<SYSTEM_TASK:>
Solve the following problem using Python, implementing the functions described below, one line at a time
<END_TASK>
<USER_TASK:>
Description:
 def api_request(api_base_url='http://localhost:8080/', path='', method='get', data=None, params={}, verify=True, cert=list()):
 """ Wrapper function for requests :param api_base_url: Base URL for requests :param path: Path to request :param method: HTTP method :param data: Data for post (ignored for GETs) :param params: Dict of key, value query params :param verify: True/False/CA_File_Name to perform SSL Verification of CA Chain :param cert: list of cert and key to use for client authentication """

    method = method.lower()
    headers = {
        'Accept': 'application/json',
        'Content-type': 'application/json',
    }
    methods = {
        'get': requests.get,
        'post': requests.post,
    }
    if path[0] != '/':
        path = '/{0}'.format(path)
    if params:
        path += '?{0}'.format(urllib.urlencode(params))
    url = '{0}{1}'.format(api_base_url, path)
    resp = methods[method](url, data=json.dumps(data), headers=headers,
                           verify=verify, cert=cert)
    return resp