By Dan Amor
One major sign of the growing sophistication of
Athenian society in the Golden Age was the rise of history as a critical record
of the nation's past. As myth gave way to more accurate chronicling and prose replaced
verse as the medium for preserving fact, the fifth century Greeks came closer
to the scientific spirit of free inquiry in modern times. In fact, it was then
that Plato declared that a life not examined was a life not worth living!
Memories are made of these. Yet, nothing seems more characteristic of
the present age than the homogeneity of its world view. We may frown at its
developmental smugness but we must admire its optimism, its cosmopolitanism,
its intellectual refinements, its spirit of true enlightenment and the
critical engagement with which it examines the world and its leaders. For, it
is always instructive for the serious student of history to start by trying to
determine what an age thought of itself.
Such an investigation is made the easier by studying the lives and times
of the important men and women that shaped the age with their actions. In
documenting the life and times of a towering personality, exciting experiences
are selected, which present emotional and spiritual values, to interpret the
tale as it is rehearsed in imagination or told to an admiring listener or
hearer. As a faithful servant, a dedicated realist and reformer, who bridged
all gulfs, leveled all mountains and put a lamp in every tunnel, as exemplified
by his selfless stewardship to the people of Akwa Ibom State since the past
eight years, Obong (Senator) Godswill Akpabio CON, the immediate past governor
of Akwa Ibom State, has undoubtedly come to be seen as a modern day phenomenon
whose corpus requires a large canvas.
