Akwa Ibom State governor, Obong Godswill Akpabio has taken a deep look into the challenges confronting him in office and identifies security as prime.

•Akpabio Photo: Sun News Publishing

More Stories on this Section advertisement

He however rejoices in the fact that his state has been in control of the situation, which explains why it enjoys relative peace amongst all the state in the volatile Niger-Delta.

He speaks on other state-related issues in this interview in Uyo, recently.

Challenges

The issue is, we are part of the Niger-Delta. One of the greatest challenges of governance in the past one year has been the issue of security. We need to distinguish Akwa-ibom State from other states of the Niger-Delta and so, ensure we have security of lives and properties. That is the major challenge that is happening in governance now. How can we make oil pipelines that we have in the state safe?

How can we ensure that ExxonMobil, Addax oil and all those who operate within the shores of Akwa-Ibom State carry out their operation without any hindrance? Those have been the major challenges. We have set up the security task force; joint security team. We are to set up what we call security monitors, who go round to give us information here and there. We have to tackle the issue of this security very seriously and that is the reason why one can say that relatively, compared to other states of the Niger-Delta, Akwa-Ibom has remained the most peaceful.

As I speak now, you can see that Mobil happens to be the only oil company that has not suffered even a single staff kidnap. They have maintained their steady flow of production for the company. Security is important, and so, it has been a major challenge to sustain that peace.

Back-up plan to oil derivation

There are two approaches. First is the fact that we have just done automation in our internally generated revenue, (IGR) we have just computerized our Internally Generated Revenue system in the state. It is a new initiative. We had to also change the consultants that we had for years because we were not making enough revenues. To me, it looked like a centre that was forgotten because it is easy to forget how it is, if you are getting assistance from the Federal Government.

Lagos is doing a lot in generating revenue and we want to tap from that initiative. So, we have just done automation. We have appointed a commercial bank in that direction and we are hoping that we can triple our internally generated revenue in the next one year. We want to triple it, and an effort will be made in that direction. What we are saying should concern every Nigerian citizen because if something happens to oil, then what happens to Nigeria and also what happens to Akwa-Ibom State? We are re-focusing on agriculture. This is the palm oil belt of Nigeria. You will see that Malaysia and other countries that are doing so well, they took their seedlings from here. That is one angle we are looking at. We are also partnering the private sector in that direction.

There is now need for us to focus on agricultural sector. We have a programme that we call the integrated farmers’ scheme, which is aimed at some of our youths to go into the area of production. We have donated tractors to this effect. We have bought the tractors. We have also been able to increase the money that we spend on agricultural feeds and fertilizers. We are aiming at self-sufficiency in food production in the next one year because I know that at the end of the day, the focus in this country will be agriculture. I don’t want to be caught napping when the situation comes.

The world food crisis is also a wake up call for this administration to focus more on the agricultural sector - improve seedlings and palm oil production, improve palm kernel production and with the proceeds coming in, we can begin to export palm kernel oil.

Judiciary and media

If you are talking about the renaissance of the judiciary, I will say that the judiciary has given hope to the common man because the impartiality of the judiciary has really assisted democracy a lot. It is a new phase in the history of democracy in Nigeria, with the intervention of the court to right the wrongs of what I may call, election malpractices connected with electoral process in Nigeria.

If we have defects, it is normal because no system is perfect. However, democracy in the last eight years, or in this ninth year, has really proven the fact that yes, democracy could be sustained in Nigeria if all hands were on deck. The intervention of the judiciary is a very welcome one and I think it will help in the growth of democracy. You will know that no matter how Nigeria tumbles and struggles, I can tell you that we have made a lot of progress under the democratic dispensation. For instance, we now enjoy a lot of freedom of the press. Never before, in the history of the press development in this country, have we ever had it so good. There has not been harassment of the press and all that. There has not been killing of journalists. Incessant arrests are not happening. So, in Nigeria, a lot of people now have confidence in what comes out of the media because of the freedom that you have had.

Nigeria is no longer an oppressed nation. Today almost every nation in the world has its areas of challenge. But for the problem in the Niger-Delta, you would have seen a resurgence of investment in this country as a result of the fact that more countries now have total confidence in Nigeria. Nigeria is much more accepted and if you look at the issue of debt relief, you will see the fact that Nigeria can settle its debt with Paris Club and others have extricated Nigeria from the grip of the IMF. Nigeria can now on its own, go into any ventures, bilateral or otherwise, with any country in the world without being dictated to, by anyone. This is a wonderful development for this country. Also, there is this explosion in the area of telecommunications. Some years back in 1997, I went to Ghana and I saw school children with GSM phones and I envied them. Where we are today in Nigeria, we should thank God.

So, when Nigeria is making progress, we should shout about it. Progress is being made in this direction or that. Unfortunately nine years of Nigeria’s democracy, we should have been self-sufficient in power generation, because there is no industrialization anywhere in the world without power. This is one area the country must focus on and we have the solution. If every state of the federation is allowed to do an independent power plant and then, add it to the national grid, we will get sufficiency in power. That is the simple truth.

Dividends of democracy

Basically, I think nothing has changed because it is a transition from one PDP government to another. Also in terms of vision, nothing has really changed because it is a question of moving the state higher than we met it. The last administration moved the state forward from 1999-2007. It is now my job to move it higher than that level. This has always been the vision and dream. So, it is an administration that is poised to continue to take Akwa Ibom to greater heights. But what you are likely to see, may be, the approach to delivery of dividends of democracy could have changed. In this administration, we believe in immediate completion of our projects.

We are very serious about starting projects and completing the projects within the life of the administration. So, I will say that it is the speed that has changed. I mean, the speed of service delivery has changed because we are much more in a hurry than the last administration. The only thing one could say would have changed in the last one year is the fact that we are now doing much more heavily, people-oriented projects that would take a lot of time to complete.

For instance, the international airport is not a day’s projects. T he idea of building university is not a day’s project. It begins with the acquisition of land among other inundating challenges. Of course, they could not even commence it before they left office. Also, the Independent Power Plant is not a day’s project. So, there were a lot of mega projects that were not feasible within the time. So, what we have done here is to do more of short-term projects in the last one year because there is the need to immediately touch the lives of the people.

For instance, in the area of roads, some of the roads may require long term servicing but there were urban streets and certain local roads and linkages that were in very deplorable state. They cause a lot of hazards and accidents and made life unbearable for the people. So, we are attending to these as short-term projects. Of course, we also tried to ensure that communities that never saw electricity before were connected. This, we also tackle as short-term project so that they can begin to tap dividend of democracy. In this administration, the speed of service delivery is fast, very fast.

It is a question of the government making pronouncements on any project, pursuing it with devotion and in less than five or six months, you go there and commission the project.

To the glory of God, so far, in terms of short-term projects, we have about 241 projects for commissioning within one year in office. Not that the people are more dedicated, but I think it is just that we are so much in a hurry that the drive has changed full very dramatically. I want to commend members of the executive council, who have shown uncommon dedication to service delivery.

In the area of medical delivery, things are fast changing for the better. Not only are we handing over ambulances to meet the exigencies of modern health care delivery, we are revamping the hospitals, equipping them to better ensure that we can turn some of our hospitals to arenas for the training of house officers. We are determined to equipped the hospitals and help them to do things properly.