It was quite a challenge when the Good Governance Tour Team visited Akwa Ibom last week to inspect and evaluate federal, state and local government projects spread across the state.
The team was in the state as part of its nationwide tour to publicise the programmes and projects of the Federal and State Governments in order to carry the citizens along. The nationwide tour is also intended to provide opportunities for state governments to showcase their programmes and investment friendly policies, as well as highlight the development challenges faced by all tiers of government in their effort to deliver services to the people.
The challenge that confronted the team led by the indefatigable Minister of Information and Communications, Labaran Maku, was how to cover the myriad of projects listed for inspection during the duration of the tour.
With journalists on the team, itching to see for themselves and write about the contents of the much talked about Uncommon Transformation of the Akpabio administration, it would have been a Herculean task traversing the length and breadth of the new Akwa Ibom, but for the well paved and tarred roads, even in remote parts of the state.
For Governor Godswill Akpabio and members of his cabinet, however, it was a pleasant challenge, as the state was ready with projects in all parts of the state, long before the idea of the tour was conceived. Thus, the governor was quick to caution the minister and members of his team during the courtesy call that heralded the tour that two days were just not enough to tour the many development projects executed by his administration over a period of six years. This necessitated the extension of the tour by one day. Since his inauguration as the third democratically elected governor of Akwa Ibom State on May 29, 2007, Chief Akpabio has not left anyone in doubt that he came into governance as an “angry man” and the state has been the better for it.
Akpabio’s positive anger has impacted all sectors of the state’s development. The pace of infrastructural and socio-economic development witnessed in the last six years of Governor Akpabio’s transformational administration has been phenomenal. Akwa Ibom had more than enough projects to showcase, but regrettably, the team had limited time to go round even those listed for visit by the tour team.
If the major characteristics of good governance, as outlined by the United Nations includes effectiveness, efficiency, accountability, responsiveness and being equitable, then, the Akpabio led administration has no doubt engendered good governance in Akwa Ibom. Or what will anyone call the free, compulsory and qualitative education for Akwa Ibom and indeed Nigerian children resident in the state; free health care for children, expectant mothers and the elderly; 28 new bridges linking communities; completed phase 1 of Ibom International Airport, and ongoing construction of a new international terminal building and second runway; over 300 newly constructed roads; four new flyovers; an ultra-modern Governor’s Lodge; and the Ibom E-Library, the first in the West African sub-region? Good governance no doubt.
The first in Africa underground pipi-jacking drainage system, for which the minister particularly lauded the development vision of the Akpabio government; the five new general hospitals; a brand new specialist hospital and referral centre, which is under construction; the completed 191 megawatts Ibom Power Plant; the gas processing plant with 69km of gas pipeline; and the comprehensive rural electrification scheme, which has linked over 1,600 communities to the national grid, making the state to achieve 87 percent electricity coverage can only come from a good governor who knows how to impact the people.
Other projects of the Akpabio administration include the world class Tropicana Business and Entertainment Centre with 250-bedroom 5-star hotel, shopping mall, ceniplex, convention centre and a wet and dry parks; state-of-the-art banquet hall at the Government House; and a brand new federal prison and correctional centre in Ikot Ekpene, where even the inmates acknowledged and praised the uncommon transformation efforts of the governor.
Only a good governor who knows how to wisely utilise available resources and take good decisions on behalf of his people, for the benefits of posterity can implement a training and empowerment programme for over 4,000 youths with N500,000 each under the Integrated Farmer’s Scheme; engage 2,060 women and youths under the newly launched Green Brigade programme; trained and empowered 4,500 women with the sum of N250,000 each for commercial agriculture under the Women Agro-Entrepreneurship Development Programme (WAEDEP); motivate its work force with reasonable welfare package and paid the new national minimum wage of N21,000.
What more shall I say about the visionary and purposeful leadership of Governor Godswill Akpabio? To ensure adequate security for lives and property, he launched the Operation Thunder and the Quick Response Squad. This security initiative has made Akwa Ibom one of the safest destinations for tourists and investors in the entire Nigerian nation.
Courtesy of over 4,000 rural development projects in the 31 local government areas, through the inter-ministerial direct labour model, the signature of Governor Akpabio’s uncommon transformation dots the landscape of the state in a manner that beats the imagination of all and sundry.
The administration is currently undertaking the construction of 30,000 capacity ultra-modern Olympic size stadium in Uyo; 2000 units housing estates in the three geo-senatorial districts and has completed 31-number security estates of 310 units in the 31 local government areas of the state.
For Akwa Ibom, good governance is not a theoretical matter. It is practical and its effects are evidenced in the socio-economic and infrastructural rebirth of the state. The Akpabio administration is representative, visionary and people centred. It has satisfied the conditions for good governance as identified by John Stuart Mill, a British philosopher and political economist, who observed that good governance must be determined by its performance in relation to two tests: competence in the management of public affairs and capacity in promoting the general advancement of the society.
Akpabio’s achievements are legendary, salutary and designed to last for generations. Judging from the mien and comments of many members of the good governance team, Akwa Ibom sure presented more projects than were expected. From the national president of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Garba Mohammed, to the president of Radio, Television and Theatre Workers Union (RATTAWU), Yemisi Bamgbose, former president of the NUJ, George Izobo, to the executive director of Basic Rights Action, Nasiru Kura, among others, it is praise for the visionary leadership of Governor Akpabio that has turned the fortune of Akwa Ibom around.
For Brendan Akpan, pioneer president of the National Association of Women Journalists (NAWOJ) and a daughter of the state, it is indeed a new Akwa Ibom as opposed to that which she knew many years back. She concluded that the new Akwa Ibom is simply a product of good governance. And for the Minister of Information, Labaran Maku, while making his remarks on his team’s tour of Akwa Ibom during the Citizens’/Town Hall Meeting on Saturday, he concluded, “We have seen a state that is working, a government that is working and a happy people.” Akpabio, indeed, has done many things worth writing about!
Aniekan Umanah is the Akwa Ibom State commissioner for information communications.
ANIEKAN UMANAH
