The Senior Special Assistant to Governor Udom Emmanuel of Akwa Ibom State on Technical Matters and Due Process, Elder Ufot Ebong has advised contestant of "The Labour Room Governor" of Akwa Ibom State, Miss. Peace Mattew on reawakening the spirit of Enterprise.
He gave the advise yesterday at his Shelter Afrique residence when the contestant paid him a courtesy visit, to seek advise and support to enroll on this year's National Development Reality TV Show coming up 1st July, 2017 in Abuja.
The entrepreneurial program is aimed at raising young leaders in Nigeria and promoting social reorientation in the country.
Elder Ebong sensitized the female contestant on various opportunities available in the State through Governor Udom's agricultural revolution program.
"Akwa Ibom State Employment and Enterprise is a well thought out programme, a brain child of Governor Udom Emmanuel.
Even before he was sworn in as the governor of Akwa Ibom State, he has observed that the level of unemployment in the State has assumed such an alarming rate and that something needed to be done urgently"
"But t to reduce unemployment, you have to attack the root causes, one of which was the inability of our people to take part in what we have termed "the building boom".
With the advent of sustainable democracy in 1999, most young people began to model after the elders who were politicians. Normally young people would look up to their more successful peers and elders as a role model to emulate.
"Now what did the undergraduates, students and other young youths see? They saw some people who had gone into politics from nothing suddenly become so affluent, living big. So many young people saw politics as the only way to make quick money.
They suddenly stopped venturing into apprenticeships and artisanship. Rather they started queuing up to get into these plumb political positions.
That is why at a time, you'd see them queuing up as PA (Personal Assistant) to PA to PA to some political office holder, all waiting to get to the prime spot where they can make money"
"Others who could not go into riding okada, ventured into crimes like kidnapping and armed robbery just to make quick money while still waiting to become politicians someday and make a big break overnight.
So you have three groups here, PA to PA to PA, those riding okada to mark time and those who go into crime, all waiting for appointments or political position to make quick money and very few went into apprenticeships to learn trade"
"Now, there was a big boom as the politicians were making so much money and building big and fantastic houses but there were no skilled persons in the state to work as artisans on these building projects. So we started importing skilled labour from Togo, Ghana, Benin Republic and even neighbouring states.
In his effort to lay a solid foundation for the Industrialization, Governor Udom realized that if he doesn't intervene before the industries start booming, we will still find ourselves in the same situation we had during the era of the building boom"
"so the industrial boom will come and our people will not benefit due to lack of relevant skills, unemployment will still walk on four legs.
So he said no, we have to reawaken the spirit of enterprise in our people because when they start becoming entrepreneurs, learning and falling in love with entrepreneurship, they will be adequately prepared to draw from the benefits of industrialization"
"when these big companies or industries come, small and medium enterprise either take from or give to the big companies and if you don't have the right people, others will come from other places to fill the position and our people will be walking around saying "isong aniesad (meaning "things are very tough") as they are saying now, whereas the Togolese and Beninese are walking away with huge money"
"The governor now said we have to start doing something to tackle unemployment and create sustainable employment. Sustainable employment was the key word.
Yes, the governor said he was he was going to create jobs but when people heard about creating 10,000 jobs they thought the governor was just going to issue jobs to people.
"there is a difference between issuing jobs and creating jobs which means creating a favourable climate for people to help themselves and each other, polishing up people's ideas to enable them stand on their feet or pointing at a direction where people can make money for themselves and not from you.
So he started thinking and looking at various models of unemployment reduction. And that is how AKEES was born"
"In those days we had serious entrepreneurs like Victor Akan who owned the tallest building in the then Cross River State. He used to produce rubber slippers and long span roofing sheets, though he was a surveyor.
We had Ambe Bassey, Utuks who was a very wealthy palm produce merchant. We had Usoro Bros, Money Hard, Ekanim Pyramid in Eket, Etesis and so on".
"Who can you mention now in that calibre? All these were entrepreneurs who made so much money in their time.
Some had so much money that they founded football clubs like Etesis Jetimo and Samphill and you know what it meant to own a football club in those days. But we don't have such people again; everyone wants to go into politics"
Elder Ebong also took time to highlight the major beneficiaries of AKEES idea while giving details of job creation to 8,187 within two years.
Responding after the interactive session with Elder Ebong, the Contestant of reality TV show commended the State Governor for his industrialisation agenda and agricultural revolution program so far and pledge that "she can never be poor again"
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