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Charles Udoh, the commissioner for information and strategy, Akwa Ibom State, was in Lagos recently where he testified to the finger of God in the state and in the administration of Governor Udom Emmanuel. Udoh, who had spent many years in the banking industry, explained that he accepted to serve the state because the man on the driver’s seat is running with the vision of positively touching the lives of fellow indigenes of the state through quality and purposeful governance. He hinted that government in the state was not interested in dirty politics, but the welfare of one and all. ZEBULON AGOMUO, the Editor, was at the session. Excerpts:
May we know what drives you on your beat as commissioner for information and strategy?
My task as commissioner for information and strategy in Akwa Ibom State is sky high in the sense that a lot is being expected of me. Fortunately, where I was and things I had done may have prepared me for the task. This is against the background that we have a governor who has done so much but the public doesn’t know he’s done so much; a governor who in his natural self-does not flaunt his achievements. Of course, being in the public glare does not allow you to showcase what you have done and what you are doing. We have a governor who has really made up his mind to serve his people. So, I have the responsibility not just to showcase to the world what he has done, but to tell people about the good things happening in Akwa Ibom State under this administration. For instance, I told some journalists the other day that Akwa Ibom remains the only state that spends as much as N600 million (Six hundred million naira) every year on WAEC fees for the indigenes. The government pays the fees for every Akwa Ibom child who sits the WAEC examination for the first time. This year, we have already made an advance payment of N200 million to WAEC. What we do is that every Akwa Ibom child has one chance to sit for the exam; you must not repeat because if we allow you, you will continue to fail and repeat thereby blocking other people’s chances. That’s why it is just once. Now, we are cross-checking the list to ensure that nobody who had been paid for in the past is back on the list.
The duty of politicians in office should be to take care of their people and I believe that time has come that politicians who do their job honestly and transparently should be celebrated. Nigeria has come to a point that we do not want mediocre leaders or nonentities to occupy leadership positions. Those who have something to offer should come on board and the media should be able to highlight such good achievements and celebrate those who make them happen. Things are changing all over the world. Those who are not even expected to make marks are doing so; look at America, nobody expected Donald Trump to be there today. Imagine if what happened in America on the Election Day happened in Nigeria, probably they would have been calling for the cancellation of the election. Things are changing. So, people should not sit back. For some of us, myself, for instance, I never dreamt I would be in politics. If somebody had told me 12 months ago that I would be in politics today, I would say no. When I was approached I said it’s not my calling, and somebody said to me, if you sit back in Lagos, you are going to leave it for some people who have nothing to lose. I must say that anybody who has gotten into the administration of His Excellency, Udom Emmanuel has a credible track record. There’s none of them who hasn’t got a pedigree. That administration has a bunch of professionals and they are committed to the good of the state.
Until now, oil was the mainstay of Akwa Ibom State; with the slump in the price at the international market, what is the alternative?
Yes, with what is happening to the price of oil, it means that our revenue stream is short-circuited. So, the government is now trying to focus on agriculture. We must go back to agriculture. You will recall that Malaysia came here and took some palm seedlings and today, in every corner of that country there are oil mills and palm plantations. Growing up as a child, my mom never bought vegetables, but today every household buys vegetables. So, we are trying to take people back to those good old days. We want to tell them that they can have some level of farming. No matter how small, start somewhere. We are pushing agriculture- small scale, medium scale and large scale. So far, we have recorded some significant success in that regard.
Tell us about the toothpick industry floated by the state government?
We have started a tooth-pick industry and people are asking ‘why tooth-pick industry?’ I say look, Nigeria is importing tooth-pick from China. So, if my government sits back and say until we can build an automobile industry to start industrialization, or an industry to start electronics manufacturing, nothing will happen, it will take long; so, we must start from somewhere. We have the raw material for the tooth-picks. There are bamboos everywhere. The machines are not so expensive. So, why don’t we start small and grow big? Now, with that tooth-pick industry, we have employed over 50 people, that’s direct employment, and then it has a ripple effect on the neighborhood, by way of empowering other people– in the form of transportation and all that. These are some of the things the state government is doing. Nigeria needs change. We need to have different kinds of people who understand what leadership is all about. We need to have people who have sincerity of purpose. Somebody once asked me, ‘but you are in this government?’, And I said to him, look if you understand how banking industry works, if you are an executive director, in a bank, you can’t be poor in life unless you revel in squander mania. Now, this is a man (Governor Emmanuel), who had been an executive director, and chief financial officer of a bank, not just any bank, Zenith Bank, not just for five years but for more than 10 years. So, money is not the issue. This is a man that is driven by the passion to serve his people. It is easy for this governor not to do any other thing, yet maintain his lifestyle with what he has earned for himself over the years. Money, I say is not an issue. I am commissioner today, I sometimes part-fund my ministry from my personal resources, and people are asking me why are you doing that? I said to them, look I understand the situation of things in government. Like I said, we spend N600 million to fund the WAEC examination of our people, it would have been very easy for the government to pocket such money or divert it into some other areas, but it says no, our children must go to school, pregnant women still attend public hospitals free. These are the things we must do to help our people. I can borrow money if I am very broke, but a poor civil servant can’t. We are one of the states that pay our monthly salaries regularly. Last December, we paid workers in the state their salaries before Christmas. That’s even against the background that we did not benefit from the bailout fund. The government is really bending backward to say let’s short-circuit ourselves and sacrifice some of the comforts we are supposed to enjoy. Let us do all we can to see that our people are well served, particularly the poor who have no access to any other help. If my child is sick, I have medical insurance that can deal with it, but what happens to that man on the street? That is the thinking of the Udom Emmanuel administration. That’s what we are trying to do always.
How is politics playing out in your state?
On the political front, you find out that recently there have been all kinds of noise about different things; but for us, we don’t want to play dirty politics because it is capable of setting our state backward and slowing us down in what we are doing in the interest of the people.
We do not want to dwell on dirty politics, but what we have achieved in office and what we are doing for our people are what we want to showcase to the world. So, it is about showcasing performance. The focus of this government is sustainability. Projects that can be sustained, those are our focus; any project that cannot be sustained for five years, 10 years from now is not our focus.
Again, I want to draw your attention to the thrust of the Udom Emmanuel administration in Akwa Ibom State. The administration came on board with 5-point agenda – Job creation, poverty alleviation, wealth creation, political and economic inclusion, and infrastructure expansion.
In all fronts, this government is doggedly committed to fulfilling those promises. But we do not want to fulfill these promises in some grandstanding way. We want to fulfill it in real terms, not that one is commissioning projects that are not durable. Over 4,000 youths have benefited from job creation effort of the government, from basic things.
