अक्वा इबोम स्टेट @ 21

AKWA IBOM STATE @ 21

Wednesday September 23, 1987 remains a memorable day in the life of most Akwa Abasi Ibom people. That evening during a nationwide broadcast, the then Military President, General Ibrahim Babangida announced the creation of the state alongside Katsina; and this brought the number of states in the federation from 19 to 21. Immediately the creation of the new state was announced what constituted the present Akwa Ibom state erupted into wild celebration that lasted till the next day. But for my family, the celebration was short-lived as my paternal grandmother, Madam Susanna Mark Asuquo Akpan died that evening a couple after the new state was created.

On that Wednesday evening a 60 year old dream became a reality. The Akwa Ibom people are reported to have started the agitation for state creation 60 years before God used Babangida to bring it to pass. Overnight Uyo, that was my local government then, suddenly translated from a local government headquarters to a state capital.

At 21 the state has come of age and the occasion did not call for riotous celebration. One commends the decision of the state government to have a low key anniversary. It should have been a day of solemn assembly and soul searching. A day to take stock and reflect on our achievements as a people in the past 21 years. A day that should be adopted as our annual Thanksgiving Day to tell God how grateful we are as a people for what he has done in our lives as individuals and as a state in days past. A day to return glory to Akwa Abasi Ibom for all the victories and success stories he has given us.

There is need for a spiritual rebirth in the state. A state that is name after the Almighty God should have God as its foundation. Our leaders and indigenes should stop being religious and worship God in truth and in spirit. We should go back to our creator and reconcile with him in any way we have rebelled against him. We should ask ourselves why indigenes of our state are literally absence from national politics and other spheres of national where our forebears were pioneers. Why have we not been able to translate the enormous human and material resources of the state into better life for indigenes of the state? The self-help or communal spirit that our people were noted for have vanished it is now to your tent Oh Israel. Those who benefited for such communal effort have not deemed it fit to give back to the community what the got. Rather most of them now see themselves as our masters while we are their slaves. Some of the families that benefited from the communal effort now considered themselves the elites or privileged class in the state. After using the ladder of communal effort to get to where they are now, they took away the ladder when they got to the top.

Twenty one years after state creation have we achieved the dreams, yearnings and aspirations of our forebears? Have we justified the creation of the state? Have the expectations of the indigenes at the creation of the state been met? Do we really have a cause to celebrate except to thank God for his mercies and for the creation of the state?

Though some persons may argued that 21 years is too short a time to address the progress, growth and development of the state, what foundation do we have in place to take our people to the “Land of Fulfillment.” The Akwa Ibom people have tarried for so long waiting to get into the Promised Land but daily the Promised Land seemed too far to get there. The Promised Land seems elusive and the people have started doubting whether such a land existed and if they would one there get there. The enthusiasm that greeted the creation of the state was infectious. Many donated their property, at no cost, for the takeover of the new state. The creation of the state then looks like a magic wand and the key to the transformation of the land and people to a better land and life. It seems there is a deliberate attempt by leaders and rulers to keep the people in the wilderness of hopelessness. Agreed that the first 12 years after the state was created were under military regimes and the then military administrators and governors were merely soldiers of fortune who were on “national duty” and they were not accountable to the people of the state but those who sent them.

Since the creation of the state 21 years ago, Uyo the state capital has no state-government owned General Hospital. The Akwa Ibom State Government is yet to establish a primary or a secondary school in the state capital. All the schools in the Uyo are privately owned or were built by their host communities, a voluntary organization or religious group. The state government even took over the Aka Offot Community Secondary School and handed it over to the Federal Technical College (for girls) and has not deemed it fight to build a new one. Except for renovation work done in few primary schools in the state capital, all the secondary schools are as they were 21 years ago except that government pay staff salaries and provide overhead cost. If this can happen to schools in the state capital one wonders what in the fate of schools in Eastern Obolo, Ini, Udung Uko and other far flung local government areas.

Though the state government recently launched a township taxi project, those 400 taxis are not seen on the streets of Uyo except for the “winners or owners” using them. Commercial motorcycle or “alalok” as it is popularly known in the state remains the major means of intra city and intra local government transportation.

Despite the huge resources that has accrued to the state in the past nine years commercial motorcycle riding (okada business) still remain the major profession of the youths of the state. There seems to be no plan by government to train youths on skill acquisition as well as provide jobs for the teeming graduates. Children from the state still form the bulk of house helps that one sees across the country. Many youths and women in the state are still victims of human traffickers in their bids to get jobs to take care of themselves and loved ones.

Creating a state is not enough; the federal government has not done anything to improve the lives of the people. Currently there is no federal road in the state that is motorable. All of them are in various state of neglect. And this has forced the state government to use its scarce resources to carry out remedial works on these roads. Also most federal institutions in the state only exist in name without adequate funding, provision of equipment and facilities. The University of Uyo which the federal government established in 1991 is still operating from a primary school, the Uyo Practising School along Ikpa Road. Such is the situation of other federal institutions. The only noticeably federal presence in the state is the Federal Secretariat.

But if outsiders cannot help us, why can’t we help ourselves? No outsider would come and invest in the state if our people and not leading the way by investing in the state. Indigenous investments would give confidence to outsiders to come to the state and invest. For now we have no other state than Akwa Ibom and our political leaders should subdue their personal interests and allow the collective interests of the people to reign supreme. The state resources should be maximize for the progress, growth and development of the state and its people. The state resources should not be the exclusive reserve of few party stalwarts and political leaders. It belongs to all of us. God bless Akwa Ibom State. Abasi Ibom bo ekom.