At the grand finale of 61st birthday celebration of the President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio, with a colloquium at the Congress Hall of the Transcorp Hilton Hotel, last week Thursday, the rumour mill took shine off the programme with alleged collapse of Akpabio. TAIYE ODEWALE reports
Akpabio”s birthday
Being born on the 9th of December, 1962, the President of the Senate, Senator Godswill Akpabio, clocked 61 years penultimate Saturday (December 9, 2023).
Before the day, series of activities were lined up for the celebration, notable of which were the open celebration done at Godswill Akpabio International Stadium in Uyo, the capital of Akwa Ibom state.
Expectedly, the event was attended by almost all the serving Senators, aside their counterparts from the House of Representatives led by the Speaker, Hon Tajudeen Abbas.
The First Lady, Senator Oluremi Tinubu was also at the event with coterie of wives of governors and federal lawmakers who all, one after the other, eulogised Akpabio as man of the moment.
In-house celebration
After the Uyo grand event, all the political aides of the the President of the Senate led by his Chief of Staff, Barrister Sylvester Okonkwo, held an in-house celebration for him on Tuesday last week with presentation of varieties of gifts, where Akpabio himself, announced that the grand finale of all the events, would take place on Thursday, December 14, 2023.
He, in making the announcement, disclosed that President Bola Tinubu had given his words to personally attend the colloquium planned for the event.
The colloquium
At the colloquium attended by President Bola Tinubu, the Guest Speaker, Olisa Agbakoba ( SAN), called for drastic changes across the various sectors for the system to work.
Specifically, he said for the country to experience genuine development, peace and security must be ensured.
“The first question is how can we find peace. Is it by armed forces. It will be by executive and legislative processes.
“We can’t win, in my opinion, the war by armed forces. So I will suggest to the National Assembly to consider the possibility of inviting the ethnic nationalities, the owners of Nigeria.
“The traditional rulers that are being ignored, I believe they have a hand in the constitutional process. If this is done we will achieve peace.
“Together with our traditional rulers who I think are being ignored in the process, we might be able to resolve these Boko Haram, IPOB and other security related problems”, he said.
He also recommended the unbundling of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) which he said “is doing far too much.
He posited that INEC was doing far too much. In the Uwais’ report, we recommended creating the Electoral Offences Commission.
“I urge the 10th National Assembly to simply enact the recommendations.
The Electoral Act makes a mockery of democracy, so we can correct that by passing all the recommendations of the Uwais’ Panel”, he stressed.
In his short remarks, President Tinubu said: “The opportunity you (Akpabio) offered us to listen to the lead speaker and his recommendations will be definitely looked into for more deeper legislative activities and collaboration with all of us.
“We will work together. While we consider the affairs of this country, the nationhood and the belief in one country will put us on the right path.
“Inshallah, we will succeed. I appreciate Godswill Akpabio, God will help you, God will guide you.
“On this occasion of your birthday anniversary, I’m delighted to join your family, friends, colleagues and Nigerians from across the country wishing you long life, good health, peace, satisfaction and gratitude for abiding grace of God Almighty.”
The rumour on Akpabio”s collapse
Expectedly, the celebrant, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Deputy President of the Senate, Jibrin Barau and others, made remarks at the ceremony but after escorting President Tinubu out of the venue, rumour of Akpabio collapsing went out of the hall and reverberated across the country which made Akpabio’s Spokesperson, Hon Eseme Eyiboh, to quickly react.
The rebuttal
In his rebuttal on the rumour, Hon Eseme Eyiboh said: “The rumours which have come to our notice through word of mouth from concerned and patriotic stakeholders, have been fanned by some social media news channels with notoriety for the dissemination of phony news flashes.
“It was, especially, disconcerting that the conjectures on the wellbeing of the Senate President came after he was celebrated by the crème-de-crème of the nation’s leadership across all sectors at the Colloquium that was focused on defining a legislative agenda for national development.
“Senator Akpabio spoke on his feet for more than 30 minutes as he gave the expose` of his trajectory in a way as never before.
“As the programme ended and President Bola Tinubu left the Transcorp Hotel venue, Senator Akpabio’s expression to some of those around him that he was tired was escalated to a fainting spell or collapse.
“Some more adventurous purveyors of untruth in their thrilling escapade of fiction even claimed that he is presently hospitalised and in a critical condition in the National Hospital, Abuja.
“This is wholly untrue and I declare firmly that besides saying he was exhausted in the hearing of those around him that he was certainly not rushed in a stretcher to the National Hospital or indisposed.”
Akpabio’s comment on the rumour
Twenty-four hours after the event and rumour on his collapse, Akpabio on Friday personally addressed journalists covering the Senate by saying he was exhausted and not slumped as rumoured.
His words: “I had a show of humanity. So I went home and I called my doctor and was told that I had a bout of malaria mingled with stress.
“The stress could also be described in another way as exhaustion and infact , anybody could be exhausted which requires everybody to drink water daily so that you don’t get exhausted. This is to say that the beat goes on”, the Senate President explained.
