… We have decentralized the Science Park
… Because we have replicated the Science Park in the Youth Development Centres
Akakan Umoh
Akwa Ibom Governor, Pastor Umo Eno has eroded the importance of the abandoned Science and Technology Park executed 20 years ago in Uyo, the state capital , vowing not to complete it.
Speaking at the event held at the premises of recently revamped the Akwa Ibom Agricultural Development Programme (AKADEP), Uyo, Thursday, May 28, Governor rather said, ‘‘We have decentralized the Science Park.’’
Recall that ex-Governor Victor Attah, who ruled from 1999 to 2007, initiated the project in 2006 as a technology hub similar to Silicon Valley in USA to service then envisaged Akwa Ibom University of Technology.
Also read: Ibom Science and Technology Park Gets Lifeline
Straightnews learnt that Obong Attah had paid N5.3 billion to SB Julles of South Africa out of the total contract sum for the development of the project.
Ex-governor Godswill Akpabio who ruled from 2007 to 2015 avoided the project for what he called ‘‘failed project,’’ attributing non-completion to the proximity of the location to an erosion-prone environment and alleged mismanagement of funds by the previous administration that initiated it.
Akpabio stated ”If a goat defecates, it retains fecal pellet in its anus. Let that one remains. The Science Park was contracted at about N5.6b and from the records about N5.3b had been paid upfront to the contractor, a South African Company and nothing was done. But the Ibom Hotels and Golf Resort and Akwa Ibom International Airport were, to me, ongoing projects and I went in and completed them,” he remarked.
Then Akwa Ibom Governor, Udom Emmanuel, who ruled from 2015 to 2023, viewed the project as central to the state’s industrialization agenda.
However, he was said to have allegedly abandoned foreign investors who came for inspection of the project in a hotel for weeks, forcing them to have bolted away secretly after incurring huge bills.
Responding to a request by a royal monarch to compete the project, Governor Eno reacted ‘‘Let me end this speech by explaining to our revered Paramount Ruler that I would not do the Science Park. There is nothing like the Science Park.’’
According to him, ‘‘We have replicated the Science Park in the Youth Development Centres. If you go to each of the youth development centre, you will see we have space for creative thinking; we have laboratories in each local government area.
He further buttressed his argument ‘‘We have decentralized the Science Park. I am going to give that land to any coming investor free so that we stop talking about the park. Government had paid compensation and claimed the place.
‘‘What was applicable 20 years ago is no more applicable now. The world is evolving, technology has taken a different round. So, let us not continue to believe in Science Park. I have my own projects. I was not elected to come and complete all abandoned projects by past administrations.
”I have done some, I would not do all. Do not bring someone’s project to me. Let me execute some projects quietly- the ones I could do and leave those I cannot. Nobody should talk about Science Park. We are doing it in all the local government areas in the state.’’
The Governor insisted ‘‘I want to teach our children ICT, Oracle, and Coding- all these are science parks. Science Park is in your lap top; it is not a building.
‘‘Nobody should blame for not doing the science park. If all the past leaders had been undertaking abandoned projects, the state would have been better than this. Some people abandoned some projects that would have been beneficial to Akwa Ibom people due to the grudge they with one another.
‘‘I do not have grudge with anybody, but my duty is to execute projects that will benefit the people. We will continue to look at economically viable projects, revive them and apply innovations because life is not static but dynamic. We will move with the dynamism of life- that is what government is all about,’’ Eno added.
