Governor Emmanuel’s Global Network Is Working Positively For Akwa Ibom
Mr. Ephraim Inyang-Eyen, the chief of staff to the governor of Akwa Ibom State and immediate-past commissioner for works is a cerebral, hard-working, focused and result-oriented public servant. He is very passionate about the success stories Akwa Ibom State and her people have recorded in the last 33 years.
Inyang-Eyen in this exclusive interview with Crystal Express sues for love, peace, brotherliness and support among Akwa Ibom people. He eulogizes the founding fathers and past leaders of the state and hails in a special way, the incumbent Governor Udom Emmanuel for his pragmatic and result-oriented leadership.
As a stakeholder, 33 years after statehood, could you describe Akwa Ibom as a successful or failed state?
Thirty-three years after creation of Akwa Ibom State in comparison with other states in Nigeria, Akwa Ibom has done well. It could have been better. If we must do an analysis, it must be based on comparison: what have other old states achieved compared to what Akwa Ibom has achieved? You can ask people but if I will tell you, Akwa Ibom has one of the best road networks in the country. Akwa Ibom is the only state in Nigeria and African sub-region that owns a functional airline. Akwa Ibom has evolved, we could have achieved more but don’t also forget that some of the stories in the newspaper on the resources accruing to the state are not correct. So if you ask me as a son of this land and a stakeholder, I will tell you that Akwa Ibom at 33 years if compared with Nigeria at 60 has done extremely well. It could have been better but we are on a journey to the glorious land. We should be thanking God for what He has done so far. God should grant us the grace to do better for the journey ahead of us.
For those who said we have not fared well, there will always be pessimists in our midst. There are people that will not see anything good in others. In a season like this, people are saying there is no money but when you go round the state, you notice the increasing number of ongoing personal projects by individuals. Again, look at the number of road networks ongoing. Agreed we have slowed down because of Covid-19 that came since March and the sudden dip in the resources of the state. Right now the state is not receiving the 13 per cent derivation but there are people out there without adequate information who are spreading falsehood. In summary, I am satisfied where we are but also pray that God will take us to the Land of Promise.
Going down the memory lane since 1987 when the state was created, will you say that Akwa Ibom has been blessed with good leaders both military and civilian?
We have been blessed with good leaders both military and civilian. Look at what Otuekong Idongesit Nkanga did by erecting a befitting secretariat for civil servants over 30 years ago and it is still standing there. We have had leaders that came to build valuable structures and not monuments. We have evolved well since the beginning of democracy. If you compare our sister states with ours, you will be satisfied that we have done well. From Obong Victor Attah to Godswill Obot Akpabio and now Deacon Udom Emmanuel we are lucky with good leaders and there have been consistent development. Obong Victor Attah developed a great master plan, Chief Godswill Akpabio built on the master plan and Governor Udom Emmanuel came and consolidated on the plan and continues to expand it.
There have been consistencies in carrying out projects started by subsequent administration. We have had continuity in projects execution in the state. Governor Emmanuel has continued to complete all roads inherited from the former administration among other projects he added and this has allowed our state to have a consistent growth record. In sincerity the state has been very lucky to have leaders who have continued the process of ensuring lasting development in our polity. We will get better with time but so far so good, when you compare where we are with our neighbours, you will agree that we are not doing badly.
How will you describe the persons of our progenitors who agitated for the creation of Akwa Ibom State?
Let us look at it this way. The then Cross River State or South Eastern State was too large. Driving from Ogoja to Ibeno or Ikot Abasi was too long for one single state and the progenitors did exactly what I believe was right at that time and by God’s grace in 1987 the state came into existence. May God bless them. All I am asking is for the present and future leaders of the state to build on the dreams of our progenitors so that if their spirits are still alive they will agree that what they worked for has come into fruition. When Dubai in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) started, even the sons of their leader were confused with their father’s vision and mission. But UAE today is one of the most sought after countries in the world- a hitherto desert. Why don’t we turn this rain forest into a beautiful destination? Israel was once a desert but people will say it is God’s own country. But God dwells here too and moreso the Akwa Ibom State is named after God. My prayer is that the present and future leaders of our state will continue in consistency so that when we clock 60 years in 27 years’ time, we will be conspicuously outstanding that our progenitors wherever they are will be proud to see the completion of what they started.
As the state prepares for the forthcoming local government election, we have discovered that only the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) will be contesting, with the major opposition party pulling out of the contest. What is your take?
