Revenue: Uyo has lost all - Uyo LG Chair ...we need compensation - Ekpenyong

Hon (Prince)Ekerette Ekpenyong is one chairman who hardly appears in the media as he prefers to bury his head in the task of constantly seeking out ways of rendering life-touching services to the good and development-loving people of Uyo Local Government who offered him the mandate to serve. He holds the philosophy that a leader’s works should always be the parameter for measuring the achievements of a leader, as these works carry greater weight than spoken words. However, after repeated entreaties, a team of media professionals had succeeded in holding brief chat session with the intelligent and visionary prudent manager of human and material resources in Uyo Local Government council. In this interview, the Executive Chairman who has come to be popular with the name “THE MAN”, speaks on his vision for, and the achievements of his administration in Uyo local Government Council as well as other trending political issues. Excerpts:

Hon. Chairman, for the benefit of AkwaIbom people who may not have a deeper insight to your background, may we please meet you sir?
My name is Hon. Prince EkeretteEkpenyong. By the very special grace of God, the Executive Chairman of Uyo Local Government Council. I am a native of IfaIkotOkpon in Etoi and was born in the ‘70s, into the family of a seasoned and dedicated civil servant, administrator and former village head of IfaIkotOkpon, Sir E.E Udo who was until his passage to eternal glory a devout Methodist. I started off my Primary Education at the Mayne Avenue Primary School in Calabar and later completed it at the Primary School IfaIkotOkpon. From there, I got admitted into the Lutheran High School ObotIdim in Ibesikpo to pursue my Secondary Education and then the University of Uyo Nigeria for my Tertiary Education.

Could you let us into what informed your decision to go into Politics?
Politics to me did not happen by accident. I went into politics as a call - A call from the people to serve them. In life, one tends to find significant success if he is venturing into something as a result of a divine call and not by chance. It is through this call that one will get to unravel the underlying purpose and the need one is meant to fill in the society. So when the call for politics came to me, I quickly understood that my entrance into politics was solely for the purpose of service to humanity by engaging in policies and programmes of actions that will positively impact on the lives of the people who were the channel through which I got the call to serve. Armed with this perception of politics as a call to serve, my preoccupation since I ventured into politics has been to use the platform offered by politics to fight to eliminate the problem of decayed infrastructure in the area making up the locality I have been called to serve. I have been using that platform to improve on the qualitative education of the people, thereby pushing back the frontiers of illiteracy and underdevelopment. I see the platform offered by politics as that which has the capability of restoring dignity of the people as a result of the many ways we could affect their lives. I must confess that this perception has been the vehicle that has brought us a people of Uyo Local Government to what my people frequently describe as the enviable position that we have found ourselves today with me holding the reins as their servant-leader.

With all sense of modesty, I would say that I have as the Executive Chairman of Uyo Local Government Council, with the help of the unprecedented support and solidarity exhibited by the people who gave me the mandate to serve them, succeeded in touching in a very significant way, those cardinal objectives that came with the call I had to venture into politics. In area of Education, we have made significant impacts, in the area of providing befitting infrastructures in the Local Government secretariat, we have attained a commendable height, in terms of building the decayed infrastructure in the traditional institution, we have made significant feats. Also, we have also been able to make meaningful impact in the area of human empowerment and most importantly, we have been able to increase to a very substantial level the Internally Generated Revenue accruing to the LocalGovernment.  Let me confess at this point that I came into politics with a laid down plan spread across the different areas of needs of the people who had called me to serve them and that proactive approach anchored on the strength of God became the force through which we have been able to do all that we have done.

Sir, could you be a little more specific about those interventions your administration has made in the area of infrastructure?
I do not want to sound boastful.  I was deeply touched when I came in as the Transition Chairman of Uyo Local Government Council. On the day I was sworn, in I had the opportunity of getting to the office provided for the Local Government Chairman and what I saw there was something that was completely out of place. Seeing termites freely climbing the walls of the office of the Chairman was a kind of eyesore to me. For me, that painted a picture of decay in infrastructure. From that sight, I also got the picture of a local government struggling to survive and this moved me to shedding tears in my heart. But I didn’t just stop at crying in my heart. I also at that moment vowed immediately that whatever it will cost me, even if it means not getting my salary as the Chairman, I will change the face of my Local Government Council. 

