By Matts Udoaka
Last week it was the nerve racking attestation of Deacon Udom Emmanuel, the elected governor of Akwa Ibom State, whose personality and record of performance were show-cased by the Akwa Ibom people to the whole world.
When we talk of Akwa Ibom people, we mean the representatives of the bulk of this state citizens ranging from the high ranking traditional rulers, hoards of the members of Mboho Mkparawa Ibibio, the politicians of like minds and those citizens having the blue-blood of Ibibio at home and in Diaspora who had the interest to converge at the ancestral arena of the Ibibios, the Asan, for the sake of Governor Udom Emmanuel.
This week it’s the odyssey of Obong Nsima Ekere, the former Deputy Governor of this state and a renowned architect, the Managing Director of NDDC, a man from my neighbouring community and clan; and my local government. This odyssey is embedded in my critical thinking skill, to distinguish between fact and value judgment, based on the backlash that trails the M.D.
As we naturally know, fact is a statement that can be proved by evidence. This evidence can be empirical (something you can actually see or feel) or a reliably written account as in a book or document. In contrast, a value judgment is a statement that includes a person’s opinions based on one’s values, perception or feelings.
From the view point of value judgment, I hasten to ask again, can Obong Nsima Ekere make a good governor with the backlash and encumbrances that weigh on him?
Recently, when the executive members of the Traditional Rulers of oil mineral Producing Communities of Nigeria, TROMPCON paid him a courtesy visit at NDDC headquarters in Port Harcourt, the former Deputy Governor appealed to them to intervene by advising their subjects who are public office holders and politicians to play less politics and govern more so as to bring true development to the people. When he said this, the NDDC boss did not take into account that he too is playing the same politics and that a reception by his community Edem Aya clan, was awaiting him the next week.
Indeed, Obong Nsima Ekere deserves to be the governor of this state like any other person, including my humble self. But what casts a plethora of fears in some of us is his ugly past that negatively affected a lot of the people who should stand by him. Like wisdom bestows, a time of reckoning is always mightier than the spiteful and malicious time.
The NDDC boss should not forget those years of his brushes like 2010, with some youths of Ikot Abasi and other local governments who worked with Septer Energy. That incident cost the jobs of those youths and their detention. He must have forgotten the slogan of “Build the youth, and Build the nation” that goes to mean that youths are the future nation. The Managing Director ought to reconcile with them, as some of them are still remembering his roles in their sack sage.
Our big brother must wash his hands clean to conform to the popular maxim that he who goes to the equity, must go with clean hands, because most of his unpopular actions have negatively affected a lot of people who were benefitting by extension from the sacked youths. We do not mention his frosty relationship with his colleagues while working for government before his advent as the Deputy Governor of Akwa Ibom State. The advice that one should not pull the ladder while being on top, does not concern Obong Nsima Ekere. He pulled his own ladder down indiscriminately without noting that same ladder may lead his way while coming down from the top.
How will he fit in as a state governor that should carry all the people along when his burning ambition has made a lot of people to remonstrate their encounter with him? Scheming to become a deputy governor on top of another deputy is his greatest undoing that distant a lot of people from him.
His Excellency needs to make amends to fit successfully into where he is chasing, particularly with his kinsmen.
His Excellency needs to make amends to fit successfully into where he is chasing, particularly with his kinsmen.
Before the planned reception by his people, the NDDC boss did a nice job by constructing good roads in his Edem Aya community, whereas the neighbouring communities have no single good road to show for his being on top of the NDDC. For the information of the NDDC boss, for the period of time Ambassador Edem was the chairman of the NDDC, all the roads in Nsit Ubium local government area were constructed to the last farm land. At least for the short time of His Excellency at the executive pinnacle in the NDDC, about 60 percent of all the roads in his local government area suppose to be wearing a new look. But reverse is the case in what we are seeing. It is only the community of the M/D that has all the roads solidly constructed with drainage whilst other communities have one, with some not blessed with any single road at all.
His Excellency has to consider the period of time it will take for Akwa Ibom to get someone to be at the saddle of the Commission in the future, and cause some good roads to be constructed in the whole of Akwa Ibom State. From the understanding that charity begins at home, the M.D, having gone far with his community should also consider his neighbouring communities and others. For example, it is not out of place to have a good road linking Ikot Ukpo Inua village to Soweto in Ikot Abasi.
For electricity, whatever must have stood between the NDDC and implementation or execution of the power project in Ikot Abasi to link the national grid at Ikot Ekpene should be removed at the instance of His Excellency, Obong Nsima Ekere. The people of Akwa Ibom cannot afford to continue to feel wanting in so many things when they have those things in abundance corked and kept by their son in the K.I.V file.
To be a governor of one state would not even benefit us better than being the head of a federal establishment that has a network to affect nine states positively. But whether a governor is in one or nine states, all we want is to have those things that NDDC can provide now that our man is on top.
For making a good governor or not, the Managing Director has to think twice and act once, because he who stools at the way side forgets that he did something somewhere, but he who incidentally steps on the feaces lives to remember the place of the incident.
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