TOP 20 PROBLEMS WITH BEING AKWA
IBOM’S NEXT GOVERNOR
Maybe this is
a letter to whosoever aspires to govern Akwa Ibom state next. But it may not make
sense to you the 3rd party reader
until you’ve been to
Akwa Ibom state of late, and you saw the place couple of years back. Especially if you’ve also seen
other states in Nigeria – in the last, say, 20 years.
And then if you consider
that Nigeria’s politicians represent the most selfless-less of our fraudulent
sub-community, you will easily appreciate that there are problems with becoming
governor over a people who are becoming acquainted with visible (palpable, see-able,
feel-able) development. These
days, on visiting
some cities in Nigeria, you want to run back to Uyo – that’s more of a
confession to me than a testimony. And, yes, that’s what Akwa
Ibomites are feeling like right now.
If your greed, as aspiring governor, is worse than feared, these problems
will mostly likely become curses for your diet. That’s why I changed the title
from “Top 19 Curses…” to what it is – the possibility of you getting it right. While
I’ve personally had no direct benefits from the state government since the
Military handed over, I can’t deny enjoying the sight and the news of Akwa
Ibom’s makeover; which makes this write-up pro-Akwa Ibom and not pro-anybody in
particular.
The problems;
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You’ll have to continue paying the school fees
of poor Akwa Ibom school children.
The administration of Akpabio
has successfully introduced and funded free education for Akwa Ibom kids
schooling in public schools. One may argue over the quality of Education those
kids receive or the effectiveness of implementation of the policy, but truth is
that kids are going to public schools for free in Akwa Ibom. Not good enough?
Well, you’ll know when (if) you get there.
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You’ll
have to maintain the AKS image and enhance it further in the perception of majority tribes
The present governor and his
immediate predecessor have shown Nigeria what Akwa Ibom could
do. The former led campaigns for Resource control going against the fury of
giant ‘opposers’ of the concept – what others shied away from;
the present has practically dismantled that disgusting “Calabar” tag that uneducated
majority tribes foolishly gave to hardworking Akwa
Ibom born who live and work among them. That tag meant
that the Akwa Ibom person had neither a distinct nor
respectable identity to majority tribes. [Meanwhile, ‘Calabar + Uyo’ > their
best cities (in many aspects)]. Any governor who does not recognize this
inter-tribal predicament would be a failure. It’s not completely solved, but
there’s progress that must be sustained.
- Keeping AKS in the news for positive events
Several states in Nigeria are
in the news for political, religious, environmental, financial, cultural or
social crises – Akwa Ibom has been in the news more for good than for evil.
Governorship aspirants should consider that the Akwa Ibom people have had their fair
share of fame for shame in the past. If you can’t
reverse things, go back home.
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An
excellent relationship with the federal government in order
to secure goodwill for state initiated projects.
“She stoops to conquer” works in Britain too.
There’s no way you can get the centre to favour you if you won’t work at it. And
I don’t mean doing dirty deals or whatever – even though, you should get your
gloves ready ‘cause there will be dirty deals. What I believe in more than
Amaechi’s style of opposition is Akpabio’s style of persuasion. Which one has
worked? Amaechi’s? Visit Port Harcourt.
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Must harmonise with the
police or else...
If you leave our friends in the
uniform to themselves, they’ll more likely become less preferred to enemies in
the neighbourhood. I understand that both the NPF and Nigeria directly share
the same oga-at-the-top; which makes it menial labour to get them to do their
theoretical job of ‘protecting the obodo along with the eze-obodo’, for “who
are you to ‘interfere’?” So, getting them to not see your interest in state
security as ‘interfering’ could be the equivalent of menial labour. Study
current affairs. But if you can’t work with the police, or other like agencies
run from above, the Akwa Ibom environment, as it is today, will be distorted;
it’s a guarantee.
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You’ll have to maintain
and
increase funding for the green brigade so
that the state doesn’t
become a filthy, untidy place.