Today, by the special grace of God, you will agree with me, just like hundreds of thousands of Uyo have, that we have a befitting structure that serves as the office of the chairman. We did not stop at recreating the structure meant to serve as the office of the Chairman alone but we had to go further in touching other infrastructure in the Council. You see I had jokingly said on one occasion that it is only in my Local Government Council that you will encounter the case of a staff struggling over the ownership of a plantain stand with a colleague.I found it very hard to come to terms with the fact that in my Local Government Council, quite close to the office of the Chairman, there was a plantain plantation and it was owned by some staff. This to me was an embarrassing situation and so I decided to change this by bringing down the plantation, level the ground, and started erecting a structure on that spot. Today, under two years, I have succeeded in erecting eight structures within the council premises. Not just the building, but we have also carried out the landscaping of the whole premises.

Today, we have a brand new office for the Head of Service, tastefully furnished, we have a brand new office for the legislature, which is also well furnished, wehave a brand new tastefully furnished office for part of the councilors, and a brand new state-of-the-art functional ICT center as well as a befitting office for the chairman. Through our partnership with the Millennium Development Goals scheme, we have been able to erect a hall which is given out on lease for public events and this has helped in generating revenue for the Local Government. For me, I see this as very modest achievements as they are just a part of the vision I had when I came into office. Even when people keep giving me kudos, I still believe that I have not done all that I had in mind to do in terms of provision of infrastructure because I had the intention of completely overhauling the infrastructure of the council so that when the next administration comes in, there would have to face something else apart from the provision of infrastructure. Government should always be about building a lasting legacy so that the next person that comes after you builds on the foundation that you have left. That has been the secret to the success in America, UK and other first world nations. I had to provide the best of infrastructure in the council so that the person that will come after me will face another pressing area such as health, education, empowerment of women.

Honorable Chairman, permit us to take you down memory lane to the day the Governor, His Excellency Chief GodswillAkpabio commissioned the eight structures you constructed. After the commissioning formalities, the Governor had raised your right hand and said the following word “Hon EkeretteEkpenyong, I am proud of you, Uyo people, let me ask you people, doesn’t one good turn deserve another?” To this the people had chorused a resounding “It does” as an answer. Sir we would love to find out from you if there was any other reason, apart from that of positively affecting the lives of the people that gave you the mandate, that acted as the driving force to the landmark achievement you recorded then, the ones you have done now and the one you will complete before the expiration of your tenure?
The most candid answer to that question is that from the first day I stepped into office as the Executive Chairman of Uyo Local Government Council, I knew that I won’t occupy that seat forever. I will one day leave. But what will the people who gave me the mandate remember for? I wanted them to remember me for so many good things which I have been able to vigorously pursue in their own interest. I want them to remember me as the man who dared to bring down the dilapidated structure that served as the Traditional rulers’ secretariat and gave back to them a befitting secretariat that is worth over a hundred and something million naira. I want to be remembered as that chairman of Uyo Local Government Council who came in and took up eight buildings within one year and commissioned it with furniture through direct labour and not as contract, without making a kobo from the project. I do want them to remember me as the chairman who, for the past three years, has been placing each Law student from the Local Government on an allowance N120, 000. 

I do want them to see me when I leave office as that Chairman who held the philosophy that Government is not a platform for one to embezzle but to touch lives. That is why I always insist that Government and the people who elected the leader deserve the best. If a politician can build a house worth N100million for himself, then Government as an institution and the people who gave the mandate to the politician deserve to have a project that run into billions. I am not the kind of Chairman that will drill boreholes which a lot of us know cost something within the range of N350, 000, and then go ahead to devote N1 million to its commissioning. That is waste of funds. This is why I don’t celebrate when I drill a borehole for my people. We should erect structures that will last for at least 30 years, build roads that would last for 50 years. And that is why I share the same vision with my political mentor, our icon of uncommon transformation, Chief GodswillAkpabio, because he believes in giving people the best. That is the kind of legacy I want to leave in Uyo and that is the same kind of legacy I expect from any one privileged to lead the people of Uyo. I want to be seen as a man who loved my people so well to believe in them and defend their causes at any fora I find myself. This may have been the reason for their decision to nickname me “EyoUyo” in view of the trust they have come to have my ability to always push for their wellbeing.

