Politics, they say, is like a real life movie. But every movie needs a director. It requires someone who knows when to dim the lights, when to cue the actors, and when to end the noise. On October 7, 2025, Senator Godswill Obot Akpabio stepped once again into the chambers of the Nigerian Senate, not as a performer but as a conductor of a complex national movie production. His welcome address, titled “Steady Hands for a Great Nation,” was not just a speech; it was a moral compass disguised as prose. In a season when words are often cheap and…
Author: Ufok Ibekwe
A familiar voice has just echoed across microphones in Uyo . Elder Aniekan Akpan, dignified in white and displaying calm when the storm is raging, declared: “I remain the substantive chairman of the PDP in Akwa Ibom State.” It was not so much a press conference as it was a valedictory serenade, yet Akpan refused to admit that the song was over. The PDP’s National Working Committee had already slammed the gavel. The Akwa Ibom State Executive Committee, once led by the retired school principal turned political tactician, had been dissolved. In its place, a caretaker committee now stands, headed…
Come tomorrow Thursday, the 18th of September, the gates of the Brick House in Port Harcourt shall swing open once more to receive its tenant. Governor Siminalayi Fubara will be reinstated, his title and insignia returned. The law, in its majestic majesty, has spoken. The six months emergency rule has abated. But those who understand power know that the law often deals in the currency of letters, while power trades in the gritty grain of influence. He will return not to a victory parade, but to a gilded abode of his tense kingdom. The crown has been recovered, but the…
Come tomorrow Thursday, the 18th of September, the gates of the Brick House in Port Harcourt shall swing open once more to receive its tenant. Governor Siminalayi Fubara will be reinstated, his title and insignia returned. The law, in its majestic majesty, has spoken. The six months emergency rule has abated. But those who understand power know that the law often deals in the currency of letters, while power trades in the gritty grain of influence. He will return not to a victory parade, but to a gilded abode of his tense kingdom. The crown has been recovered, but the…
In the hallowed chambers of Geneva’s Palais des Nations, where eloquent words often dissolve into the ether of diplomatic niceties, a different sound recently reverberated. It was not the polished, forgettable prose of a run-of-the-mill speech. It was a tremor, a rhetorical earthquake, set off by Nigeria’s Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, at the World Conference of Speakers. His was not a mere address; it was a testament forged in the very furnace of national trials. An old African adage whispers that “the tree with the deepest roots is the one that laughs at the storm”. Akpabio, his own roots sunk…
I believe a more diplomatic approach might have served as a lifeline for a rapprochement between the senator and the Senate. I believe that if that judgment had been accepted with a bit of contrition and humility, and there had not been the rush to foist a different interpretation on it, as is obvious to some of us who have read it, thereby reading into the decision of the court what was not there, we might not be where we are today. I believe a more diplomatic approach might have served as a lifeline for a rapprochement between the senator…
On Tuesday, Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan fulfilled her bold promise to “resume” at the Senate. And indeed, resume she did—at the gate. Like a heroine from a low-budget soap opera, she arrived with a ragtag entourage that followed her as eagerly as children once followed the Pied Piper of Hamelin—except this time, the only thing missing was the flute. Her band included a few loyalists, a couple of professional hand-clappers, and one Aisha Yesufu – a social media activist who can occasionally spell ‘Nigeria’ without supervision. Aisha didn’t quite grasp the Natasha drama, but free transport to the National Assembly? That’s a…
The black Camry saloon came out of nowhere, a blur in motion, and slammed into the old man standing quietly by the roadside. There was a sickening thud, the kind that echoes in your bones. The man let out a strangled cry as his body spun in the air and collapsed onto the tar like a discarded bundle—a life suddenly reduced to silence and motionlessness. Shouts pierced the still air. Some ran towards the crumpled figure. Others froze in shock. The driver of the Camry slammed the brakes, swerved, then attempted to flee—his foot pressing escape while a human being…
What immortal thirst drives a man to the same well of ambition, even when it has repeatedly proven dry? From what fountain of delusion does he draw the strength to begin the same doomed ascent with the gusto of a first-timer? Is it a noble calling for the nation’s soul, or the desperate vehemence of a gambler convinced his final hand must be a winning spin? In the every slippery arena of Nigerian politics, where ambition is the currency and power the ultimate deity, these questions find their most poignant embodiment in one man: Atiku Abubakar. He is the eternal…
It was a further expansion of the landscape for her theatrics. She has been on this episodic drama since February, buffeting public space with contents with almost all of them bearing the trappings of amusing absurdity and offensive regurgitations. It all started with a simple procedural change of seat. But because she is more preoccupied with the klieg lights, she assumed the new seat would not give her the desired visibility during proceedings at the Senate Chamber. But assumption is the lowest form of knowledge. Encouraged by the assumption and her consuming love for drama, the now suspended Senator stirred…