JOHN UDOEDEHE AMBASSADORS

 "WHY I WANT TO BE GOVERNOR"

General developments in Akwa Ibom
My idea of development might be different from yours based on the circumstances that we find ourselves. What is the problem of Niger Delta and Akwa Ibom in particular? The problem has always being youth unemployment and that leads us to youth restiveness and all that. It’s expected that every government should develop road network, I will excuse them if they don’t have idea of how to generate electricity for the state.

I know that the governor of Rivers State said he has collected over N600 billion. So, the last figure I got from the ministry of finance outside the Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) was that the present government in Akwa Ibom has collected about N450 billion in the last two years. Then, assuming we are 300 million people, that should make an average Akwa Ibom indigene a comfortable person. In a situation where you have such amount of money and you still have alarming rate of kidnapping and other vices, it gives different definitions of democracy and what democracy is all about. We were complaining about military dictatorship and why we chose this kind of government is for us to have a say, or in my definition, is for us to be involved.

I am a Sociologist,  so, I am not going to bore you with theories but I believe you need to find out what the need of Akwa Ibom people are, you don’t have to build stadium because other states are building stadium. What Akwa Ibom people need is to be empowered; we need to develop our young brains to become entrepreneurs. The system we have now is a system run by propaganda. If God has given us privilege; we should serve the people, and not run government by propaganda on the television.

What Akapabio has collected from the federal allocation in the last two years is more than what former Governor Victor Attah got in eight years. And you want to ask, is the money gotten commensurate with the development in the state? Definitely no, you have a government that wants to build a new Government House as if that is what the people need now. You have a governor that signed MoU with Arik Air that bankrolled a private business concern to fly into Akwa Ibom for the next two years whether they have passengers or not because of his interest in the company. You have a government that is donating money to every group, all the churches and you ask, how many people does he want buy?

Akwa Ibom today
Most roads you are talking about were done by Attah’s administration and I want you to be specific about any new road done by Akpabio. You have to compare what Attah did to what he has done since taking over. As a sitting governor, there is nothing wrong in continuing from where your predecessor stooped but you don’t claim more than the initiator, you have to give him credit. I can show you the photograph of ground-breaking ceremonies of all the contracts awarded by Attah. You can state clearly for people to respect you that I took over these projects from my predecessor and I have completed them. What I am saying is that Attah did a lot to position the state economically. He did the airport; he did the Independent Power Plant, he did the seaport and those are the projects that will generate employment for the people. In trying to state your case, please give credit because. You cannot be writing a project and you are using somebody’s materials and you will not credit him, it is not right.

What we are saying is you are not the initiator, I agree you have to continue but in doing that don’t try to bring the other man down. Why do you want to commission Independent Power Plant that was commissioned before by Obasanjo? Why do you want to talk about the airport without talking about the initiator? It doesn’t make sense. All the designs were done by Attah including the road to the airport. There was a documentary they did that the road from Aba that passed through my village, but that road was done by Attah’s government. These are the basic things you use to compare. But he is busy donating buses and money to associations that declare to support him. Assuming he was buying Hilux to equip the police, do you know we would have had up to three thousand Hilux by now to bring about community policing. If you have friends Akpabio’s wife, friends of son’s of Akpabio, friends of daughters’ of Akpabio and friends of friends of Akpabio and you keep giving them money and buses, I don’t know of what relevance that is to the people.

Point of departure from Akpabio
It was the point he made a statement  at a reception organised for him at Aron that he came to undo the wrong of the past and I don’t expect him to mention such statement, and he kept saying by the time I finish there won’t be anything like Oron and Anan. I fell out with him when I discovered the structures of the state had been tampered with; I fell out with him when our people are suffering and I see it as a kind of financial genocide on our people; I fell apart with him when he brought about disharmony among our people; I fell out with him when the youth starts carrying gun, when there is no employment. I fell out with him when the streets are no more safe; I fell out when there is political kidnapping and I owe it a duty to speak out because people voted for him because of me; I fell out with him when people have to go under because they are being intimidated and when journalists are being given threat letters.

Why I dumped him
Of course, I did because there were a lot of things we agreed on before I made him governor. When you want to tamper with the structure of the state, a lot of consultations need to be made; when you want to tamper with the civil service, you have to consult a lot of people; when you want to give out things (contract) to empower people, you have to consult. That is why I continue to say he betrayed us. Some people are saying I am against him now because I am Ibiobio, and I continue to say that is not correct. When Attah was in power I supported him and I want to say there is nothing wrong being Ibiobio, there is nothing wrong being Anan and of course, there is nothing wrong being Oron.

Akpabio’s endorsement for second term
If you derive your power from the people and your aim is to serve them, the ultimate aim is to serve the people. If you get your power through the governor then, your ultimate aim is to serve the governor and do his biding. As an elected Senator between 1999 and 2003, I differed severally with the then governor, Victor Attah, not minding if I would go back to the Senate for second term or not. The people you mentioned- Senators, Honourable members and traditional rulers endorsing the governor does not mean he would win.

When Attah was in power, all Senators endorsed his in-law publicly but it took somebody like me to make Akpabio governor. What do you say to that? They have the right to endorse him but that does not translate to victory for Akpabio. It is only God that will choose the next governor, not Senators, not traditional rulers and definitely not House of representative members. If you have a new government, these people will do the same thing 20 times over.

Chances of defeating Akpabio
There must be history makers and I am one of them. Bad governance brings about awareness which leads to change and I want to say that my chances of becoming the governor depend on the people. History will judge me right that I did not allow evil to rule when I was there. I would not have bothered to come out to contest if the government of the day is doing the right thing.

If I have food to eat in my house, I send my children to good school, what guarantee do I have that my children will do such thing if I don’t do what I am doing.

Youth restiveness in the state
It is as a result of mass unemployment and with the kind of funds that accrue to the state now, I will tackle it. I will pay all the unemployed people until I am able to get jobs for them. I will place them on monthly allowances until they are employed. I don’t want to be explicit on this because Akpabio is running a visionless government and I don’t want him to tap into my ideas. I am not going there for vengeance, even Godswill Akpabio will be part of my government when I become governor.

If I fail
I have said it earlier that the PDP will not be my Egypt neither will it be the Egypt of the Akwa Ibom people. The PDP has a choice and we also have a choice.