When I leave, I want them to see me as the Executive Chairman who succeeded in increasing the Internally Generated Revenue through the signing of the contract for tenement rate, which was hitherto difficult to achieve for the past ten years. Today, the signing of that tenement rate contract has upped our revenue in the Local Government. And significantly, part of the reason I do the things I do for my people is that I want them to always remember as someone who will at any given time, rise to the important task of protecting a cause of the people. Say things the way they are and always stand on the side of truth and fairness.

Hon Chairman, let’s still dwell a little on that commissioning event of the newly constructed council secretariat by the Governor. The Governor while speaking had also given you kudos on what he described as the wonderful job you are doing by exploring the avenues for generating internal revenue for the Local Government. Could you tell us about those feats the Governor was referring to?
Uyo Local Government is today driven largely by Internally Generated Revenue (IGR). It remains the council with the lowest allocation from the Federated Account. And this is as a result of the fact that we have too much of Primary Schools to cater for. So our expenditure in the area of payment of teachers’ salary and pension usually take the greater part of our allocation. Even with this situation, you are competing with other chairmen in terms of leaving behind enviable legacies during your tenure. Therefore you would not want to use the fact that you get the lowest allocation as an excuse for not making landmark impacts. It was on the strength of this discovery that I decided to look beyond the allocation and tackle aggressively other untapped or not fully-tapped sources of revenue generations.

One of the avenues I thought we could generate revenue was through the introduction of the collection of daily toll from Tricycles popularly known as KEKE. Let me use this opportunity to reecho my firmly held sentiment that the responsibility of collecting daily ticket from Tricycles lies within the spheres of the powers of the Local Government. The Akwa Ibom state Ministry of Transport is dabbling into the affairs of the Local Government. It is the Local Government that has the right to collect daily tolls. In 1970, it was the Local Government that used to collect bicycle license tolls. It is the Local Government that has the right to regulate motor parks and collect tolls from commercial vehicles. Until the Ministry of Transport decided to dabble into the affairs of collecting tolls, this was a viable means of generating revenue which had help us to complete some of the project we have done.

By the special grace of God, we have been able to generate some revenue from the only market we have which is Akpan Andem Market. Today, we have been able to enter into an agreement with the state Government which has made it possible to generate N700, which represent the taxies of N200 from every civil servant and development rate  of N500,deducted once a year, from every staff working in the state ministries. We are also generating some revenue from the University of Uyo by way of rates and we are even moving to getting tenement rates from police stations within the Local Government because the law empowers us to do so. I have also sign a contract which will get owners of all the houses in Uyo to pay tenement rate in line with the provision of the 4th schedule of the 1999 constitution which exclusively empowers the Local Government to generate revenue from this source.

Prior to this time, most of these revenue sources were left untapped because my predecessors had depended so much on the Federal Allocation. For me I know that there will come a time when the allocation coming from the Federal account will not even be enough to cater for one per cent of the programmes of the Local Government.So there is need to fully exploit these sources of revenues and this has helped me to successfully initiate and complete all the landmark projects we have done without incurring any debt for the council.

Sir, let us into what was in your mind when you decided to construct what has been described by a greater number of Akwa Ibomites as the best secretariat for Traditional Rulers in the whole of South-South Nigeria?
My decision to embark on that project stemmed from two important reasons. Foremost, I had a vision that in the usual practice of rotating the office of the Chairman of the Akwa Ibom state Traditional Council of Chiefs, that the office will one day come to Uyo Local Government. Now my fear was that when the office comes to Uyo, the former structure will not be befitting for my paramount ruler to receive the important visitors that will constantly come to pay homage to him. So I decided to take the bull by the horn by bringing down the old structure, and today I am happy that I took that bold step.

