Nsit Ubium LG Council: Drain pipe for Umana Umana’s governorship BY JOSEPH OKON

The tree which is used as a classroom

A visit to Nsit Ubium local government has clearly shown that the glory of the once exalted local government is gradually departing and it is not being helped by the leadership of the present administration led by Ekpedeme Amos Akpan who is the chairman of the local government council.

Since the advent of the present administration in Nsit Ubium, the local government has remained dormant without any project being executed by the present chairman of the council in the area.

Most of the facilities and infrastructures in Nsit Ubium apart from the ones done by the immediate past administration of Chris Ekpo are deplorable and at a state of total decay.

A Building in the school

Investigations have clearly shown that in the last year of the present chairman, no major project to add values and touch the lives of Nsit Ubium people has been done or even planned to be done by the chairman.

  Public institutions such as schools, hospitals and other infrastructures are at a sorry state of collapse without any intervention from the local government council, students in most of the primary schools in Nsit Ubium study under very harsh and terrible conditions in the environment. Schools apart from those ones constructed by the state governor, Chief Godswill Akpabio through the state Interministerial Direct Labour Coordinating Committee are in a very bad shape and may even collapse in few days time.

Some of the dilapidated buildings which has been abandoned.

A typical example is the Community Secondary School, Ndukpoise that was being built by a famous journalist in the country, Late Mr. Green in the 90’s.  The school since then has not received any attention from successive governments both at the state and local tiers, the school which was at a very high standard with boarding facilities is in a sorry state of near collapse leaving the school with only three storey building with the deckings that is providing accommodation for students to learn.  Because of how the classrooms in the school are overcrowded with students, sometimes especially during dry season, some students are taken to other buildings without the roofs to be lectured.

The Godswill Akpabio free and compulsory Education made matters worse when the population of students into the school skyrocketed. In Ikot Akpan Abia Ubium, the home village of the Nsit Ubium Council Chairman, Mr. Ekpedeme Amos Akpan and one of the councilors in Nsit Ubium local government legislative council, Mr. Otobong Ntuen Anyang, the only primary school in Ikot Akpan Abia is in a state of total collapse.

Incidentally the Ikot Akpan Abia Q.I.C Primary School is the primary school that Otobong Ntuen Anyang now a councilor attended where his mother was also teaching.

Some of the dilapidated buildings which has been abandoned.

Today, the school is in a total sorry and bad shape without any intervention from the state or local government, pupils in that school are today studying under the big tree strategically located at the centre of the school premises.  The school is now being left with only two small buildings built by the UBE, Universal Basic Education board.

These two buildings accommodate just four classes while the rest are forced to take their studies under the big tree especially primary one and two.  Another one is the only secondary school in Ikot Akpan Abia, Commercial Secondary School, Ikot Akpan Abia, still the home village of the present chairman of Nsit Ubium, Ekpedeme Amos Akpan.

The Secondary School though private as it may appear has been under the management of various experts over the years, but now the school has been handed over to the village council, Ikot Akpan Abia Ubium. It is terrible that despite that the Chairman of the council hails from that area, nothing has been done by him either directly or indirectly to give the school a facelift.

In the Community commercial School Ikot Akpan Abia there is no better classroom to accommodate students. It is that bad and sad indeed. A visit to the school will bring out tears from the eyes of an Education conscious person. Students pass through pains and hardship especially during the rainy seasons.

When it rains, students are completely soaked, the facilities and infrastructures at the school are nothing to write home about but that is the home village of the council chairman and the local government of the former Commissioner for Finance in the immediate past administration of Obong Victor Attah and now secretary to state government for about 6 years now and a governorship aspirant come 2015 gubernatorial election, Mr. Umana Okon Umana.

In all of these, the council chairman, Ekpedeme Akpan spends millions on weekly basis to “buy people” to support Umana’s governorship aspiration.  Little wonder he is said to have been by Nsit Ubium people when he was first presented by then SSG to the people for their support to become the council chairman.

