Senate President Godswill Akpabio is currently facing backlash from Nigerians for appearing to be too generous with taxpayers’ money.
This supposed profligacy is covered in the holiday allowance saga and, more recently, the four Lexus SUVs for N1 billion palaver.
Apparently, Akpabio is not new to spending money like it is going out of fashion, especially when the public treasury is the source of the funds.
Back in 2013, while still the governor of the oil-rich Akwa Ibom State, the lawyer-cum-politician gave N1 Million each to the six Chairmen of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) from the South-South geopolitical zone who had converged in Port Harcourt, Rivers State for a party reconciliation session.
The cash gift was ostensibly meant for the party chairman to buy “Mr. Biggs”.
Akpabio’s cash gift followed a speech by then Delta State Governor, Emmanuel Uduaghan, who had said that poverty was widespread among party members in the zone and that action needed to be taken to reduce the hardship faced by party members.
“If you want to prevent our members from straying to other parties, you must put food in the stomach of our supporters,” Uduaghan said.
Akpabio, who took the mic from the Delta governor, said, “My brother Governor, Uduaghan, said our members are hungry and that we must put food in their stomach so that they don’t stray to other parties. I am giving all the state chairmen of the party N1 million each for Mr Biggs. Our members must not be hungry.”