When in Akwa Ibom, Uyo mostly, I drive at all
possible hours of God’s day. And I’m not about to accept some caution for
moving at night – for in no time have I run into those fears that come to mind
immediately and it doesn’t look like things may change for bad. It’s so calm, peaceful and so unassuming that
even the po-po doze off in their vans. What I see mostly is the Green Brigade
at work cleaning the city all night; and I think it’s beautiful to meet clean
roads every morning. These guys must never lose their jobs.
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You MUST approve funds
for the completion of mega projects already begun by past administrations.
MUST remains emphasized; nobody wants to
hear crap concerning the Tropicana project, the Industrial area or whatever
mega project you hope to put a stop to that you didn’t initiate. If there’s
something wrong with them, say it now and say it loud. As it is, the people see
prospects in those projects; if there’s something they don’t know, SAY IT NOW
and SAY IT LOUD, I repeat. Otherwise, when you get there (if you do), surprise
our witches and complete those projects. If you get there and you don’t, you’d
be portraying the under-development that your inside is.
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You’ll have to prohibit
the Nigerian culture of poor infrastructure maintenance.
Imagine the Akwa Ibom stadium handed
over to the federal department or agency in charge of maintaining post-Nigeria
‘99 National stadium – the one at Surulere, opposite Teslim Balogun. Even the
blind are horrified at what has become of that sports-facility. That place
exemplifies an appalling culture of facility mismanagement in this country, and
if you listen to some brain-dated critics in AKS, you’ll hear them make
promises about those new infrastructures going the way of other Nigerian
structures. So, even though the situation is not as bad as it used to be, what
you have is an on-going battle.
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If you bring back the
long forgotten transgression of owing civil servants…if you dare!
While you have to open up AKS for industrialization,
you have to appreciate the fact that our people are affectionately attached to
their civil service jobs. Akwa Ibom is predominantly a civil service state –
the kind where workers calculate their allowances for the next month while
receiving the present months. For some time you haven’t heard that civil
servants were being owed in AKS – at least not like it used to be. Now, they’re
looking all dignified and are faring better, even encouraging their fresh graduate
kids to ‘apply for government work’. If some new governor restarts that error
of playing down on their salaries, his family will hold him responsible for
whatever ensues.
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You’ll be under pressure to wipe out keke from Uyo without having an appropriate or
better solution to transportation in the state.
Nobody enjoys keke in any city; even
the riders don’t. But that tricycle has eliminated robbery on motorbikes, a
phenomenon that was just about to settle in in AKS. Amongst other successes,
the introduction of the keke nipped the bike robbery strategy in the bud, but
it has cost much in terms of traffic congestion. Impatient drivers, of which
I’m sadly one, particularly don’t find the keke funny. The more impatient ones are
going to be in the corridors or around passages that lead to the corridors of
your government. And they will want the keke out of Uyo. The proper thing to do
will have to be…you’ll have to figure out. But if the keke must leave the city,
there must be a better plan to ease traffic in the city while not bringing back
whatever the keke kicked out.
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Do you even know what
next after the popular construction of pre-industrialization road network?
Everyone is shouting “Industrialization”.
That comes naturally to every educated Akwa Ibom mind, even if it ended with
Social Studies. But how are you going to approach it? That’s where the next
governor will have some hard nut to crack.
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Will you keep quiet
over child rights abuses?
It hasn’t been clear to many people the definition of Child Abuse in Akwa
Ibom state in the last few years. We have to understand that that concept
manifests in the funniest and most cunning manners. For a case in point, AKS kids
still hawk along the streets and then fall asleep at plaza only to wake up by
11pm and start begging adults with the excuse that they’ve misplaced cash. Some
of those kids live with non-relatives who allow them go to school by day in
order to play with existing child’s rights laws. What I mean is, there are no strict-enough
laws and no ethics in the fight against child abuse in this country. The
present AKS government have done their fight to the level they either could or
would. The destiny of those kids will be watching the next administration.
