Between Emmanuel and Ekere in Akwa Ibom

BY ENO NSIKAK

Can Obong Nsima Ekere really be trusted? This is the question on the lips of an average Akwa Ibomite. How do you trust a man who had all the opportunities to make a mark on his state but preferred to play politics with development? Even people from the South Senatorial District where Ekere comes from cant even dare compare him with Udom Emmanuel who they believe has demonstrated beyond any iota of doubt the love he has for his people going by the quality of service he has been providing for them in the last three years.

As the current managing director of Niger Delta Development Commission, Ekere is yet to prove that he has enough capacity to rule a state. Reason for reaching this conclusion is simple. Currently, he is said to handle a budget of N400bn annually at NDDC. Yet, one cannot point to a concrete project that he has executed in Akwa Ibom State. As far back as 2017, many people have criticized him for the manner he has been mixing politics with work.

Even Senator Godswill Akpabio while on a visit to President Buhari on Monday, said the Federal Government of Nigeria did not do any project in Akwa Ibom throughout the time he was governor. And Emmanuel has also told whoever cares to listen that the Federal Government has not constructed even ordinary a kilometer of road in Akwa Ibom. Yet this is the number one oil producing state in Nigeria.

One would have thought that Ekere with all his closeness to the Federal Government would have at least done something to redress this abnormal situation. But that hasn’t been the case. Rather he has even made things worse. Even, he himself cannot boast of any concrete project in the state. The little he could have done was marred by politics.

It is assumed that everyone at certain levels should know that the permission of government is required to work on any land in a state. Even if some people claim not to know, that shouldn’t be expected from an expert in estate business like Ukere. But instead of following due process in execution of projects, Ukere made it his duty to pounce on states all in the name of citing projects without even seeking the permission of state governments, the custodians of lands in every state.
Ukere should at least have known that governors are in charge of lands in states and that NDDC should not be entering any state in the name of executing projects without the permission from the governors.

If you love your people you should be doing things that will improve on their welfare and not joining external forces to play politics with projects that ordinarily should be executed to advance the lots of your people. But, unfortunately that has been the lot of the people of Akwa Ibom even in the hands of their own brother. How can you claim to love the people that you are building substandard roads for? A situation where roads executed by NDDC begin to fail in less than a year is indeed a mockery of the agency’s efforts. How do you convince people to trust such a person.
It should go without saying that a good leader will prioritise development first before playing politics. If not for anything, at least in the interest of the good people of Akwa Ibom, Ekere should have worked with the governor to impact the lives of the people positively. But as it is, he seems to be a bad product to sell for the people of Akwa Ibom.