“Hmm… See this small boy o!” Yes I can read your minds. Well undeterred I proceed, after all you said nothing is impossible, yes you too. Call that my weird intro so let’s start.
Let me start from the second part of my topic, what stopped me. Yes I wanted to succeed governor Akpabio, ehn… ami. As a matter of fact I had started consultations, I have met the nkutikuts, ukarakpas, inuen ekpos, afim akpas, oyobios, ikpaisongs and nkukus that matter. I have also worshipped in more than 10 churches since 2011. I have started being humble, loyal and generous, I visited people and events even uninvited. In fact again, I was able to settle the people who accepted to send me, so I can confidently say herein that the people of Akwa Ibom state had asked and disturbed me to lead them from 2015 so I am actually answering a call to service. Yes the people of Akwa Ibom. Do not say you were not there please, were you there when “the people” had sent others who had gone before me? So the people sent me. I do not discriminate the left handed people, after all in 1972 Nigeria changed from right-hand driving to left-hand driving and also President Obama whom I love so much is a left hander so to me both udom and ufien are right for the people of Akwa Ibom State. This is not to say I could not in my creativity coin my name to form a theme for my campaign. My campaign committee chaired on ad-hoc by me had proposed the use of “In a victorious Akwa Ibom, we are Victors”, “Ibom Victory 2015, as victors we stand”, “God’s Victory for Akwa Ibom” etc but I declined all proposals and accepted “Akwa Ibom 2015”, simple. So what happened to the dream?
I woke up! That is the answer. I was woken by someone I met during my consultations, someone I wooed to chair my security. He had mentioned all I needed for the forthcoming period: a two layer circumference of security personnel for my family members and four layers of same for myself and this is the formula: the first layer will be compromised by my opponents, the second assassinated and the third layer kidnapped, only the last layer will remain at the end of the exercise… Hmm. That was not all, I was told the cost of nomination form, I wrote Akwa Ibom state politicians for sponsorship and they did not reply. My budget for the election was unreadable, unwriteable and unpronounceable. I thought if I could sell my phone and the charger I could get the form. At least start from there. So for the first time something was impossible here, I had to stop or suspend the dream.
Why did I really want to be the governor that will succeed H.E G. Akpabio? I wanted to start an industrial revolution, to utilize the wealth of the state to enable Akwa Ibom people to create and get jobs. I wanted to stop the event of having a limited few enjoying the wealth of the state. I wanted a situation where people do not beat drums and follow me everywhere I go because in reality, if they were gainfully employed they will be too busy to come out and drum after me. I wanted a situation we do not have to subsidize tickets at the Tropicana Cinema because the citizens will be able to afford the real fee. I did not want to bar the movement of Keke or motorcycles in the metropolis because when there are jobs, the number of kekes and motorcycles will consequentially reduce. I needed our WAEC results to show how of good quality our free education is and I wanted hope for further education for brilliant but less privileged students from secondary schools. Instead of buying buses and imprinting my name on them, I rather wanted to use the money to buy cars for taxis. I wanted the state to start generating revenue to compete with the money allocated the state from the FG. That is why I wanted to invest greatly in Education, Agriculture, Science and Engineering. With these sectors working effectively, our economy would improve greatly, jobs will be easily reached and all other sectors will be positively affected. How did I intend to do this? First things first, my state Executive Council will be composed of professionals in relevant fields, I cannot have a Lawyer to be in charge of Ministry of Commerce for example. I cannot give out Ministries to people on compensation or political grounds if Akwa Ibom must be serious in growth this time. That is not to say however that I do not have great ways of appreciating my supporters. I also will recognize the fact that there are citizens who have better ideas on how to grow the state so I wanted to open a bureau that will be in charge of getting ideas from the people through proposals so that together we can build Akwa Ibom. As a guide to both me and the citizens, I wanted to facilitate an effective presence of the EFCC and ICPC in the state by ensuring every LGA has effective EFCC and ICPC stations. Let me just bore you with a brief of how I wanted to go about changing the state.
