I am from Eket senatorial
district
It
was a cold Monday morning in Uyo and it was time for select Publishers and
Editors of print media Houses to meet with the secretary to the State
Government Mr. Udom Emmanuel. This meeting though was at the instance of the
SSG was called quickly the week after the SSG had visited his Awa ward to
revalidate his membership of the Peoples Democratic Party where he was accused
to have made away with the ward register and strucked out a name to replace
with his own.
But
what was the essence of the meeting? Was it for the SSG to clear the air on his
visit to Onna or to speak up on his rumoured interest in the forthcoming 2015
gubernatorial election for the position of the Governorship of Akwa Ibom State?
This story will reveal.
The
meeting was actually scheduled for 9am but pressing office responsibilities
kept the Press waiting till a little over one hour. And when the SSG, Mr. Udom
Emmanuel finally arrived, he announced he was ready for the familiarization.
Indeed the SSG had argued that it should not be seen or called a press chat but
a meeting were issues can be discussed and a familiarization met. He spoke well
and showed glimpse of what should be expected of him. Amongst the issues he
discussed was that he is from Eket senatorial district, he also spoke on why
government cannot build industries.
Very clearly he avoided the issue of 2015
guber and whether he was going to contest and also whether he was brought in to
contest. But he spoke by way of clearing the air concerning his membership of
the PDP whether he actually back dated his membership of the PDP. He was on top
of his game. Widely travelled and schooled, highly connected and experienced
technocrat. Did he leave anything to chance? This is the excerpt, an abridged
version of that Monday………
INTRODUCTION
My
name is Udom Emmanuel. I like going with two names. If I have to go with my
three names, my name is Udom Gabriel Emmanuel……..
WHY
I CAME HERE
I came here today because I
have seen a passion in His Excellency, the Governor irrespective of how people
think. I read the other day in the internet someone said the Governor is only
developing roads. I commented that someone like me have been in this State for
so many years, how come we did not have roads? How come, nobody could reach Ika
for years or Obot Akara? Nobody could assess Umuahia? So, if you don’t go
around other States, you might not appreciate what you have. Besides, when
there is no road construction, development would not be possible because people
will get trapped in bad roads?
Even during my vote of thanks
at Le Meridien, I told the Biblical illustrations of a woman who poured perfume
on Jesus’ feet; some people said that what she was doing was a waste that such
could have been spent on the poor. But in reality those people were not
interested in the poor. Thus, I told his Excellency that in every good thing
people will always oppose to it.
WHY
I CALLED THIS GATHERING
However, my calling you is not
political, if you look at my background, you will know that to serve the State
at this level is borne out of passion. Not because of monetary gains or
pecuniary benefit. And of course I am coming from the private sector. A lot of
you interact with the private sector people; no one rises without a background.
Thus, you need to pass through
peoples live and people need to pass through your life. Before getting to this
level, you might have managed a lot of organizations so you will agree I am not
coming for money, sometimes people will just make a lot of temptation and you
may wonder why this? Even if I want to retire today, I am very sure that there
are so many organizations that will want to take care of my immediate family.
You see, God didn’t create someone to impact only to your immediate family; he
created you to also impact in the bigger family life.
I can confidently tell you
today that I am very much instrumental to the petro-chemical industry that is
about coming in to the state. See, I chat everyday with people across the globe
to intimate them that Akwa Ibom is very good for investment. This people have
information through what they read. See, there is nothing like local newspaper,
news travels very fast. As you are writing anything now, the next minute, it is
on the internet. In seconds information can be disseminated globally.
So, if people read something
that doesn’t depict you, they will start calling, Udom have you changed from
who we use to know? They will put calls through to find out. And from what is written and read about the
state, the investor that wanted to come will say sorry I cannot come again if
the story is capable of harming the image of the state and putting it in a bad
light. And this will affect us all, even generations coming.
That is why I urge everyone to
see something good about the state that we can project to the outside world so
that if I have to pick up a phone and call someone that we have investment
opportunity, people will listen to me. We tell them look; Akwa Ibom is a
friendly place, it is not as bad as you think. If they don’t believe, they
won’t even convene a meeting with you.
REVALIDATION
& BACK DATING OF HIS PDP CARD
You know when I was sworn in
and resumed work as SSG, I needed to do certain handing over in my former
office, and people said that in every appointment, there is a political
undertone. Do you know that since I came in I had never reached my father’s
compound? People said No, it is not done that way; you need to go to your
family and greet people.
