The Senate President, Godswill Akpabio said his greatest fear as governor of Akwa Ibom State was the state House of Assembly.
Akpabio, who stated this while serving as the Special Guest of Honour at the Public Lecture and Book Launch organised to mark the Birthday of the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, Chief Nyesom Wike, in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, on Friday, mocked Fubara’s handling of the ongoing political crisis in the state.
Akpabio said “every wise governor or the President like President Bola Ahmed Tinubu must fashion a way to hold the leadership of the legislature closely.”
Akpabio said he realised as a governor in Akwa Ibom State that a governor could only be hurt by the House of Assembly and fashioned out ways to work with the Speaker during his tenure.
He said: “For those of you who may not understand politics, we were taught that the parliament can turn a woman into a man and a man into a woman. As a governor my greatest fear was my House of Assembly.”
“So because of that I never travelled anywhere without my Speaker. Any time I didn’t see him for a day I would send somebody to his house to invite him to come and have lunch with me and I would look at his face to know whether he was happy with me or not.”
“The only place that can hurt a governor is the House of Assembly and no court or democracy can stop that from happening. Any President that wants to survive like Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu must hold the speaker and the Senate President very closely, the way he is holding us.”
“Recently, he conferred on us Grand Commander of the Order of the Niger, whether he loved it or not he did it. He muscled the two Chambers together.”