessible to people like us”. What does that portend?
It simply means politics of bridge building, politics of nationhood, politics of open doors, politics that is beyond party lines. That is the politics played by the Governor Udom Emmanuel. The visit from the opposition party from the extreme North is a pure reciprocation of that attitude. He is the one that put the bridge for them to cross and come over. They didn’t put the bridge and walk across on their own.
Governor Emmanuel has built a bridge of friendship. He interacts relates with other states governors not because they are in the Governors’ Forum, but because he has shown them that party lines are out of this personal relationship. Party lines are out of the purpose of governance because all of us were supposed to come together and build a country that reflects the National Flag, the Coat of Arms, and the unity that we sing in the National Anthem.
What are the responsibilities of the panel of inquiry set up for the Reigners church building collapse?
The terms of reference include to investigate and probe into the immediate and remote causes of the collapse of the Reigners Church building that led to the loss of 26 lives and several ghastly injuries, and to find out the roles played by individual organisations that eventually led to the collapse of the building. They are also to identify people that would be found culpable in the process and recommend actions to government what should be done to such persons.
What this means is that, if a person is found culpable in the process, there will be a necessary line of action. Don’t forget that the Panel of Inquiry can only indict and cannot convict. Indictment is just to say that someone has a case to answer, he should have further explanation to make. So they are to indict persons or groups, and then finally recommend measures to prevent a future reoccurrence of such calamity in the state.
Since it has to do with a church, will there be any spiritual consideration? For instance, can a prophet walk into the panel of inquiry and say it was spiritually motivated?
Laws do not recognise that, so we are going to work purely on law. We have a representative of the clergy as a member of the panel, but basically, it is a professional construction issue. The Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE), Akwa Ibom State has nominated its member; we have an architect as a member because the architectural design of the building will also be taken into consideration; and we also have a structural person who has wide range of experience from Mobil International, as a member of the panel. The panel is headed by a retired judge because it is a judicial commission of inquiry, and we expect that by the special grace of God, members of the public will supply information and cooperation and give testimonies that would help the panel come up with recommendations in their report that would help the governor and the government.
Where will they meet them?
The commission of inquiry is sited at the Judiciary Headquarters, and it provides an ample opportunity for all interested persons whether Akwa Ibomites or not, to go up to that commission, present your memo, material or information they think would help because the report of the committee will be the final document that will put the matter in perspective and help the government to plan for the future. This is now time for those who reported that 300, 280, etc people died in the incident to send identities of the persons they know. Don’t send your memo to Plaza or drop it in Keke, don’t take your memo to your compound, but take it to the commission and present it. Even if you cannot write the memo, go up there. The terms also includes that you can go in there and give oral testimony, but you will be on oath because the commission was set up on oath.
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