In Akwa Ibom, there is only one party which is the PDP. They have swallowed up every other party and they are fighting among themselves. Ninety per cent of the people that initially left the PDP are now returning. I have personally brought many back, when we said that the PDP is a religion in Akwa Ibom, we are not joking but the fundamental truth. If you go to the other parties, I can tell you that 90 per cent of the people there were once in PDP and left for one reason or the other. Akwa Ibom is wholly and solely PDP and PDP is Akwa Ibom. If you do election 20 times today in Akwa Ibom State no matter who conducted it, PDP will win. Who are those in the other party? Akwa Ibom is a PDP affair, I think they pulled out to avoid humiliation in the poll. I don’t expect everybody who wishes to hold public office in Akwa Ibom to do so, you will fail. Notwithstanding the open threats to the party in 2019 with the famous war-saw-war and threats of federal might, PDP swept the governorship, three Senate seats, 10 federal seats and 25 out of 26 seats in the State House of Assembly. Those who contested the party’s victory in court all lost. God is with us in PDP and who can be against us? God is with us.
The National Bureau of Statistics which gave Akwa Ibom State a pass mark as coming second in foreign direct investments also said recently that the state has the second highest unemployment rate. How do you reconcile this?
I have asked where they got their latest data from. Just like the HIV report which was shabbily done with few samples of some foreigners operating and doing business on our sea-shores to reflect the status of over 7.2 million people is laughable. How many of our people do actually queue up at designated HIV centres for anti-retroviral drugs that should have been a reflection? If you talk of statistics, before the coming of Governor Udom Emmanuel there was no industry in the state but today through the governor’s efforts, we have over 18 industries which have employed more people before now. Governor Udom Emmanuel has also employed more doctors, more teachers and never sacked anybody in the civil service. That position is more political than statistical.
The realization of Ibom Deep Seaport will change the economic fortunes of the state. What is the position of the project presently?
Ibom Deep Seaport is on track and like the governor will always say, we have the support of the President who wants it to come on stream. President Muhammadu Buhari is a man in love with development no matter where it is sited and has given his support and blessings. To the best of my knowledge, what is remaining is the final approval from the Federal Executive Council. The investors are ready and since we have reached this level, we are trusting God that the final approval will soon come so that investors may start from there. This is one project that will change the entire fortunes of our economy as a people. I can guarantee you from all the facts available to me that Mr. President is in support of the realization of that project.
Read Also: Ibom Deep Seaport: A Major Boost To Nigeria’s Seaport Challenges
With Governor Emmanuel attracting 18 quality industries to the state within four years, could you please tell us more on the governor as you have come to know him?
I have spoken so well of Governor Udom Emmanuel that sometimes people feel that I do so because he is my brother and friend. Anytime you see a focused man with God-endowed grace before you is an achiever and go-getter. Gov. Emmanuel is a very focused person that God has brought to Akwa Ibom for a time and season like this. He has the exposure and network. Even during the Covid-19 lockdown, our state received two aircrafts and I asked how come this breakthrough in the midst of the pandemic and he said they paid no money, showing the effectiveness of his global networks. I have seen overtime that money is good but relationship is better. Relationship can bring money but money cannot bring relationship.
If money brings relationship, it is a temporary relationship. Our governor in his heydays in the banking sector created a global network and he is very knowledgable and can discuss any subject matter. Governor Emmanuel is a focused man who wants the best for the state and is using the network God has given him to help grow the state. His network of relationship is rubbing positively on the state. By the time the coconut industry comes on stream it will bring fortunes for the state. The rebranded and repackaged AKEES industry is fully financial with quality products such as toothpicks, tissue papers, plastics and some other allied products. I visited the factory in the company of the commissioner for industry on the directive of the governor and saw things myself. In two or three years with expected expansion, they will assimilate more people into various lines of duties.
There will soon be a boom in the coconut farming business with what is happing in our coming coconut factory. The volume of coconuts which will be needed at the factory will make all serious coconut farmers smile daily to the bank. The multiplier effects of most of the industries attracted by the governor will be enormous. When all the industries are fully on stream with our deep seaport functioning optimally, then Akwa Ibom can rub shoulders with Lagos, the only state I know today that can survive without Federal Government allocation. Akwa Ibom today is accessible by land, air and sea.
The governor has opened two new major roads linking us with our neighbouring state. One is the road linking us to Arochukwu and the second is the road linking Aba through Obot Akara. By air you can arrive from any part of the world and can leave any moment you wish at your convenience. We have ease of doing business. Now you can shuttle Lagos, Uyo, Abuja same day without hitches. The state’s airline is well packaged, conscious of time and well managed. They are very safety conscious and very customer-friendly. I pray God to provide the governor all the resources he requires to help anchor all his completion agenda without unnecessary distractions, so that he will take this state to the next level.
Today our prayer in Akwa Ibom is “God let your candidate be the next governor.” When God chooses a leader, he is always the best for that season like He chose Governor Emmanuel. Nobody brought Governor Emmanuel but God who had prepared him for a time and season like this. God will bring the next capable hand to continue from where Governor Emmanuel will stop.
