As Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria’s 21st state, grows in leaps, many have mounted the saddle to articulate and implement their programmes, which must be anomalous to the vision of its founding fathers.
In this down-to-earth interview, Straightnews editorial team pins down Idorenyin Umanah, a public affairs commentator and political analyst, who chronicles and goggles at the various administrations, the various pilots, their achievements and their performances and expectations of future drivers for the state to attain greater and more prosperous heights.
Excerpts:
On the recent celebration Akwa Ibom 35th creation anniversary
It was worth celebrating. If you visit other states created before Akwa Ibom State, you will know that we have a lot to celebrate. We may not be where we envisaged, but certainly, we are ahead of other states in terms of infrastructure and otherwise. We had Idongesit Nkanga as an indigenous military administrator who built the state secretariat. Godwin Abbe and many others contributed to the Akwa Ibom project, starting from the late Obong Akpan Isemin, who marked the advent of Third Republic. He did his best.
Akwa Ibom people became politically conscious and aware of governance during the Obong Attah administration. He was a pathfinder who laid a solid foundation for the state. I can liken Akwa Ibom to a project. Attah came and cleared the site. Then, Obong Godswill Akpabio came, raised structure on the same project site with modern infrastructure you can compete with anywhere in the world. Mr. Udom Emmanuel, who is on the saddle now, has put a little touch on the infrastructure and has done remarkably well in the health sector and also created awareness among us, taking us away from the civil service mentality to an industrialised state. Governor Emmanuel has established a lot of industries which others after him will build on.
Well, ex-Governor Akpabio conceptualized building industries in the 31 local government areas, but Governor Emmanuel has been able to make it a reality. There are other remarkable achievements in the health sector done by this administration. So, I want to say congratulations and happy anniversary to Akwa Ibom State.
Ownership of cottage industries
I think where the governor and the handlers of government failed is that these industries are not owned by the people. If government is partnering them, you don’t claim ownership. For instance, if the syringe company makes N100 million annually, and if the equity shares is about 10%, the state should make about N10 million; but government has not been transparent to us. Like the Ibom Air till now, we don’t know the amount of money that is being invested there by the state governor. We are asking: Is it a company privately owned by an individual but run by the government? And government has been shady. Government thinks we are naive and we don’t ask, but some of us have been asking questions. If, at the end of the day, government cannot fund it maybe you run into the owner, he might open up to you that government could not fund it any more. For the cottage industries, we are just happy that they are sited in the state. But, we are not happy as a state that we have benefitted from these companies operating here because we cannot say this is our share of the profit.
On the abandoned Ibom Science Park
To me, Ibom Science Park is one viable project that has been unfortunate to experience lack of continuity. Obong Attah conceived the project; went ahead to conceive Akwa Ibom University of Technology which was supposed to feed the science park in the area of manpower. When Godswill Akpabio took over, he did not continue in the succession plan of Attah. But, I commend him for continuing with the airport initiated by Obong Attah which has given rise to Ibom Air today. Although procurement of many containers of equipment were done, Ibom Science Park still failed. Udom Emmanuel came and promised to fix the science park in his first four years. In 2020, Governor Udom Emmanuel brought a Chinese company to continue the park and everyone was excited that that would have been a technical platform that will make the state a technology hub, as a lot of things in that regard would be created and generated in the state. Even in his 2019 manifesto, the governor promised to revive the park. And I think it was a scam. As people were brought in 2020, there was an outbreak of COVID-19, and we were told that COVID-19 would not allow them do anything there. Government shut down that place, saying that when COVID-19 was over it would be fixed. Up till now, nothing has been done there. But Akwa Ibom State has missed the benefit of the foresightedness of Obong Attah.
Every government spends billions spent on MRO, part of Ibom Airport
I think the MRO is one project that would have fetched Akwa Ibom so much money in dollars. I worked as an operations manager for an airline about five years in Abuja. So, I know the money the company I worked for used to spend on maintenance of an aircraft. If the MRO was fixed as Governor Victor Attah foresighted, it would have been a major booster to the state because most of the aircraft, taken outside for maintenance and repairs, would have been brought here and be paid in dollars. But, successive governments spend money claiming they are doing something in the MRO. They are deceiving us because at the end, the administration will wind down and nothing will be done. But, Governor Emmanuel has injected so much money into that project, and I heard from one of his interviews that the MRO will be completed before he exits office.
