Bassey Albert Akpan was born on 28 October 1972 to the family of Chief Albert Robert Akpan, a successful businessman, prominent politician and philanthropist. He attended St Patrick’s College, Calabar, from where he then proceeded to the University of Uyo where he bagged a BSc in Economics (Second Class Upper Division). In further pursuit of academic excellence, he obtained a Masters of Business Administration(MBA) degree from the prestigious University of Nigeria, Nsukka.
\nIn 2007, when the call to public service came through his nomination as a commissioner into the Executive Council of the Akwa Ibom state government came. He accepted and was given the finance ministry portfolio to manage. With his wealth of experience in the banking sector and his background as an economist, he was able to grow the state\u2019s Internally Generated Revenue, to N15.6 billion as at year end 2013.<\/p>\n
He was also the Chairman of the Inter-ministerial Direct Labour Coordinating Committee whose job was to ensure that government were completed using direct labour to save some money for the state.
\nIn April 2009, Bassey Albert chaired the first ever Akwa Ibom state Revenue summit. The Summit with the theme: “Maximising Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) Potentials in Akwa Ibom State – A Collective Responsibility” involved participation by stakeholders from diverse socio-economic sectors in the state and was organized as part of strategic efforts to boost the Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) of the state.
\nHe was instrumental in the negotiations between the state and Standard Chartered for the approval of a loan of \u00a3325.24m to execute projects in the state.
\nIn 2014, Bassey Albert declared his intention to contest for the Governorship seat of Akwa Ibom State, but after the primary he lost out to the current incumbent Mr Udom Gabriel Emmanuel.
\nBassey Albert was sworn in as a Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, on 9 June 2015.
\nHe moved a motion on the floor of the Senate to look into the state of the Ikot Ekpene – Itu – Calabar highway which has been abandoned for years and has gotten into a state of disrepair. This has led the senate to inaugurate a committee of which he is a member On 12 October 2015 his election was upheld by the Appeal court which returned him as the senator representing Akwa Ibom North East senatorial district. He was also appointed as the Chairman of the Senate committee on Gas Resources by the Senate President, Bukola Saraki.
\nSenator Bassey Albert has been an outspoken member of the senate on topical issues. His committee turned down a proposal of N200 million in the budget of the Ministry of Petroleum Resources for the preparation of the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB). The committee also rejected a request for appropriation of N200 million for the review of Nigeria Gas Master-plan, describing it as unnecessary.
\nHe has also said that federal lawmakers will resist any attempt by President Muhammadu Buhari to control the National Assembly.
\nThe senate committee on Gas headed by Senator Bassey Albert has been engaging with The NNPC and IOCs to end gas flaring in Nigeria.
\nHe was disqualified from the senate on the 27th of February 2017 by the High Court of Nigeria who nullified his election to the Senate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":25557,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"template":"","categories":[166,484],"writer":[],"class_list":["post-21756","biography","type-biography","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","category-public-service"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blerf.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/biography\/21756","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blerf.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/biography"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blerf.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/biography"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blerf.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blerf.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/biography\/21756\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blerf.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25557"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blerf.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21756"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blerf.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21756"},{"taxonomy":"writer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blerf.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/writer?post=21756"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}