There is this Nigerian stand-up comedian. His stage name is Basketmouth. I assume we all know what a basket cannot do: it can’t hold water. The word picture we see is that of a mouth that utters whatever the head receives without the mind processing it before hand. The apostle James cautions to be “a good listener and a slow talker.” If you talk too fast and too much you’re very likely to find yourself in big trouble.
Perhaps Mr. Godfrey Akpabio, the president of the present 10th Senate would have been better as Speaker of the House of Representatives. He speaks too much and too frequently. In other words, Akpabio speaks when he should keep quiet and is quiet when he ought to say something. Last week, he said, during plenary, that state governors had received N30 billion each to provide food for their suffering people. He said the money was outside their monthly statutory allocations from the federation account. According to him, the governors have no reason not to alleviate these hard times. “I must say that unverified reports have it that each of the state governments in the last few months has received additional N30 billion from the Federal Inland Revenue Service [FIRS], outside their normal allocations from the federation account, to assist them in ameliorating the food situation,” he said. “So, every government should utilize the funds so received towards ensuring that food is available in the country.”
However, on Thursday, governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo state, faulted Akpabio’s claim. He said no state had received N30bn from the federal government to combat food shortages. Makinde is also the vice chairman of Nigerians Governors’ Forum. “If I want to play politics, I’ll keep quiet and let this slide, but I’m not going to let this slide. FIRS cannot give money to any state. It is not possible. All revenues accruing to the country go into the federation account and it is distributed to all tiers of government. The FG does not give states money. The money in the federation belongs to all of us; it does not only belong to the Federal Government,” Makinde said. “So, if the Senate President, who is the number three citizen in this country, could be quoting an unverified report…; people are looking at us as leaders. This is the period that we are supposed to give confidence to our people. It is not the period to start playing politics or to start looking for scapegoats. We need to engage with our people. If our policies are not working, we need to listen to the people and amend them. So, if the number three citizen had nothing but an unverified report, why did he need to say it? Does his statement give confidence to the people or solve the problem of hunger and anger in the land?” he asked rhetorically.
Was Akpabio “playing politics”? Makinde thinks he was because two of them belong in different political parties. Akpabio is in the ruling All Progressives Congress [APC], while the governor is in the opposition People’s Democratic Party [PDP]. However, I don’t think partisanship was what pushed Akpabio to talk the way he did. It isn’t that he wanted to put down all the governors. Not all of them are PDP. Truth is, there are 20 for APC and 13 PDP. The man simply is a blabber and a poor talker at that. Firstly, he said he was quoting an “unverified report”. Why not verify before going public? His head told him to say something and quickly he did so with an unbridled tongue. Secondly, the Senate president said the FIRS disbursed the N30bn. Again, wrong. No fiscal agency of government disburses funds directly; all revenues must first go into the federation account before they are shared to the three tiers of government. Akpabio should have known this, having been state governor for eight years and participated in revenue sharing himself all of that time. Thirdly, he reduced his office to that of the spokesman of the presidency or the ministry of finance – all because he felt he ought to say something to Nigerians in their moment of great tribulation! Regrettably, what he did say was error-ridden and made him look and sound like a buffoon.
Lest we have forgotten, Akpabio is a politician much given to gaffes. This his gaffing has deteriorated ever since he entered the Senate and subsequently became its president in June last year. A politics store has listed some dozen of Akpabio’s tongue slips. Another calls them “controversies”. An infamous one is his “Let the poor breathe”. To be sure, the phrase wasn’t his originally but President Tinubu’s. However, Akpabio parodied it derogatorily after the Senate last year shot down a proposed electricity tariff increase. “The poor must be allowed to breathe,” he stated, provoking public outrage. Before becoming senator and as minister of Niger Delta, Akpabio caused consternation in the National Assembly when accused senators and House members of cornering most of Niger Delta Development Commission [NDDC] contracts. With his latest goof, shall we say Akpabio is turning a serial tongue slipper? Maybe not but the slip ups are becoming, worryingly, one too many.