Another reason is that I had believed that the time had come for us to revive the dwindling glory of the Traditional institutions. The last time I saw an important personality stopping by the Paramount ruler office to pay homage was when the late M.K.O Abiola came for campaigns in Uyo where he stopped as Skyminds Hotel and then moved to the Traditional Rulers Council to pay homage. Some other time when Ibrahim Babanginda came to AkwaIbom, he had stooped at Barracks road to pay homage. But along the line, this practice of reverence for the traditional institutions had disappeared. What later became the practice was for the Paramount ruler of Uyo to be taken to the government facility like the Ministry of Local Government to join in receiving an important guest that comes into the state. 

If the Paramount Ruler is not the sitting chairman then he might not have the opportunity to say anything during the visit of a personality to his own land. So this to me was very embarrassing as this does not happen in Ife where there is the Oni of Ife and in Benin where we have the Oba of Benin. So as a way of putting an end to this, I had to begin with making the infrastructure befitting to house the Paramount ruler as the former structure was leaking. But with this present building, visitors who come into the state can comfortable pay homage to the paramount ruler. With this, we will be able to preserve our culture and pass it on to generations unborn. That is why you have the inscription “Our Cultural Unity Home” in the building. It is not only to house the paramount ruler but to also rekindle our cultural heritage.

Chairman, we know very well that one of the major sources of revenue for Uyo Local Government was motor parks. Unfortunately, with the continuous expansion of the capital city, Uyo has lost virtually all its motor parks and some of its markets. What has been the effect of this on your revenue generation drive and are making plans to open up other revenue generation sources?
I would say that the expansion has affected us negatively. But I must be quick to add that these are core sacrifices that we the people of Uyo are making for having the capital. The motor parks are not the only revenue generation sources we have lost, as few weeks ago, the only meat market called Iba Oku meat market was relocated on security grounds and we lost the revenue that we were getting from that facility. The other time we lost our booming Uyo market along Etok Street. We had lost our motor parks along Ikot Ekpene road. I quite appreciate all these. But the issue is, the government must compensate Uyo for all these sacrifices.

That is why I am always agitating in Joint Account that there must be a stabilization fund for Uyo as a Local Government. Uyo was originally planned as a Local Government headquarters during the time of Cross River State and not a state capital. Now that Akwa Ibom is a state and Uyo is its capital, we appreciate that a lot of facilities must be moved to give way to the aesthetical development of Uyo as a capital. But in moving all these things, there must be an adequate scheme of compensation made to the Local Government Council. I make bold to say that for instance, what we now have as the Uyo sports club was originally built as  Uyo local Government sports club. Same goes for The Ministry of Works which was originally meant to serve as the works department of Uyo Local Government Council. That is why if you go to Ikot Abasi, Ikot Ekpene and Oron you will see the same design. The Divisional Police Headquarters was originally the Local Government Police headquarters. 

Where we have the Banquet hall, was originally the Adult Education Training Center of Uyo Local Government. The Metro Road now was the site which had the Metro Hotel built for Uyo Local Government. If you go to Ikot Ekpene or Calabar, you will find the same model of hotel. Today, we have lost those things and that is why I maintain that there must be adequate compensation to make for these gargantuan losses. We are asking for the same thing MKO Abiola asked for when he agitated for reparation. He had told the British government that for the fact that you had exploited this nation during the colonial era, there is need for them to come and make reparation for all they gained from us. And we are now saying in Uyo Local Government that the state has stabilized and is now rich. It is now time for them to make reparations to Uyo for what we have lost to stabilize the state.

