It was a sunny afternoon in the month of February 2010. The village was Ikot Akpa Esia in Ibesikpo Asutan Local Government area. On that fateful day, thousands of Akwa Ibom people had gathered to witness the inauguration of a newly constructed block in the Health Centre located in that village. This project was one, among the over 648 people-oriented projects executed under the Inter-ministerial Direct Labour Coordinating Committee for that particular year. After the commissioning formalities, I in company of some journalists who were on ground to make news out of that event, decided to ask the coordinator of the committee overseeing the execution of the project just commissioned and several other projects to be inaugurated within the period some few questions.
During that interview session, I asked the coordinator of the inter-ministerial direct labour coordinating committee the following question: Sir, what is the underpinning vision driving the execution of all these projects? And here is what he told me in response: “The Government of Governor Godswill Akpabio intends to achieve two important things through the pursuits of this initiative. First, this administration is through the provision of these projects making good its avowed resolve to better to a significant extent, the living standards of the people of Akwa Ibom state. Second, with these projects we are carefully laying a solid foundation through which we could build our industrialization efforts on.”
When that brief interview session was over, I came away with the impression that apart from being a knowledgeable, committed and passionate foot-soldier in the battle to positively turn around our infrastructural fortunes as people, Obong Bassey Albert had, and still has, a clearer understanding of the direction where the bright future of the state lies from where we are now.
With the tremendous feat he left behind with the handling of the inter-ministerial direct labour coordinating committee which became the fulcrum for the delivery of over 3000 projects to Akwa Ibomites, Bassey Albert effortlessly, only succeeded in presenting himself as the biblical servant who was handed five talents to manage. The story, as told in the Christian bible (which has become a handy case study in leadership training classes and discourse) has it that a certain king, before proceeding on an important journey, called his servants and handed them five, two and one talents respectively, each, according to the measure of their abilities.
As the story goes, the one who got the five talents went and traded with the talents he received and doubled the amount, same for the servants who got the two talents. Unfortunately, the one who was handed one talent went and hid it, without making an effort to double his own. On the day of reckoning, the one talent was taken from the man who failed to double his assigned capital, and handed over to the man who got the five talents. One fact is wont to jump at anyone who carefully reflects on this story; the two servants who engaged in productive enterprises to double their given talents undoubtedly exhibited mastery in the prudent management of human and material resources.
Bassey Albert for the seven years he worked as a commissioner for finance existed in the league of the man who got the five talents. For one thing, when the position of the chairman of the inter-ministerial direct labour coordinating committee was handed over to him, he could have chosen to thread the dishonorable path of injecting a good dose of sloppiness into the task of coordinating the committee or perhaps either by sheer omission or commission, plunge the committee into a scandal capable of crippling the committee, thereby giving ample justification for the dissolution of the committee by the Governor.
Rather, his eyes was set on the bigger picture – that of placing his hands on the deck in concert with the icon of uncommon transformation and the architect of modern Akwa Ibom state, His Excellency, Chief Godswill Akpabio to enable the Governor succeed in his avowed pledge of not only strategically positioning the state in the map of the world as a destination of choice for business and leisure (through the provision of massive infrastructures), but while doing so, also lay a solid foundation for the next administration to vigorously pursue the industrialization of the state.
Throughout the various batches of the projects executed by the committee, Obong Bassey Albert at various times through constant monitoring, did a fine job of ensuring that best of materials and equipment were employed in the construction of these projects. One significant point to keep in mind is this: the time Obong Albert had spent going around every village all over the state on his own, either to keep an eye on pace of work or as a part of the team to flag-off these projects went along way in creating a connect between him and the people, getting to know their problems, taking notes and thereby opening his eyes to the areas of needs of each local government that make up Akwa Ibom state. It also revealed to him specific priority areas that will require the immediate intervention of the government. Interestingly, His Excellency, Chief Godswill Akpabio has in various fora said that he will include some few projects that he might not be able to execute in his handover notes to his successor.
