No political tension in A/Ibom — Gov’s aide

John Ogbedu, Port Harcourt - 06.05.2008

Senior Special Assistant to Governor Godswill Akpabio of Akwa Ibom State on Media and Public Affairs, Mr. Udeme Nana, has said that there is no political tension whatsoever in the state despite the deluge of criticisms of the Akpabio administration by his political opponents in recent times.

Nana, who also debunked insinuations in some quarters that the political situation in the state was in a precarious state, told Nigerian Tribune in an exclusive interview in Uyo, the Akwa Ibom capital, that the seeming political tension in the state was engineered by the governor’s adversaries who he said “have regrouped, after losing the 2007 general elections, to discredit the governor and seek to replace him with one of their own after the 2011 general elections”.

He urged such opponents, with much access to the press, to retrace their “unpatriotic steps and stop using the bad press to discredit Governor Akpabio, who from all indications, had done his best to close any division between his administration and his political opponents”.

As he put it, “When I talk of the ‘bad press’, it has nothing to do with the governor’s relationship with the press as such, but that everybody has the freedom to hold opinion and people are free to go into any media house and say whatever they feel about anybody but such opinions should be based on facts".

The governor’s aide, however, said such freedom should be used with great discretion and respect for the truth, stressing that “what has happened so far is that political enemies of the governor have had more access to the press, not necessarily that they have anything to offer the Akwa Ibom people than the governor is offering now”.