 Hon Chairman, could you be more specific on the kind of reparation measures you are talking about?
Uyo should have two seats in the Akwa Ibom state House of Assembly. Uyo should also have two commissioners in the state cabinet. Uyo as a Local Government should have one seat in the Federal House. Uyo remains the only Local Government Headquarter throughout the 36 states in the Federation that is combining with three other Local Government Areas to produce a lawmaker for the House of Representatives. Uyo has eleven wards and produces at least 168,000 votes, and has the highest population and yet it takes four local Governments to produce a seat in the House of Representatives. This is a misnomer. These are the beginning points of the reparation measures because when we begin to have the right number of representatives in Government, there will adequately draw the attention of the government to the plight of Uyo people. For instance, Abuja is treated as a state capital with its own private allocation. It is not state but a capital city that is treated as a state. Abuja has a seat in the House of Representatives. It even has its own Senator. There is a special fund voted for the development of the capital.

Sir, what has your administration done to address the health hazard posed by the dumpsite which oozes a disturbing stench to the council premises?
I have called the attention of the Akwa Ibom state House of Assembly Committee on Environment to the disturbing situation. They came and I conducted them around the environment for them to have an on-the-spot assessment of the situation. I have also written to the ministry of environment more than twice on the same issue. Even the day the Governor came to commission the project I also made a request for urgent actions towards the relocation of the dumpsite. And I believe that the government will take steps to address that because it does not only affect my staff, but residents of that area are also affected. I want to also use this opportunity to again appeal to the Akwa Ibom state Government to take urgent steps in addressing this.

There has been a groundswell of calls and endorsement already coming your way for you to serve the people on a higher capacity even when you are yet to complete your tenure as chairman. How do you view these re-echoing calls and endorsement?
To be very frank with you, I did not embark on all the programmes and projects I have done as Chairman in expectation of anything. I did it out of the love I have for my people, the trust they have in me and the obligation on my part to ensure that I touch their lives positively. Like I said earlier, I knew that one day I will vacate the seat and go to dwell again with the people. But even with these calls, I have to listen very well to understand what those who are making the calls really want. Because if the calls which are coming are such that will bring the much needed effective representation which translates into more dividends of democracy coming to the larger Uyo, then I might be obliged to answer that clarion call. But if such a call is that which is intended to destroy Uyo, then count me out of it.

Sir, your boss and Political mentor, the Executive Governor, Chief GodswillAkpabio is almost rounding off his 8 year tenure. How would you rate his performance in office?
The word “Fantastic “sums up his performance in office. Akwa Ibom people, nay Nigerians have come to agree that he is the best Governor, Akwa Ibom people have ever had and also the best in Nigeria. He has performed exceedingly well. One thing that sets him apart from other Governors is his taste for class and quality. That is why I have learnt so much from him and tried in my own way to replicate and mirror his people-centered government in Uyo Local Government. Through Governor Godswill Akpabio’s effort, Akwa Ibom has taken its rightful place in the comity of nations. He has made us reclaim our pride as a people. There is hardly any sector that he has not made giant strides. Through this, the Governor has become the index for measuring the performance of other Governors and Akwa Ibom has become a viable case study on the subject of Good governance. He will be leaving behind a standard that will require huge effort for the next administration to surpass. And that is why the next Governor must be prepared to work because in terms of infrastructure, human capital development and anything the next administration does, the standard must be upheld if not surpassed.

Finally, what is your reaction to the widespread calls on President Jonathan to run for a second term?
If the President refuses to run for a second term, posterity will not forgive him. In fact I had vowed that if President Jonathan refuses to stand for second term, I will personally lead a protest against him. Reason is that he is a silent achiever. He has transformed the major sectors of our nation’s economy. This is the first time in a long while that we have not had a major fuel crisis for more than two years running. But when he had introduced the fuel subsidy initiative, a lot of people had kicked against it. But today we have come to see the impact of that visionary initiative. Is it the massive road rehabilitation he has been pursuing and has made significant success that you want to talk about? Is it the reforms in the power sector which has made us enjoyed improvement in power supply? Is it the wonderful work he has done in the transportation sector with the re-introduction of rail transport? Is it the informed way he is tackling the security disturbances in the nation? He has touched the fabrics of our problems and if you give him the next four years and this country will be better with him at the helm of affairs.
Thank you Honourable Chairman for accepting to talk with us
My pleasure.