It wasn’t a planned thing, I
now called my people in the village and asked them what they thought and they
said I should come. You know in Onna we have 12 wards, if you come and greet
your people, others would feel being discriminated. I said let me just get yams
and so on. You know people in the village, if you give them meal, they will ask
you for condiment. So, on my way down there, I was with some commissioners.
When we reached my village you know the party chapter is in my village, they
said no how can you just pass like that I had to drop at the PDP office, I did
not spend up to three minutes and I didn’t even know what happened, something
just occurred to me and I say look, I hope these people are not trying to set a
trap for you. I just came down and said, okay, I’m sure you people know that I
have always been supporting the party.
We are always together over the years;
the party is not the building or the chairs inside this hall. I even showed
them that I am not a new person, I went to my car to show them my membership
card that I have always been supporting the party, that I am a member.
Sincerely speaking, it had nothing to do with registration. Do you know I was
so shocked that in the next minute the story was on that Udom went for
registration, back dated his membership and so on.
I told them look, most of us
here today were in the private sector, and we were still supporting you. I
didn’t engage in the support because of elections, but because I wanted peace.
If people could come out and say this person should represent us this time and
so on, I also said that I want a situation that if anything is done in the
local government, it could be known everywhere even in Europe, that is with the
use of internet, so that when they want to pick interest in national
registration, they can have contact.
BRINGING
INVESTMENT INTO THE STATE
Let’s see how we can bring
investment into the state. why am I so particular about this? Take for example,
most of the successful corporations in this world are partnered, and that will
aid in it being well managed. I want a situation whereby our people will see
school but still have an option. The mind of the people need to be adequately
re-oriented. See, our people are extremely brilliant, like in the last scrabble
competition, the first and third price was won by Akwa Ibom persons even with
many others contesting. The problem here is that we don’t use the tool we have
to bring information to these people.
This is what we need to do. See, if
someone does not say that you are good, you aren’t good no matter what. For
instance, someone will leave school, but doesn’t know how the orientation is
like. We need an information system where people will come to get an insight
about our state. We see prospect where investors will come and partner with us
then bring development. But the fact is that if they do not have the level of
comfort through the press, they won’t come.
HOW
TO CREATE EMPLOYMENT
Now, how do we create
employment to graduates? It is something that bothers me; it is something that
needs an urgent approach. However, for these graduates we need to also send
them on training, as you are on training, you interact with people, see
opportunities, before you know it; you must have captured a whole lot.
We also need to see how we can
use the power of the press to attract investment. See, do you know that outside
the country they use scrap to make iron rods that we do go and buy? Meanwhile
there is a lot of scrap in this country. Even we can gather all the scraps in
Akwa Ibom and Cross River build an industry here and bring them.
The other day I went to the
mechanic village, you needed to see the heaps of scraps there. Do you know how
many people that scrap could employ? Do you know the economic impact of it? You
will now have distributors too, that people from Aba or Ogoni will come down
here to buy it from us. So, we can achieve this, if we partner with the press
through their reportage by attracting investors. So we need the press to help
market the economy of our state for us, we need the press to market this
economy.
See, every economy started
somewhere, I was reading a story about how the family of Mc Clean started and
all of that so when you read these things it gives you the hope that look you
can succeed when you start something. Even the Dubai story, the place was
nothing yet people turn it to something. Do you even know that we are so
blessed when it comes to agriculture? We can invest in this too and our economy
will boom.
ON
THE ISSUE OF COLLAPSED INDUSTRIES IN THE STATE
I wish past government
reactivated those industries that are no more; it could have taken care of
employment. However, you need to know that anywhere in the world; government is
not in the business of running industries. It is not the duty of government to
run industries, it is rather its duty to provide enabling environment for it to
strive. Sunshine battery you are talking about, it is only this administration
that has created access road to sunshine battery. Besides, government appointed
board, management to see through it.
For businesses to strive,
government must provide security, make policies and relevant laws and work with
the press.
However, this doesn’t mean
that government cannot own shares in these industries. See, let me tell you
today, I just discovered that there is a limestone deposit in this State, and I
said if there is such why can’t we build a cement industry here? See
consumption is the mother of availability, create something, our people are
ready to consume.
WHAT
KIND OF PERSON ARE YOU
I am who I am not because of
my powers but because of the grace of God. So, the Governor wanted to make it
clear that this man you see is not a selfish man as you may think.
See, God bless Abraham, not
for him to sit down on his own, but for him to be a blessing to other
generations. I told someone the other day, if in anytime you have cars to an
extent that your wife is using one, maybe one is being used to take your
children to school and still others are left in the compound, you are cheating
someone, you have invariably taken someone’s else car.
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