When the vultures gathered in Minna did anyone see any Akwa Ibom species present in any significant or impactful way? Of course not.
Our masquerades can pretend all they like they are nothing but glorified errand boys of the members of national wrecking crew.
They may be allowed a few privileges but even those are limited to playing the role of fetchers of resources or as the provost to keep any loud dissenting voices in check.
Any which way they want to camouflage it, they are nowhere near the rooms in which those who have drained the resources of our homestead pull the levers of oppression. Simply put they are glorified gatekeepers.
In typical minority style, we have spent our time trying our utmost to diminish each other. We reduced our icons to the point of penury. Starved the strong and alternate voices from our midst, all in the attempt to emerge as the prime errand boys.
For a decade and more we energised the process of self depreciation. Even when perceptive voices warned that it will lead to this pass of visible poverty in the midst of plenty they paid no heed.
Largely out of ignorance or lack of courage they muted their voices and any other reactions in order not to annoy their minders. To this class, all that mattered was feathering their nests at the expense of their people.
In Minna the private jets gathered. Everyone of those jets were bought with funds generated at least in a major part, from Akwa Ibom territorial resources.
Yet there was no jet from here. Even those who may have kept aside enough loot out of here to get a jet for the rainy day can not join the ranks for fear of attention.
The rest of us read about the affluence and glitz as if we are from space.
It has been observed elsewhere that not one of the men of dubious opulence who gathered at Minna was known to have made money from any known industrial. manufacturing or agricultural investment. They once work for or had the privilege to lead this country.
They were all rent seekers hankering after the oil in our backyard. This is the most graphic demonstration of the source of the economic epilepsy afflicting our country.
Within their ranks there was no disagreements on ethnicity, religion, party or even gender. All have a common purpose, and that is to continue the rape of the country to the detriment of the vast majority of the people of this country. But even within these ranks there should be honor.
There should be federal character the religious character the way they insist at Federal Colleges. There should even be different cut off points.
Always Ibom case as the largest field of production should be pronounced but none of these criteria mattered.
While they opened up their expensive gifts for s couple who needed nothing, back at Akwa Ibom we plot to eliminate each other for a chance to be nominated as one of a hundred SAs to the Governor.
All serious Emirates and Oba courts in the country operate multi-billion Naira budgets. Their monarchs own oil blocks. Here our monarchs, natural owners of the oil blocks are manipulated by pitching them against each other.
Who gets a Kia Sorento or Prado? All this is happening in the shadows of a decade of utter wastefulness. During which our prince traversed every fiefdom from the Sahara to the Atlantic bearing mouth watering gifts.
That was when we became the Godfathers at the Presidency and it's entire occupants were beholden to our deep pockets.
This was happening even as others were helping themselves to the national till while we gleefully deployed deprivation as a sophisticated political tool. Our people were deliberately kept by their leaders below poverty line so they can become malleable.
Today we are all prostate. Soon the lonesome mansions which announced their owners' level of decadence will lie in monumental testament to this folly.
Still we refuse to learn. To our fortune the NDDC is here. Doing what that agency could not begin to contemplate in the days we controlled the presidency. Would it not be a source of joy to have them complement the State Government for a change?
Both Governor Akpabio and President Johnathan publicly acknowledged that during their time in office, the PDP Federal Government and NDDC did nothing for Akwa Ibom State.
Must we encourage that situation to survive now we have the good fortune of a son who remembers the situation back home? The unhealthy rivalry is senseless.
Rather there should be cooperation. Lots of it. Let the contracts flow to more indigenous contractors to stimulate the economy like the NDDC is attempting to do.
The Akwa Ibom State government under Governor Emmanuel is charged with the welfare of every Akwa Ibomite. It is an absolute mistake for this government therefore to discriminate in the provision of facilities and opportunities.
It is therefore wrong, for instance, to farm out Inter ministerial jobs and state contracts strictly along party lines. This miscalculation cost the PDP it's leadership both at the Federal and, but for the benevolence of the Supreme court, the state.
It is even more important now to be seen to be fair minded. It is not by accident that the flow of defections is moving upstream rather than downstream.
We can write a book on the state of current polity in Akwa Ibom state but my message is that the state government would do well to remind itself that it was voted in to take care of the citizens of the state and that includes my friend, Engr.. Okon Kumonoiso, who voted for APGA but feels denied by the government of his state.
Now, If the Akwa Ibom State Government draws attention to abandoned NDDC projects in the state in good faith, they are in order. Starting from abandoned Local and state governments projects, the state government has a duty to ensure the completion of all projects within her jurisdiction, even if the project was instituted by the United Nations. There is absolutely nothing amiss there. As a matter of fact that is her duty.
If the State Government means well, it must begin vigorously with abandoned State Projects. It must also put her money where her mouth is by paying the debts it owes local contractors for completed projects.
The value of most of these debts have plummeted since it was accrued. At the time the debts were incurred, the dollar was trading at about one hundred and ten Naira.
This represents almost a 400% devaluation of the worth of that financial instruments. It represents an unmitigated loss to the contractor. The Governor and his Commissioner of finance know more than everyone in this state that that is very wrong financial engineering.
If any of those contractors had borrowed money to execute their job from, say Zenith bank, like any other bank that loan would take over four times its original value to repay at this time.
That means certain bankruptcy to the citizen. No state should do that to its citizens. Particularly when foreign contractors get their debts resolved in days.
A sensitive government which is concerned about abandoned projects ought to be allergic to owing the stimulators of our domestic economy and forcing them into bankruptcy. This should not happen, not when a banker of some repute is in charge.
There certainly are things which we expect the Governor to know more than the great teacher. Naturally! Given his expertise, the state is hopeful that he will do what is right.
Why would anyone Akwa Ibomite find pleasure in denigrating Nsima Ekere? One of our most successful and focused professionals? Of course it can not be anyone outside the tribe of mean spirited leaches who continually aim at the destruction of our icons.
Governor Emmanuel is also a polished professional. I can vouch for his pedegree. It is not conceivable to link him to a bunch of I'll behaved louts whose trade mark is despicable character assassination.
So I am persuaded that he has nothing to do with this raging misdemeanor. However as Governor, the responsibility to rid the state of these vermins rests on his desk.
He must rise to it. If he is not in their scope at this time, it will not take too long before the traducers find him an attractive target. He must know that they have no friends. He must get them before they come for him.
Akwa Ibom has suffered utter degradation in her once civilized political culture since the heady days of the great teacher. We must all rise and expunge that culture of intolerance, violence, dictation, deceit, manipulation and intimidation.
Those dark days must be confined to the past. Let's have some fresh friendly air blowing through the State again. Soon the political atmosphere will transform into electoral mode.
We will not repeat the ugly past. No one will be allowed to do that to us and move his/her family away from the stench. At least on this, everyone is agreed.
TotalChair
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