Of Akpabio, Senate and secured future of Nigerian youths

By Abdulkareem Bello

The declaration and eventual commencement of a nationwide protest, on August 1, 2024, has no doubt shown that there is anger in the land. From one state to another and then to the media space, it has been a season of anger with the attendant outcomes that often follow such ire.

At the receiving end of that ire has been the government of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, albeit wrongfully. An administration which began a little over a year ago has no doubt, shown the determination and commitment to right the myriads of wrongs in the country.

At a point, they widened their dragnet to include the President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio by calling for his imaginary head on a platter.

But what could warrant the call for Akpabio’s head? What could the former two-term governor of Akwa Ibom State have done so wrong to incite Nigerian youths against him in such a manner? What could be the basis in directing their inner anger against a gentleman, who has never missed an opportunity to side with the masses? What could have made those Nigerians, though few in number, go for Akpabio’s jugular over comments that they believe were against their protest?

The answers to the above posers are simply, ANGER fueled by hate predicated on disinformation, misinformation and deliberate mischief.

Without a doubt, the 10th Senate, under the leadership of Akpabio, has bested the records of previous sessions in terms of passing People-Oriented bills into law and working effectively in mutual collaboration with the Executive to ameliorate the sufferings of the Nigerian people.

Despite only being a year and less than two months in office, the Senate under Akpabio has recorded landmark achievements, which if well-assessed and allowed to take root, would solve most of the problems facing the people, some of which are the premises for the protest.

Well, Senator Akpabio, I am certain, would not be surprised by the jibes being aimed at him.

However, for those who know Senator Akpabio closely or have had a cause to watch him over the years, he certainly does not come across as someone who will mock people who are hungry or deride the downtrodden. One thing that you cannot take away from him is, his love for the downtrodden and the underprivileged in the society.

As someone that was not alien to poverty and deprivation while growing up, he has always shown a special concern for the underprivileged and it was, therefore, absurd to notice some individuals interpreting his comments as mocking the Nigerian people.

Haba! No, that does not represent Akpabio by any shade. That is far from the truth and it is sad that this untruth has been the basis for the anger being directed at the President of the Senate.

In case you did not know Akpabio or have never heard of his growing up story; the incumbent President of the Senate had to drop out of school because of the inability of his late mother to provide as little as 10 Naira for his school fees, having lost his father at the age of six months. However, through divine providence, he was able to later acquire formal education, which he so much longed for, at a great cost and with his own sweat. Could that kind of individual have mocked people who are angry because of the current hardship which the government, (he is one of the leaders) has also recognized and working assiduously to address?

Following his own struggles and experience to attain the heights he is today, Akpabio has never missed an opportunity to tell about how he made a vow that any opportunity God gives him in life or any position he occupies either in his state of origin or in the country, he would ensure that no Nigerian child goes through the harrowing experience he went through on his journey towards acquiring formal education. That avowal still directs his actions and he can therefore not do otherwise.

As God would have it, when God’s will was done in his life in 2007 as he became the Governor of Akwa Ibom State, Senator Akpabio did not miss the opportunity to act on his vow. As a true student of Aristotle, who notes that “all who have meditated on the art of governing mankind have been convinced that the fate of empires depends on the education of youth,” Akpabio made sure to declare a free and compulsory education from primary to secondary school not only for Akwa Ibom Indigenes but for Nigerian children resident in Akwa Ibom State.

Between 2007 and 2015, the then governor saw to the enactment of a law that enabled the government to prosecute parents of children who were not in school and that decision saw to the tripling of school enrolments all over the state, which expectedly led to building and establishment of more schools. Can this kind of person be accused of deriding students or mocking youths?

Following Akpabio’s reign as Governor of Akwa Ibom State for two terms, the state, which was hitherto renowned for producing high caliber house boys and girls, Gatemen and other doers of other menial jobs to Nigerian homes, moved up several rungs of the ladder in the education sector, with thousands of upwardly mobile and well-educated youths who are part of the critical manpower in various sectors of the economy today. Now, if some of those youths that Akpabio’s policies helped return to school and get educated years ago, are asking for a better life and for employment, why would he mock them?

Interestingly also, Akpabio’s credential as a lover of education and one of the few public officers in Nigeria who believe so much in the education of youths is always reflected in his statement that “if you fail to educate the child of your neighbour, they will not allow your children that you sent abroad to be educated to enjoy their lives when they return to the country.”

This must be the reason his joy knew no bounds when President Tinubu proposed an Executive Bill to the Senate, tagged: “The Students Loan Bill in Nigeria, also known as the Access to Higher Education Act, 2024,” a legislation that provides interest-free loans to indigent Nigerians pursuing higher education in Nigeria.

Akpabio said in a recent interview with newsmen that the passage of the bill and its accent by the President was a dream come true and that the bill was the best that he and his colleague-senators have ever passed in record time.

Under the Act, which the Senate under Senator Akpabio’s leadership did not waste time in considering and passing, provisions were made for the “establishment of the Nigeria Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) as a corporate body; the loan covers (tuition, fees, charges, and living expenses for students in recognised higher education and vocational training institutions within Nigeria); how the loan will be financed (i.e. allocation of 1% of all taxes, levies, and duties collected by the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS).

Other areas addressed by the Act are; eligibility (the bill removes the family income threshold, guarantor requirement, and parent’s loan history as prerequisites for eligibility); repayment (the repayment of the loan begins two years after the completion of the National Youth Service Programme, and beneficiaries can request an extension of enforcement action by providing a sworn affidavit) and loan forgiveness (the bill provides for loan forgiveness in the event of death or acts of God causing inability to repay).

A proviso for outright cancellation of the loan by the government was also made, where a beneficiary, five years after graduation is not gainfully employed.

These People centric Bills scaled the legislative hurdles because the President and the leadership of Senate and indeed the National Assembly which Senator Akpabio serves as the Chairman are on the side of the people.

Akpabio being a man known and associated with the virtue of empathy cannot be part of the denigration of humanity especially in a vulnerable state.

His records of service speak loudly of his consistent empathy to the downtrodden. Anything in the contrary that is said of him is a ploy to diminish and devalue the essential Akpabio.

Bello, a Public Affairs Analyst, writes from Zaria, Kaduna State.