Ekpedeme Akpan is said to have been the account officer of Obong Umana in the then Intercontinental Bank now Access Bank was first rejected by people on the account that he has not been in the politics of the area before and has not been familiar with the problems of the area, but Obong Umana is alleged to have threatened to sack some of them that were in government if they fail to support him.

According to one of the PDP ward executive in Nsit Ubium council, he said, the plan of Umana making Ekpedeme the council chairman of Nsit Ubium was to enable him use the council allocation to bankroll his governorship campaigns and buy more supporters to support Umana’s governorship ambition.         

The party ward executive member who did not want his name in print said that the chairman does not have a say of his own as Umana has bundled him and the council allocation into his pocket, and the chairman can only do what the ex SSG wants him to do.

He maintained that since the assumption of office, the chairman cannot point at any meaningful project he has done apart from the free eye treatment he sponsored for one year now in office, adding that all the allocations of the council has been committed to one political meeting or the other, stressing that if not in Nsit Ubium, is in Uyo, if not in Uyo, Abuja.

He further said that the councilors are houseboys of the ex SSG and they cannot ask the chairman to execute any project in Nsit Ubium apart from Umana Umana’s governorship project. He said in Nsit Ubium once the allocation come in, the chairman will give the councilors their own share, take his own and the rest is for Umana’s ambition, that is why there is no project being executed by the chairman in Nsit Ubium.

The chairman has been alleged to have spent over 6 million naira recently when some section of the youths in Nsit Ubium protested against the aspiration of Mr. Umana Okon Umana’s governorship ambition in 2015 by paying another section of the youths to do a solidarity meeting for the ex SSG which took place at the council headquarters, Ikot Edibon recently.

Recently, the chairman is said to have splashed another over 3 million naira in a political meeting they hosted in Uyo with the Managing Director of Nsik Motors, Mr. Nsikan Johnny.  After that, the following day, he is said to have sponsored another political meeting at Ndukpoise, Nsit Ubium local government still in support of the ex SSG and another millions of naira was spent. The chairman, Mr. Ekpedeme Akpan is alleged to have doled out another 2 million naira to the youths, party, women and elders for them to continue in their support for Umana’s governorship ambition.

The outcry of the people of Nsit Ubium Local Government is that ever since the present council chairman entered office, Nsit Ubium council funds has remained a drain pipe for Obong Umana’s ambition effectively executed by the council Chairman.  One year in the life of the present administration has not yet witnessed any meaningful project execution, but millions are flying out on daily and weekly basis to the detriment of the people’s welfare he was elected to protect.

In order to justify his waste of the money of Nsit Ubium people, the chairman was also quoted as saying that Umana is the only project of his administration because that is what he was sent to do, and that he must do, not minding who is happy or not after all he cannot be removed as chairman of the council.

Now the management of the Community Secondary School Ikot Akpan Abia has been handed back to the village with the poor and dilapidated structures, the village head of Ikot Akpan Abia, Chief Akpan Ndem Essien is pleading with the chairman and the state government to come to their aid in rehabilitating the school so that the students can study in an educational friendly environment.

The village head is also calling on government to come in and take over the management of the school to enable the children of Ikot Akpan Abia enjoy the free and compulsory education from primary to secondary level currently being implemented by the governor Akpabio led administration.

The village has however set up a management committee for the secondary school which mandate is to look into the affairs of the school and make recommendations to the village council on the areas that need immediate attention to work on during this break before resumption in September so that students will not be thrown outside while calling on the state government through the State Ministry of Education headed by Prof. Atim Antai as commissioner for education to visit the school to be able to ascertain the level of collapse and dilapidation at the school and to also work out modalities for government to take over the secondary school.

The headmaster of the school, Elder U. M. Thomas said that he has written to the government a lot of government on the need to come to the aid of the school at least to construct one classroom block in the school as his office has also been affected by the dilapidation including staff office even as teachers are now being accommodated under the tree outside or sometimes they sit at the veranda to write and prepare records.

The headmaster called on the Commissioner for Education, Prof. Atim Antai and the Akwa Ibom State government to come to their aid, since the local government is not ready to construct the school or better still rehabilitate the school.