Udom Emmanuel: I’m Ashamed of Where We Are as a Country
Governor Udom Gabriel Emmanuel of Akwa Ibom State recently fielded questions from a group of journalists including Nseobong Okon-Ekong, on a number of issues including the altercation between his administration and agents of the main opposition party in t
Your government is believed to have facilitated many industries as part of the development plan of the state. But why are there no conscious steps at marketing these achievements?
I’m not good at selling myself. Someone gave me a hint the other day on President Donald Trump’s opinion that nobody can sell you better than yourself. Some of these things depend on the orientation. If you start a business or training from a business that is not allowed to advertise, you will not be good in advertising. I have been banker for the better part of my life. Banking is a conservative business.
Since I became governor, apart from things like a substation, which I know that there’s no substation anywhere in this country, I do not go on a commissioning spree. How can you commission a classroom or borehole, I can’t do that. It is shameful. People who would have listened to you at different investors forum, seeing you commission electricity and borehole, will say, ‘so, this guy who was lecturing us in New York didn’t even have water to drink’, and you never can tell when you will speak again after leaving this office.
There are certain things that can make you lose regard easily. I have never gone to commission a primary school building and I have done about 346 schools. I have also improved on the healthcare facilities without making noise. You know if someone has an accident, it’s the handling time that determines whether that person dies or not. If you can drive through once you come in, that period is used for suction. That determines 50 per cent whether the person lives or not. Go to the teaching hospital to check whether they have that kind of intervention or not. At the teaching hospital, as they are driving you in, they are even looking for a stretcher to carry you.
There are so many things we have done. Most of those hospitals you see are all on a digital system. You don’t need to carry a piece of paper. Once you are attended to here, your medical history is online and can be seen realtime anywhere in the world. If you have a problem, they will call us and we can easily press the button and then life is saved. Some of the things that are so consistent don’t happen by accident. We don’t take glory for it. We give all the glory to God.
Unfortunately, politics in Nigeria is a little bit tough. In your first year as governor, you are at the Tribunal, Appeal Court and the Supreme Court. And as you try to settle down to work, the first tenure of four years is over. You are already campaigning for another term. You are so distracted. You can’t just focus as a governor. If you are not careful, you can’t put anything in place. But people don’t know where we are going.
Those greenhouses you see are to make sure I cultivate in our people the mindset that you can do this. Why buy 10 jeeps when two of those jeeps can give us 10 of those green houses. That’s all I’m telling people. There are a lot of things that we haven’t delivered that will be delivered and I’m making serious move to actually get it.
Why did I promote a flour mill? Everybody eats either biscuit or bread, but people here go and deposit money either in Lagos or somewhere for flour. Imagine how long it takes to transfer flour down here. When it finally arrives, it is either we find ways to cut corners and give people a substandard bread to eat. Those days in school, if you are hungry they will say ‘go and buy bread’. If you don’t have money, they will say, ‘go and drink garri’.
Today, garri is out of reach of the common man. So, we started garri processing factories in Akwa Ibom. They fry like 100 bags each day. What’s our population? If everyday, 10 of them can produce 100 bags, that’s 1000 bags everyday. The people can’t consume 1000 bags of garri every day. That’s not the only thing they eat. They eat bread, banana and other food stuff. Once you have done that consistently for one month, the market is saturated. We were able to bring down