Well, I think if he does he will also justify the huge expenses successive administrations have invested because once it starts generating income it will cover what was spent. But the problem I have with this administration is that governor Udom Emmanuel has not been able to tell us the amount the project will require for completion like what we used to hear during the days of Obong Attah and Chief Godswill Akpabio, telling us the project will cost N1 billion, or if the project overshoots that amount, then you hear of variation. But governor Emmanuel, in his seven years of running the state, has left us in the dark on the costs of the projects, except anyone will quote me wrong.
Like Ikot Oku Ikono Flyover, you hear that it will cost N2 billion; we have never heard. All you see is commissioning, and groundbreaking. Up till today, Akwa Ibom people have not been told how much money has been ‘‘wasted’’ in the 21-storey building, which the governor said recently that he is not in a hurry to rent out – that it will take a PDP president to direct IOCs to relocate to their operational bases. This raises the question I asked on radio: Your Excellency, if you are in charge of a bank, as you were in Zenith Bank, will you tie down billions of Naira in a property pending when the bank will produce a president that will tell occupants to pay and occupy? And after that, will you tell Zenith Bank management team that you are not in a hurry to rent out? Is it because this is public money? What will you not be able to use your money for? Why do you do it with public funds? That storey building lying there has no value to the state. Instead, government is running expenses of lighting the place especially powering the lifts and one wonders what will happen when this government exits. How do we hope to recoup the money spent on this project, because initially when we spoke with the Governor, he said he had spoken with IOCs, and Mobil is ready to come when the project is completed? It has been two years now, and nothing is happening. So, the government has not done well with Akwa Ibom people.
Low pace of work at Ibom Deep Seaport
My opinion about Ibom Deep Seaport is different. This is a viable project initiated by Obong Victor Attah. Godswill Akpabio came and spent billions of Naira without getting its final approval. Now, a government that wants to start the project would have begun with construction of roads linking to the seaport. Now, governor Udom Emmanuel came and there was an approval from Federal Government. I went there some weeks ago. There is no clearing, or no major road to show that something will happen there. As I was discussing with a friend, I said federal government is waiting for partnership. Has the state government indicated some level of partnership to begin? Lekki Seaport phase II, I learnt, started seven months ago and they have gone far. Our own governor Udom Emmanuel within seven years and almost winding down has not done much.
I want to plead with the next governor of Akwa Ibom State to give the deep seaport as a preference. Since we have the approval, it will take the political will of the governor for the project to see the light of the day. And I believe the economic fortunes of Akwa Ibom will see the light of the day. So, I am pleading that the next governor should be a person of capacity to drive this vision to reality, because that is what I have seen concerning this administration. It doesn’t seem to answer the yearnings of the people. The government initiates a project it wants and runs it with our money.
Board out government-owned private jet
I know governance has to do with a lot of traveling in and out. But I think the private jet has given whoever becomes governor an unnecessary access to fly in and out at will. I also think purchasing the aircraft by Governor Akpabio was to save a purpose which it did. But the non-indigenous nature of Governor Udom Emmanuel has allowed him to maximally use the aircraft to his advantage. If we were to have a governor who is people-oriented, an indigenous governor who knows that he should stay in town and know what is happening to the people, he will not use that aircraft like that. It will have its normal usage when it is necessary, but his non-indigenous nature has made him overstretch now that the people are asking that it be sold out so that the governor can concentrate. But an indigenous governor will stay back. The problem with this administration is the disconnect between the governor, government and the people of Akwa Ibom State.
How to implement governor’s promise to plant 300,000 coconut seedlings
Planting of the coconut seedlings would have been a wonderful project from inception, but the state government missed it. Before that, has there been soil test conducted to ascertain if the soil will support growing coconut seedlings? But I think government rushed into coconut planting without due consultations and findings. Even the coconut seedlings earlier planted did not yield. Government out of shame said it was as a result of juju called in the local parlance mbiam. And I ask: why can’t we assemble pastors to pray about the plantation?
But, I think the proper soil sampling, test and findings should have been conducted before investing or rushing into it. Again, I don’t know how the governor will feel, planting coconut seedlings that would have yielded in about two years, then none has yielded in eight years of his administration and the coconut factory has not refined any nuts from that plantation.
To be continued
