Expectations Of Akwa Ibom State As Obasanjo Visits
From ANIEKAN BASSEY, Uyo
This week end, the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo will be visiting Akwa Ibom State on facility tour.
As expected the people and government of the state which was created on September 23, 1987 will be rolling out drums and clinking glasses to welcome the august visitor with enthusiasm and great expectations.
This is so, for when the state was created during the then military administration of General Ibrahim Babangida, the joy, expectations and enthusiasm that greeted that exercise by the people was ecstatic and beyond bounds. This mood also reverberated nation-wide and beyond wherever indigenes of the new state resided.
That state of frenzy was borne out of over four decades of the will and struggle for self-actualization. Therefore the impending visit of President Obasanjo, the second since assumption of office would largely be seen from two view points.
Firstly, the President himself would utilise the visit to access the level of developmental strides of the state since 1999 and more so as an oil producing state. Some of the projects for assessment include ; a 5-star Hotel, Airport, Science/tech university, IPP, Refinery, Roads etc.
The visit also according to some political pundits, is intended to serve as an unwritten political exercise to ascertain "the level of performance by the state Governor Obong Victor Attah especially in relation to the dividends of oil derivation of past years, that would inform the further speedy release or not of funds accrued on derivation following the recent abrogation of the on-shore/offshore dichotomy.
The Guardian investigations revealed that the President may have been reluctant to facilitate the swift release of derivation funds accrued to the state after the abrogation of the oil dichotomy until "he sees the situation on ground in terms of accountability on projects execution."
The second plank of the President's visit, it is also learnt, would focus on the dreams and aspirations of the government and people of the state in the foregoing areas.
The people would firstly thank the President for accenting to the law that eventually abrogated the vexatious oil derivation discriminatory policy referred to as onshore/offshore dichotomy Act, which had excluded the state and other littoral states in the federation from the proceeds from oil derivable offshore.
Also to the people of the state, they would however expect President Obasanjo to give teeth to that law by ensuring swift remittance of the funds to the state which is yet to enjoy the benefits.
This move, according to some well-meaning citizens and respondents who spoke with The Guardian would further accelerate the virtually-stalled economic development of the state, a major set back after the Supreme Court Verdict on Resource Control in 2002.
Joined in the great expectations of the president's visit to the state, would be the resuscitation of the two companies namely - the Aluminium smelter company of Nigeria (ALSCON) and the Nigeria Newsprint and manufacturing company (NNMC) Oku Iboku, both grounded since 1999 and 1990 respectively.
In fact, it is the expectations of the people that the president honour his campaign promises when he came to the state seeking mandate towards his election as president in 1999. According to a stalwart of the People's Democratic Party (PDP) Chief Offiong Etang Eno Enye "Mr. President during his campaign tour of the state in 1998 had told us that he would ensure the reactivatization of ALSCON and NNMC, and we see him as a man of honour who should not allow politics of so called minority and majority in this country to becloud him.
Also to the highly respected Senator Udoma Udo Udoma whose senatorial district, the smelter plant at Ikot Abasi is located, the federal government appears to be enmeshed in politicizing the re-opening of the smelter plant. "What the people of this state (Akwa Ibom State) want is swift return of ALSCON. We are not interested in who is buying ALSCON or what the BPE or anyone else is doing, all that the people want is let ALSCON start working," the senator had said.
To the state government and the state governor Obong Victor Attah in particular, he seems livid with anger mixed with some level of enthusiasm.
Anger in the sense that his well-thought out projects over the years since assumption of office in 1999 seem to have been greatly frustrated by the sudden stripping of the state of the benefits of oil derivation. It is in this light, that President Obasanjo's visit to the state would be seen as a ray of hope that when he assesses the battery of on-going projects and even those abandoned, he would not hesitate to cause the release of funds.
Besides, the government would also expect that, the federal government reconsiders the state in terms of federal roads construction and rehabilitation in the country which the state governor has consistently said his state has been marginalized, perhaps largely because of his role in the fight for resource control.
According to published statistics from the Federal Ministry of Works, Akwa Ibom State between 1999 to date took the rear amongst states in the south south zone in terms of financial commitment on roads by the federal government, where it got only N735 million road rehabilitation contact.
Awards on roads by the federal government in the other South South states; in summary stood at:
Bayelsa State - N7.83 billion.
- Edo State - N11.37 billion;
- Delta State - N11.92 billion;
- Rivers State - N28.34 billion and