The big question is: do we not deserve a successor who has not only adequately demonstrated a commendable level of competency in the handling a committee that brought about some of the projects we now enjoy, but also possess a deeper understanding of the work that needs to be done in the handover notes? If you have been wondering what has been responsible for the huge success that Governor Godswill Akpabio has made in the area of rural development, recall that while working as the commissioner for Local Government and chieftaincy affairs, he had also used such opportunity to interact with the rural dwellers, thereby understanding their problems. A synchrony of the God-factor, these repeated interfaces with the people and a burning desire to improve their lives became the reason behind the huge successes recorded by the Akpabio administration. So a lot of people will agree that Akpabio came into office as a Governor who had a clearer and an indepth understanding of the work to be done, having served meritoriously in the administration that came before his own.
There is no gainsaying the fact that Akwa Ibomites deserve a successor to Governor Akpabio who will not just understand how to place the blocks of industrialization on the foundation of infrastructure in order to produce a strong economy that will leave behind a happy and prosperous people, but one who has previously demonstrated such competency in a position of public service. It looks to me that quite a number of aspirants will be quick to tell you that industrialization should constitute the thrust of the next administration,
but the million dollar question should be “How many of these aspirants have at least for now, a mental picture of well thought-out, (fool-proof, and not trial-and-error) strategies that will bring our collective yearning for industrialization to fruition?
Irrefutable evidences exist that have succeeded in proving that Obong Bassey Albert fits perfectly into the mould of the next kind of Governor we need at this critical time of our existence. He stays up as a flicker of hope that exists in the foggy road ahead of us in the journey of choosing a successor who will drive that industrialization dream we anxiously look forward to.
However, some people will be quick to tell you that he is not from the senatorial district that the Governorship position has been purportedly zoned to. Alas! I queue behind the fears expressed by quite a number of people who have averred that if we are not careful, holding entirely to the requirement that our next governor must come from the senatorial district that the position has been purportedly zoned to will be our greatest undoing as a people. Let me expatiate. It looks to me that if one were to conduct even a casual analysis of the discourse surrounding the forthcoming elections, there is wont to be the discovery that 99% of the discourse on this subject has continued to play up the demand of an aspirant being an indigene of a particular senatorial district, while paying little or no attention to the capabilities and track records of aspirants.
And I dare ask, does coming from a particular district automatically confers on an aspirant the vision that will help him drive the most sought after ideal of industrialization that we are aspiring to meet? So let us say that a particular aspirant had demonstrated ineptitude in a previous position of public service he was privileged to handle, should we go ahead and entrust our collective destinies as a people to such an aspirant, provided he or she comes from the “most preferred” senatorial district?
The Gubernatorial election in Akwa Ibom state is less than seven months away and it is saddening to realize that some of us are still looking at the contest solely from the lenses of aspirants’ senatorial districts. How come quite a number of people are yet to shift the focus to the meticulous analysis of the aspirants with a view to ascertaining which one of them will show a satisfactory understanding of the peculiarities of the hazy past Governor Godswill Akpabio has brought the state from, the challenges he faced in process of achieving the rare feats he has recorded, how he surmounted these challenges and most importantly, how to cash in on the infrastructural successes of the present administration in our journey to turning the state to an industrial hub in Africa, if not the world? How come the shouts of clamour regarding which senatorial district should produce the next Governor is becoming almost louder than the lamentations of some unemployed Akwa Ibom people who are anxiously waiting to work in the industries that will spring up from 2015, or set up their own affiliate industries, when the engines of our industries are turned on? Are we not through the insistence that our next governor must only come from a particular senatorial district, narrowing our chance of getting the best hand to help us achieve this huge dream, or even selling the misleading notion to the aspirants and perhaps, the candidate who will become Governor in 2015 that all we needed from our Governor was for him to come from a particular senatorial district; that his ability to deliver the dividends of good governance to us is inconsequential?
Akwa Ibomites should come to understand that our existence at this time can aptly be compared to that of a man standing on the edge of a cliff. The decision which we will make as a people regarding who becomes our governor in 2015 will act as the force that will either push us into the cliff or drag us back. If we make the right choice, a new dawn of development and progress will envelop us; but if we make the wrong choice, we will not only find ourselves in that slippery abyss of underdevelopment.
It will be while in this state of despondency, after we must have beaten that state in the south east that has earned for itself the unfortunate tag of being the most underdeveloped state in this part of the country, that a child will muster the courage to ask his dad over dinner “Daddy, why did you people not elect a governor who had the vision to build on the foundation of the huge infrastructural renaissance laid by Governor Godswill Akpabio?”
May that day never come upon us!
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