You are a man of tremendous energy. At the Ministry of Works you were everywhere directing the contractors or supervising projects. What’s your new office like?
My new office has more demands mentally because I am virtually involved in all segments of governance. It is a place you work and get results from behind the scene. Ministry of Works demands your physical appearance on project sites, either demolishing or ensuring that contractors are doing what you agreed with them. Now there is a shift in focus. I do more of co-ordination and get involved in things I was never involved before. As the chief of staff (COS), I do more of metal work than physical works I did at the Works Ministry. Any error in the mental work comes with a lot of consequences. For me it is a good mix. I have had enough knowledge of governance. I hear people say it was a demotion but I will say God bless them as they look at it in terms of budget size as the funds never come to the Ministry of Works but for contractors. In terms of the work I am doing now, I am more fulfilled than when I was in the Works Ministry. Ordinarily I would have had a very limited knowledge of just Ministry of Works but now I have general knowledge of governance. Every seat a child of God occupies is a design of God Almighty not man. So where I am sitting today, which is mentally demanding and energy sapping, is where God has arranged for me to sit for today and I am very grateful to Him.
After Covid-19 pandemic with its damage on the economy, do we still see the completion agenda of the governor coming to fruition?
If you look at all the states in the country during the height of the pandemic, one state that never ran aground was Akwa Ibom State. It was under Covid-19 that we built the magnificent disease control centre at Ituk Mbang. I don’t think that there was any time our state shut down over the problem. The only thing that partially shut down was the funding from the centre when oil prices virtually crashed. The truth remains that God knew there will be Covid-19 because nothing takes Him unaware; remember that this is a global pandemic and there were predictions in some quarters that corpses will litter streets of Africa which never came to pass. The pandemic no doubt has affected the world, Nigeria and Akwa Ibom State’s economies. There was a period in-between when the cost of production of oil which is our mainstay became higher. The price of oil has affected us but a delayed race does not mean that the race cannot be completed. Completion Agenda for me is still on track. To be honest with you, God can bring resources in 12 months that can handle whatever we need to anchor well. He can release the hidden treasures and we will blossom massively that what we have not done in the last six months can be accomplished. I am not afraid that the completion agenda will be derailed because the God who promises is faithful.
Good infrastructure, security and peace are major indices of a developing state. Does Akwa Ibom have them at 33?
I pray God to give Governor Emmanuel the resources to complete the road infrastructure in Akwa Ibom State before the end of his term. We have a massive outlay of road projects slowed down by resources and it is very obvious.
And it is never late with God. Talking about peace and security, what you carry is what you give. Governor Emmanuel is a man of peace. A man of peace is on the throne and there is peace in the land. He radiates peace and our prayer will be: will the peace continue in the next dispensation which answer is yes because he has committed the next governor into God’s hands that it should be God’s candidate not man’s. The people of Israel suffered when they asked Samuel to give them a king like other nations around them. They got a king after their heart but when they cried back to God, God gave them a king after God’s heart. Akwa Ibom has gone to God to give them a king after God’s heart and I am trusting God that the next governor will continue from where Governor Emmanuel stopped. Today there is a slight delay in delivering some infrastructure because there are dwindling resources and God can intervene for us.
Five years after, do you think the DAKKADA Creed brought by the governor has psyched the youths to greatness?
Recently a young lady from our state brought up an idea that prompted the governor to direct her to see me and the idea was that unlike Lagos State, our Akwa Ibom State has no agency regulating the siting of bill boards. Truly in Lagos you cannot put up a bill board without going through the regulatory agency. Akwa Ibom does not have such and the idea emanated from a very young Akwa Ibom person. So that drive is coming alive. Most of the people bringing investors are young Akwa Ibom people. I think that our people are beginning to be redirected. To change perception and direction of the people does not come easy but the DAKKADA spirit is catching fire. It may take a little while to burn conspicuously but it is on. Yesterday I listened to youths of Akwa Ibom sing the creed and it was so amazing, beautiful and awesome.
At 33, what is your advice for the people of Akwa Ibom State?
My advice is simple: let us love one another and keep off the spirit of bitterness, blackmail and anger. Those vices are very destructive. They destroy one another. Move at your pace. Let every man fulfil their assignment in the greater interest of the state. The pull-him-down syndrome is not helping us. We must allow every man and woman to fulfill their purpose. If we do that collectively the summation will be to the greater growth our dear state. You can pull someone down to go up when both of you are aground. In summary, love must reign in Akwa Ibom State. Destructive tendencies must end. We must love one another. When God wanted man restored to Him, He gave Himself. Who is God? God is love. If we add love to the peace we already have here, the state will prosper faster than we see now.