On Education, I wanted to ensure that in addition to the free and compulsory education, the standard of learning is improved through provision of adequate and necessary facilities and renovation of old/construction of new structures in schools. I also wanted to ensure the establishment of at least a model secondary school per LGA. The best students in each model school will have sponsorships to study in any state owned institution. On the tertiary institutions, I intended to ensure the sponsorship of lecturers by batches to undergo further studies overseas so as to meet a target of each program having at least two professors within ten years period and also ensure an effective transfer of the western education technology to the state. To sum it up, I intended to establish and fund in partnership with relevant bodies research institutions for the sectors of Agriculture, Science and Technology, Works, Education and Health in the state. That is not all, but let me stop there before they steal my idea.
On Agriculture, taking advantage of our very fertile soil, I wanted to make sure that the state invest greatly in the sector so that we can start producing enough raw materials for agro-allied industries. I wanted to sponsor research into the cultivations of some foreign crops in the state. Talking about agro allied industries, it will be a great thing to find juice, flour, biscuit, noodles and all kinds of foods and drugs manufactured in the state using the raw materials from our farm produce. Akwa Ibom can feed the nation. This will not only feed the state cheaply, but will also cause a great opportunities for employment for different class of people. Do I need to talk much on the need to make effective use of our marine agricultural resources? I wanted the economy of the state to be greatly diversified, not depending solely on crude oil.
On Science and Technology, I wanted to resume the construction of the Ibom Science Park, it will be best for the state to not just be a zone for the assemblage of electronics but to also learn how to develop electronics and many devices. We should be tired of importing common wooden rulers with made in china labels. We should also look into provoking researches in the areas of engineering, science and technology in the state’s institutions.
On industries, I definitely understand the challenges of having public enterprises, but I strongly believe that every challenge has a solution, we just need to search and research for it. I wanted to establish as many agro-allied industries as possible near the farms already planned for in the state. Why do we need to bring in biscuits, sweets, chewing gums, noodles etc. from outside the state when we can as well send out our own? I also wanted to establish the state owned Oil Exploration and Production company. It is not good the state play a passive role in the utilization of the oil resources by merely waiting to receive from the International Oil Companies who operate here and from the monthly allocations from the FG, that is too lazy on our part, so I wanted to establish a state owned oil services company with a vision to grow into an E&P Company soon. The same applies to civil works, construction companies, the state Ministry of Works can be equipped to own a subsidiary company that deals with civil works call it Ibom Construction Company that will start with the constructions of local roads and also handle some public infrastructures with a vision of growing to take over major projects in the state and beyond. Have you ever thought about the possibility of having AKBC rebranded to compete with Channels TV? I know the state also needs other television corporations, AKBC should be for news. I also wanted to invest greatly in the Akwa Ibom movie industry importing foreign techniques and technology to enable Akwa Ibom movies outshine that of Nollywood. Serious efforts were also to be placed to ensure the Ibom Seaport is realized, a very necessary facility to boost industrialization in the state and country. I also intended to ensure we have metals manufacturing and fabrication companies so as to ensure we no longer import steel from abroad but can simply manufacture and fabricate same in Akwa Ibom to feed Nigeria.I do not wish to exhaust my list of industries. Let me stop there.
I also have serious and inexhaustible plans for other sectors like health, children/women, transportation, commerce, lands, town planning and housing, culture and tourism. Like for example I wanted to propose a bill to abolish child labor, by so doing I intended to establish an Ibom Family Care Centers across the LGAs to ensure less privileged children and aged people are taken care of instead of having them cause children to hawk in the streets thereby exposing the young generation to the very harsh side of life when I am here cruising on A/C jeeps governing them, meaning every child found to be under labor will be taken by the state after following necessary takeover due process. In housing I intended to embark on making very affordable housing scheme for the rural communities especially. But it must be admitted that this article is already too long so I must stop. I must tell you however that if I could achieve all these, the hotels and entertainment centers built by the current administration would not even accommodate the customers and as such bigger private hotels would beg to come into the state so the government would not have to be providing everything in a whereas mixed economy as practiced in Nigeria. Chai… if only you could see the roadmap to the future through my eyes… Let me stop. Do not forget I would have wanted to go for a second term too, very important, besides the sweetness of power, I also would need to ensure that reasonable extents have been arrived at in my revolution for change in the state.
This is just a shadow of why I wanted to be the governor of Akwa Ibom state come 2015. Thank you.
Edited by: My friend
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