Chosen, crowned: How God raised God’swill Akpabio

By Emmanuel Nicholas

I began very early in life. Soon after completing my secondary education, I left home to pursue my ambition of becoming an artist, first to Port Harcourt in 1992 and subsequently to Lagos in 1994.

During those years, I had the opportunity to record my first demo tape at Lemmy Jackson’s studio, where I met his manager, Essien Akpabio, the uncle of Senator Godswill Akpabio.

One evening, while waiting for a studio session, Lemmy Jackson Otu introduced me to Obong Otong Akpabio, who arrived in the company of Senator Godswill Akpabio; at that time, the senator was serving his NYSC year. I soon grew close to both Obong Otong and Godswill Akpabio, Obong himself an aspiring artist manager and promoter, learning the trade from Essien Akpabio.

Around the year 2000, after a few years at Paul Usoro & Co., Senator Godswill Akpabio joined EMIS Tele-Communication Nigeria Limited as secretary, and in 2002, he was appointed Managing Director.

His ascent truly began there. I recall that in the same period, he was invited to Akwa Ibom to serve as commissioner; delayed flights to Calabar led him to spend some time at Auntie Christy Essien’s home while awaiting departure.

I was present for a rehearsal for a gig we had at NTA Channel, 12 Yaba, and I remember, word for word, a remarkable exchange: when He told Aunty Christy that he was to undergo screening for a commissionership, Auntie Christy replied, “You will not only be a commissioner; you will become governor, and from there you will occupy the centre of Nigeria.”

Senator Akpabio laughed and chided her for her “spiritual visions,” as if she were merely playing, yet everything Christy Essien prophesied that day has since come to pass.

I recount this story because many people claim that Senator Godswill Obot Akpabio was jobless at the moment and he came to Akwa Ibom State through a night bus, that are empty lie.

When God intends to exalt a man, He often employs other men as instruments. Every person with a strong destiny is linked to God’s purpose, and God can use even me to place someone upon whatever throne God wills.

The first lesson is this: Senator Godswill Akpabio was not the only scion of the distinguished Akpabio family, nor the most ostensibly qualified, but God moved the hearts of Sir Ibanga Akpabio and the late Chief Fidelis Etim to choose him.

It was God who made it happen, and though He employs men, those men must not presume to supplant Him by claiming, “I enthroned you, and I will bring you down.” Such assertions bear no force against divine ordination; any attempt to undo what God has established will fail, because the foundation of his enthronement is not man but God.

To contend against him is ultimately to self-destruct. He will continue to move from glory to glory; no one who opposes Senator Akpabio now can succeed in bringing him low. Consider his life: his father died when he was very young; his mother, Madam Lucy Obot Akpabio, endured great hardship to raise him until an uncle intervened and sponsored his education.

Though other members of the family, such as Isiong Akpabio worked with Mobil, and Sir Emem Akpabio of Shell Petroleum, were prominent then, it was the son of a widow who was called to the throne. Even those who promoted him for a commissionership could not have foreseen that he would one day ascend to the governorship and later the Senate President of Nigeria.

Prophet Nathaniel Aaron often reminds us that one may be another’s classmate yet never his “companion in grace”; one may even share a birth hour with another, as in the case of twins—yet destiny and distinction may decree that one shall excel the other; recall, for example, the story of Jacob and Esau.

Family quarrels will inevitably arise, but it is imperative to resolve them discreetly within the family rather than to air them publicly or to pursue vindictive schemes to destroy a relative; such attempts will not prevail.

Consider Haman, who erected a gallows to hang Mordecai and to annihilate the Jews; the plot was foiled, Esther’s position was vindicated, her people were delivered, and Haman himself met his end upon the very gallows he had prepared.

Scripture teaches the principle plainly: “For promotion cometh neither from the east, nor from the west, nor from the south. But God is the judge: he putteth down one, and setteth up another” (Psalm 75:6–7), and “The king’s heart is in the hand of the LORD; he turneth it whithersoever he will” (Proverbs 21:1).

The lesson is plain and repeated: God’s sovereign hand elevates according to His purpose. Men may be used as channels of that elevation, but no man should presume to be the ultimate source.

Those who wage personal battles to destroy someone whom God has set up risk self-destruction. If God’s design is at work, the appointed one will continue in his course, strengthened, vindicated, and moved from glory to greater glory.

Brothers may frequently misunderstand one another, but public denunciations and the spreading of falsehoods will never produce peace.

Do not let frustration drive you to desperate, wanton measures; exposing grievances in the public sphere and seeking to tear down a brother to force him back to the negotiating table is futile.

When you were being fed, no one protested; now that the table is bare, restore provision through peace rather than conflict, for malice will never prevail against Senator Godswill Akpabio. He is God’s elect

Consider his journey to becoming a Governor. He was not the man’s anointed, but he was God’s choice. He had no great men behind him, but God used the masses to enthronement him as the Governor of Akwa Ibom State.

My father, Sir Nicholas Okokon, once advised a woman who wanted the extended family to know that her husband no longer saw her but instead visited the junior wife every night: “A prudent wife does not display her family problems in the marketplace; only a fool would broadcast them across the market floor.”