My Ideology is that Government is a continuum if someone gets into power in year 2007, the shoe size is 2007, If I get into power in 2015, the shoe size is 2015. So,I do not know how a 2007 shoe would be bigger than a shoe of 2015. The 2015 shoe size is actually bigger. At times, Akwa Ibom is a little bit different because of the way we are structured and that is why we are going the way we are going. We have structured it in phases and that is what you would be seeing in the next few years if the Lord tarries.
When my predecessor came, there was total decay in infrastructure. Mind you, when you are talking about infrastructure, you have certain infrastructures that you may say, I do not want to count these ones. We met total decay. So, what we needed to do was to try and arrest that and by doing that, it was like somebody laying a foundation. It was like tiling for a skyscraper and you would be conscious of the fact that if you have to build a skyscraper, you do not put a quack that would come and do a bungalow. If you do, you will lose the resources there. So, if you want to build a skyscraper, you must look for skilled manpower that would come and give you the number of stories that you want to do. We sometimes get it all wrong in this part of the world, in government and in governance You do not just start afresh and alone. No, that is not how we want to run Akwa Ibom that is not the type of Akwa Ibom we are designing.
We are designing an Akwa Ibom that one person comes and does a piling for a foundation of a 100-storey building another comes and takes it to the 11th floor, another person comes and take it to other floors until we reach where we are going to. This is because we have realized that within a short period, getting to Abuja to seek bail in and bail out might not work. You must be the architect of the fortune of your own state.
My predecessor came, he was focused and had a vision which he achieved. I am in and I will build on the infrastructure but at the same time, I started by telling you that if you get to the G7 nation, they sit there because of their economic power,On my part I am here to let people know that there was a time Akwa Ibom was the fourth largest producer of Cocoa and today, we are not even in the top 10.
We want to go back to, at least, the first two because the flavour of our cocoa is among the best in the whole world; so, why should we let it go? I am here to let Akwa Ibom people know that we have a 129- kilometer shoreline and that that alone could be turned to wealth. There is nothing in Singapore than their water; so, why can’t we turn our water to wealth? I must drive a policy and governance in the mindset of the people to let them know that they are sitting on wealth. Im here to let the Akwa Ibom people know that in a whole year we have an evergreen area, that alone suggests that you can actually feed the entire world with the raw materials that they are looking for. So, there must be something there. I am here to let the Akwa Ibom people know that even if the crude oil price is $150 and you put the money in your house without a solid economic foundation, that money would fly away over night,that is neither wealth creation not poverty alleviation. I am here to let Akwa Ibom people know that in the past 16 years that we have been doing poverty alleviation and putting money in peoples’ hands and the next thing, they go and buy ‘I better pass my neighbour’. No money to even fuel it, that is a total waste.
Gone are the days we had great eaters. Now, you must be a seed sower things have changed. We are building blocks. Let's ask ourselves, what drives the economiy of great nations ? security is the number one factor, number two is reliable infrastructure and three is transparent legislation. Security is ongoing and you can’t finish on that, we needed to lay a foundation on reliable infrastructure and that is what we are building on so we will not wait to complete all before We build on the economy. You may also ask
What effects do the decline in the oil price have on the pace and pattern of My administration?
There are certain things you need to know, the cost structure when the economy was running on $128 per barrel, $130 and $140 would remain the same. It is not easy to change that cost structure under a democratic system especially a system where most of our people rely on government. Here, government influences a lot of things including financial services. If there is no statutory allocation, liquidity would dry up in the system. A whole lot of things are wholly dependent on the direction of the government. The cost structure when the oil price was $140 is not coming down; it is rather going up because inflation is not static,the population is growing, people are growing from new age grade to another; that calls for certain classes of demand for goods and services in addition to the cost structure we are running.
So, it's an instance where you are running a cost structure with less than 25 per cent of the revenue allocated So, that calls for ingenuity in the management of resources. People think Akwa Ibom collects so much,It is a relative term. What we collect today is relative to what we used to collect in which our cost structure was based on. Yes it is the same situation nationwide but what differentiates us is a little bit of ingenuity, idea and creativity that is why we do not make noise about it.
How can you tell the whole world that you are paying salaries? But in Nigeria, it is an achievement if you are paying salaries and pensions because when you turn around and you see others, owing eight and nine months, you come back home and say, God, I have tried now. Take, for example, this month, that of the local government and primary school teachers is high being that we run free and compulsory education at basic level for even people from our neighbouring states.
So, the enrolment is much,I have a lot of primary school teachers because people from neighbouring states come to go to school because it is free. As at today, the statutory allocation from the federal government for primary school teachers and local government employees came barely N2 billion. But I have done all the biometrics, I have put all the checks and balances and I still have a structure of N2. 77 billion. The question now is, if what you are getting could barely meet that, how are you managing to pay the salaries and still run general administration of the state and be able to meet all other challenges of governance? That is when creativity, ideas and ingenuity would come in. That is why I tell you today that those that are paying salaries, it is a big achievement. There are challenges but the question there is as I said earlier, what brings out the best in a good leader is when you are faced with those challenges for me, that is when I put on my thinking cap and make the best out of the situation.Probably, if I met oil price at $140, $150 per barrel, I would have like those days we used to enter Molue, to say ‘Go on Song”. I would not have checked those things that make us to move forward economically We should not behave like the days of manna falling from heaven these are the days of tilling the land,people must be able to work to create wealth. That is a challenge and that is why you see a whole lot of our economic policies being channeled towards addressing that.
Many are wondering how we are managing the usual Nigerian predecessor/successor crisis
One thing is how to manage fellow human beings. So predecessor/ successor ’s relationship in Africa as a whole occurs because people don’t know how to relate.
Two, you must put a round peg in a round hole. If I am a professional in politics, I must also know if a professional in politics would succeed me to ensure there wouldn’t be problem. If I am a professional in politics and I go and look for a professional politician, there would be a problem in his own ideology and so on.
Three, it also depends on what you are looking for. Because that is the question many people don’t bother to answer. I am looking to set my dream and if you are also looking to set your dream, then you must face that project. And if you are facing that project, there must be no problem. So, here we have no complaints, our goal is to make Akwa- Ibom a better place. So, that goal actually unites our sense of direction and purpose and with determination we win. If you are determined, the banana peel that others marched, you won't march it. because it is a banana peel, we’ve just decided two of us won’t march it irrespective of the pressure.
You see at times, some of the pressure is from the press because in Nigeria, people don’t believe that two people must work in harmony. If you work in harmony, they start looking for a name for you, because they expect you to quarrel with your predecessor. That is what people expect and if they don’t see that happening, they say no, he is subservient to this one. You know it does not work that way we must learn to work with one another for this country to move forward because it is going to be a major distraction for you to leave what you are doing to be doing what does not benefit a common man. How does that bring food to the table of that poor girl inside a village that has never eaten since morning?
So I pray people should also learn to know where they are going to and design their style of living and everything because at the end of the day, what matters most is the people, the citizenry and we must be able to take them from where they are to a better place.
Isaac Nobenz
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