OBA: TALL SERVICE ANTECEDENTS, UNDISPUTED CREDENTIALS

"I have had all my education here at home, and thereafter have served my people with diligence and patriotism for more than two decades, 

whether in appointed or elected capacity" - Sen. Bassey Albert

By Destiny Akaiso 

Because he foresaw this watershed moment years ago across the lush horizon of his dreams, he carefully and progressively laid the foundation so that when the time arrives, as it has arrived, he will not be needlessly distracted by fifth columnists and political emergencies. 

His aggregate record of public service and academic adventures is not only reflective of his vision, character and leadership philosophy, but is as plain as simple truth. Born on October 28, 1972, he attended St. Patrick’s College, Calabar; obtained a B.Sc. in Economics from the University of Uyo; and an M.Sc from the University of Nigeria Nsukka. 

He doesn't present in photocopies what he doesn't have in  originals. His credentials have no holes and are handy even if you asked him in the dream, a textbook testimony of his having burnt the midnight oil.  

Of course, Akwa Ibom people do not want a leader whose details they must plunge their heads into the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean to retrieve, yet return empty with the excuse that down there was too muddy for any activity by ordinary humans. 

So, day in, day out, in words and deeds, the Senator representing Uyo Senatorial District at the National Assembly, Obong Bassey Albert Akpan (OBA), keeps proving how well he prepared for this moment and what it means for someone to seek a leadership position. 

As part of that preparation anchored on personal conviction, OBA today stands tall on visible antecedents of his public stewardship and accessible academic credentials that have not only equipped but increasingly fine-tuned him as an emerging statesman in whom Akwa Ibom people can, and are ever ready to, entrust their collective wishes upon as governor in 2023. 

Recent developments in the political domain, some of which are curiously strange and historically disparaging to the State’s corporate image, socio-political psychology and culture, have shown clearly how the past can affect the present as we move toward into the future.   

Whether at individual or State level, unfolding events have brought to limelight the question of character and service ideology of seekers of public offices and the kind of leaders the people would want to stand by, to serve them. One inference from these is that faulty foundation will bring faulty results. 

This is where OBA makes a huge difference and thus continues to win the hearts of the populace who, having known and tested him for years in various positions of responsibility, has no doubts whatsoever in his ability, academic testimonials, nor intension.

OBA’s stellar performance as two-term Commissioner for Finance in Akwa Ibom State was one regular adjective that defined the Uncommon Transformer phenomenon that former governor Godswill Obot Akpabio has almost perpetually come to be associated with since 2015. 

Being a Commissioner for Finance is, no doubt, a heavy engagement. Yet, in absolute confidence in his dynamism and capacity, Governor Akpabio still entrusted on OBA’s shoulders another huge task of serving as Chairman of Inter-Ministerial Direct Labour Coordinating Committee. 

It is on record that this special task drove unprecedented infrastructural developments to the grassroots.  The logic here is that OBA’s appreciable and appreciative past always prepared him for higher offices. 

So when the time arrived in 2015, the exit point of Akpabio’s two-term administration, there were no debates nor did it come as a big surprise that OBA had an eye in the Hilltop Mansion - and deservedly so.  

However, vicissitude and superior logic impressed upon him the option of going to the National Assembly as Senator. It can be said with a sense history and modesty that before OBA became a senator, Akwa Ibom people had already wanted him to be their governor. 

And had he insisted, with everything then in his favour including the electorate permanently on his side even as it is presently, OBA either would have been a governor before Mr. Udom Emmanuel; or the designation “governor” would never have had a place on Governor Udom Emmanuel’s present profile.  

But OBA’s sojourn in the National Assembly turned out to be a blessing in disguise. He has raised the bar so high that those presently vying for that position should be wise to immediately engage him at whatever cost as a consultant on the secrets of success as a senator.  

Whereas every senator from Akwa Ibom State, past and present, rightly deserves a befitting place in history for his or her peculiar contributions to the State and nationhood, I dare to state that there was never a time in contemporary history that a singular senator from Akwa Ibom State has had as much impact as OBA’s representation has had both on the State and the country. 

Nor can we point at any former or serving senator from the State who has won as many quality awards as OBA has from the Presidency, the National Assembly, corporate institutions (home and abroad), communities, schools, etc.  

This is a synoptic and euphemistic statement of fact to spare the reader the burden of comprehensive details of OBA’s track record as a senator. Across the triune mandate of lawmaking, oversight and representation, OBA holds the ace in all ramifications. 

Today in the National Assembly, except for formality of documentation, the moment OBA steps forward as senator representing Uyo Senatorial District, Members see him as a synecdoche. One source defines “synecdoche” as ‘a figure of speech where a part represents a whole”.  In OBA, other senators from Akwa Ibom State are seen!  

It follows that, in defining true leaders, both their past and present play indispensable roles in influencing public perception and acceptability. When you become a public servant or seek to serve in a public office, you automatically become a book of history in the hands of the public. 

Leaders in whose past people lack confidence or have too many questions to ask have proven to be disasters.

Historically, there are those who l never desired or prepared for the task but who must have been seduced or cajoled into seeking even offices they dread in their subconscious, more for the covert interest of their benefactors than by their own conviction. 

Herein lies a correlation: To OBA’s credit are his inimitable track record of public service; made more appreciable by his clean and traceable academic credentials that are not giving him nightmares, or keep the entire state under tension, to have fingers crossed!  

Prepared for this moment, unlike those caught in the cobweb of opportunism who were expecting some miracle, Obong Bassey Albert’s ambition to become the governor of Akwa Ibom State in 2023, “subject to Providence and the people’s mandate”, as he himself would humbly admit, is more of necessity than emergency. 

Focused and determined as he always has been, his mission is to address the condonable but avoidable scourge of tactical exclusion, self-centeredness, plutocracy, and oligarchy that has plagued Akwa Ibom for some time now, and thereby change narratives as further proof that this indeed was his time.  

Tested and genuine leaders, like OBA, therefore are not haunted by their past or daunted by transient storms of the present on their ascendancy. So, if you ever wondered why OBA has remained predominantly popular and interestingly unruffled against the barrage of attacks from the system, then you should be delighted to know that those against him do so for no logical reason than envy for his tall antecedents of public service and the frightening certainty that they’ve already lost the battle.  

Worst for them, Senator Bassey Albert has authentic credentials. Originals and photocopies of which can be presented promptly on demand! That’s the kind of leader Akwa Ibom people want – and deserve - as the future beckons!