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If you resurrect
kidnapping, you’ll be the scape goat.
And we mean that in Jesus’ name. And you’ll be
surprised how many ex-kidnappers will say ‘Amen’ when they read this; not to
mention how many ex-victims. Actually, this is coming after thousands of curses
were placed on the soil of AKS by angry victims, sympathizers of victims and
fathers (from Christian to cultural) of the land. The next governor has those
pronouncements to deal with if he ever imagines giving room to kidnapping. And
just in case he wants to reason scientifically, he should please ask informed
AKS residents if curses work or not.
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How about constructing many
more roads?
How many roads have Akpabio not constructed?
How many have not been repaired? How many should be created? If you add the
results all up, you’ll have thousands of kilometers more than what the man has
achieved in the aspect of road infrastructure. Yet he has done so much already.
Wherever people acknowledge his administration’s strides in the country, they
usually mention ‘roads’ with the same breath.
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Give us the drainage
system project.
Roads have been constructed and the landscape has been
tampered with; which has further strengthened a problem of flooding. But you
see, it is never as horrible when it floods at the uplands as it usually is at
the coasts and at sea level. Should someone’s administration not solve that
problem as an example to Lagos, Port Harcourt, Warri etc? A smart governor
would. And there’s a pathfinder drainage project on ground – we’ve seen the
photos – which means that the job should be easier now.
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You’ll have to award
contracts; but without following up to ensure execution, you’ll be an early
failure.
There was an administration not long ago that spent
their first tenure awarding contracts to thieving indigenes in the name of
empowering the Akwa Ibom man. The contractors embarrassed the government
immensely – by not doing the job and not running away with the cash either.
They courageously ‘chopped’ the contract mobilization cash and then went back
to collect what was owed them. Many of them did the contracts haphazardly
handing over shoddy projects that wilted away as soon as they were
commissioned. You mustn’t make that mistake; the present government didn’t
condone it, to the best of our knowledge.
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There’s an unspoken
league of states; position AkS at the head
If you watched the opening of the Akwa Ibom stadium,
you’ll confirm that no other state governor showed up. (Or was there? He must
have hid somewhere). Intimidation is the explanation. Place Akwa Ibom where we
truly should be – at the head of a disoriented league of states, so we can show
Nigerians a muted documentary of what to expect from leadership.
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There is a trend of
non-indigenes relocating to Akwa Ibom.
Yearly, thousand members of our multiple ethnic groups
are on the move for greener pastures – and this is literal for our nomadic
northern fellows. But as things haven’t been as peaceful in Nigeria of late,
our people are looking for safer pastures. This is what Akwa Ibom has offered
Nigerians of late.
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To do: 24 hour water if not 24 hour power.
Why can’t we have 24 hour electricity? Ask the Federal? Ask
Prof why the IPPs in Rivers state, Akwa Ibom and others are either not producing
to full capacity or are not supplying the national grid like we had heard they
(the federal) wanted the plants to. But you can expect the answer to be some
time in coming – we, in faith, are actually waiting for that answer – which
puts you in position to strengthen focus on some other crucial amenity; focus
on water. If the people can’t have 24-hour light immediately, give them 24-hour
water. And make it potable, affordable and accessible; let it flow in their bedrooms
if they so desire.
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Time to get new-look public schools.
At present, what we have back there are the commonest Western media
images of sub-Saharan African schools. And that’s an upgrade from what our “leaders
of tomorrow” were studying in. It’s time we made our public schools look as
cool as school should be.
Leading a state
like Akwa Ibom shouldn’t be any more difficult than leading your family; all
you need do is enlarge your capacity. Basically, if you are faithful in little,
you should be faithful in much – faithful in the sense of what people say about
your leadership against what people know about your leadership. The secret to
success is in this piece of advice: don’t just be a governorship aspirant;
think of being an aspiring governor after (if) you win.
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