Akpabio’s Ridiculous Denial of PDP

Last week, the Senate President, Senator Godswill Akpabio, publicly denied ever being a member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), despite previously holding elective political positions of two-term governor and Senate Minority Leader on the party’s platform. Akpabio spoke during last Tuesday’s plenary while responding to a motion seeking to honour the late former governor of Kogi State, Ibrahim Idris. The motion was sponsored by the senator representing Kogi East, Jibrin Isah, who recalled that Idris was a member of the PDP and told Akpabio that they had all belonged to the party at the time. Isah described Idris, who governed Kogi State from May 29, 2003, to January 27, 2012, as the longest-serving governor in the state’s history. Akpabio, however, interrupted the senator and rejected the reference to his membership of the PDP. “I was never in the PDP. My spirit might be there, but my heart was never there. I have always been a progressive,” the senate president said. While he was saying this, he perhaps forgot that he once served as a commissioner under PDP-led administration in Akwa Ibom State, as well as the governor of the state from 2007 to 2015 and chaired the PDP Governors’ Forum during his tenure. He was also elected to the senate in 2015 on the platform of the PDP and served as Senate Minority Leader between 2015 and 2018. Akpabio, however, defected from the PDP to the All Progressives Congress (APC) in 2018 and since then, he has exorcised everything PDP, a party that gave him everything in politics. What he failed to realise is that he can still defect to another political party that wins the presidency in the future and deny the APC. Nigerian politics encourages opportunism and lacks honour and principle. To demonstrate honour and integrity, politicians should always celebrate and identify with the people and platforms that made them who they are, no matter the circumstances.