Ekere: I’ll take A’Ibom to greater heights

Nsima Ekere is a former deputy governor and leading governorship aspirant on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Akwa Ibom State. In this interview with newsmen, he talks about his agenda and other issues.

There is a long list of aspirants queuing up  to take over from Governor Akpabio. Why should the PDP go for Nsima Ekere?
What Akwa Ibom needs right now is a governor with the right temperament, the right focus and the experience to build on what we have on the ground today. I have a private sector background. I came into government as a professional, and when I came in, I had a privilege of being chairman of the Akwa Ibom Investment and Industrial Promotion Council. That is the private sector arm of Akwa Ibom State Government. It deals with the private sector interest of the government. I was also chairman of the Ibom Power Company, the independent power project that we were developing at a time, but which has been completed and commissioned. Then, I sat on the board of several companies that government has interest in. I was also the one that designed the framework for the industrialization programme of government. Now, from that perspective, I was able to experience, firsthand, how bureaucracy hinders the translation of private sector objectives into reality in a government setting. Now, from there, I now got into core governance as deputy governor. From the experience that I’ve had, both from the private sector and running the government, nobody else from the whole pack that has this kind of experience and exposure.

What Akwa Ibom State needs today, is a government that would now begin to build a sustainable economic life for the people of the state. A government that would deliberately build the private sector of a state would succeed in creating jobs, because it is the private sector that would build industries and create jobs. What we need to do is to create the enabling environment, make deliberate policies to encourage the private sector to thrive. I‘ll move Akwa Ibom to the next stage in development, which is industrial development. I want to build an economic base for the state to reduce the tendency to depend on allocations from the Federation Account.

Could you give us a highlight of your blueprint to take Akwa Ibom to the next level?
My focus is to build an economic capacity for Akwa Ibom State and for Akwa Ibom people. The state is endowed with enough resources and with the right imagination and resourcefulness, we can tackle poverty, fight hunger and help Akwa Ibom people find productive roles within the local and national economy. My priority will be to create an environment rich in opportunities and an economic structure that gives every Akwa Ibom citizen the chance to succeed. Creating economic prosperity means a return to agriculture, building industries and simulating the local environment with the right incentives.

We would also provide 21st Century education to our children. Education is central to development. Today’s world is changing. Some of the biggest businesses running today are not involved in properties and hydrocarbons. They are knowledge-based. So, one of the ways to equip the people to compete in today’s world is to give them the right kind of education. The kind of education that would make them competitive in today’s world and make them respected wherever they go in the world. It would involve a lot of training and re-training of even the staff. Apart from the provision of infrastructure, it would involve changing the curriculum; enriching it.

I will aggressively pursue improvements in the health sector to expand health services. A lot of our revenue is spent abroad on medical tourism. Curiously, when you go to some of the best hospitals in Europe and America, and you enter the consulting room and guess what? The specialist that is treating you is a Nigerian. So, we have the human capacity; all we need to do is to equip our hospitals and build new hospitals with modern equipment and attract the best personnel and pay them good wages. We aim to turn Akwa Ibom into the medical tourism destination in Nigeria, by developing a medical park in the state. It is just like you have an industrial park or a technological park. The medical park is going to be a conglomerate of hospitals with different specialists. It has to be a self-sufficient facility, fully-developed, fully-equipped and fully-staffed, to deliver hi-tech medical services.

I’m also going to embark on rural development. A greater part of our populace lives in the rural areas. This makes it incumbent on us to come up with deliberate policies and programmes to reach out and gradually begin to touch the rural areas. We intend to use agriculture as a massive tool to drive rural development. If we are able to get into mechanized agriculture, we would look at the value chain. From the raw products you get, right up to processing and storage, we would create some agro-based industries and this would all be in the rural areas. It would grow the rural economy; it would help to reduce the rural-urban drift. We would provide them with the necessary infrastructure to make their lives comfortable.

One of the things I didn’t mention in healthcare is primary health facilities, because before you get to the medical park that I talked about, we must also provide primary healthcare facilities for the rural areas, to take care of them at that level before they access secondary healthcare facilities.

How do you see the idea of zoning in Akwa Ibom?
I’m from Ikot Abasi, which is in Eket Senatorial District. I understand the geo-politics of the place and the agitation of the people that the governorship should go to Eket zone. But, I would like to caution that even as we get swayed by geo-political considerations, we should also pay attention to quality of the candidates; look at what programmes they are offering; their capacity to deliver; their antecedents; and their ability to positively add values to the system. It is not sufficient to say because the governorship has been zoned to the area, every Tom, Dick and Harry should jump to the fray.

Governor Akpabio is believed to have an anointed candidate. Are you not intimidated by the so-called anointed candidate?
At the end of the day, it is the people of Akwa Ibom State that would decide who their next governor would be. It is the people of Akwa Ibom that would vote at the primaries and the general election, so I believe that it’s about democracy. I’m not aware that he has a preference at the moment. The Governor is my friend, I worked with him and I speak with him regularly. He hasn’t told me that he has a preferred candidate. You see, there is a lot of talk in politics. But, it’s not everything that you hear that is true. I’m not saying that there might not be a preferred candidate. What I’m saying is that I believe that Akwa Ibom people are educated and republican enough to decide for themselves who they think in their opinion is best for the state. This election is a referendum on the future of Akwa Ibom State and the people know that who they elect as their next governor to a very large extent would determine the direction the state would go in the next four years. We need to put in place a government and a system that would help to consolidate on the gains that have been made.

How is the rivalry between Akpabio and PDP stakeholders likely to affect the November 29 primaries?
The PDP is a very big family and just like every family, people have different views on issues. They also have different interests. Sometimes, this causes schisms in families. Basically, the issue in Akwa Ibom is that people want to have a say; they want to be free to express themselves and to choose who becomes the governor. At the end of the day, we would come to some form of understanding. That’s the beauty of democracy.

Do you see the aspirants resorting to the kind of political rascality just witnessed in Abuja over Nyesom Wike’s ambition?
People would only resort to political rascality and violence, if the nomination process is flawed, manipulated. It is a simple matter. The party has released its guidelines for the primaries. The PDP has a constitution and every member of the party is obliged to abide by that constitution and approach the primaries in line with the guidelines issued. If those guidelines are adhered to and the process of nomination is transparent, there would be absolutely no reason why there should be any kind of political rascality. Akwa Ibom people are peace-loving people and would abide by the rules. In 2007, there were over forty-something aspirants for the governorship and there was no incidence of violence. I don’t think 2015 would be any different.