Governor Godswill Akpabio of Akwa Ibom State has said he was once so poor he fed off waste bins from the streets.

In an audio clip posted by thinkakwaibom.blogspot.com, Akpabio said his experience living off the streets toughened him to become a better public servant years later.

He was speaking in Eket during the inauguration of a hotel, Sonak, owned by his elder brother, Isong Akpabio, a former public affairs manager of Mobil Producing Nigeria.

“I was on the street, struggling with other people to eat, sometimes from the dustbins,” Akpabio said.

“I knew that (my brother, Isong Akpabio) having worked in Mobil for a long time and Mobil provided the food, the car and everything for him…”

The governor’s brother, Isong, was among the numerous aspirants within the ruling Peoples Democratic Party in Akwa Ibom State who contested alongside Godswill Akpabio for the party’s governorship ticket in 2006.

“I felt I knew the people’s problem more than him (Isong Akpabio) that was why I told him wait for me, let me go first as governor,” Akpabio said, eliciting plenty of laughter from his audience.

“Yes, I knew the problems of the people. One of the major problems was that even your state capital did not look like a state capital. Another problem was that people were using your children as house-boys and house-helps. The third problem was that when you mentioned your name ‘Ekaette’, people looked down on you.

“So, we worked on those three things; your state capital is now the cynosure of all eyes, your children are now enjoying free and compulsory education, and now when you say you are from Akwa Ibom, people say, ‘oh, welcome and have a seat.”

Turning to his brother, he said: “Now, after 2015, you can contest (as governor). They will vote for you, after seeing what you’ve done here”.

Akpabio has a reputation for being one of Nigeria’s most profligate Governors who moves about with stashes of cash; doling them out with reckless abandon wherever he shows up.

Source – ekekeee.com