By Innocent Okon
Once upon a political season in Nigeria, there was a politician known, called and addressed as Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola, popularly called MKO Abiola, by his teeming admirers in and outside NIgeria.
Before he dared to venture into partisan civil politics in 1979, he was already a household name because of the quantum of money his chain of businesses fetched him, and his extraordinary philanthropy.
He also understood and played military politics in Nigeria and reaped quite a fortune from it! There was hardly any administration he did not work with.
When he decided to gun for the Presidency in 1993 during General Babangida’s midwifed transition project, ovation was deafening. He was a colossus that many pollsters had no fears about his victory, because Nigerians knew him already as ‘our man’. But the people were more concerned about predicting his victory margin in the Presidential election!
But like most bitter-sweet experiences in Nigeria, the victory the people gave him at the polls was truncated by select military top brass he wined and dined with. The nation is still believing that MKO could have made the difference in the leadership trajectory of this beleaguered country if the chance democratically given was not militarily aborted! If he touched the lives of virtually all Nigerians with his private resources, the people believed he could have done better with state resources a his disposal.
During his campaigns, adroit use of Yoruba proverbs to address issues was top notch. One of the notable wisecracks he told journalists during the annulment of his election by IBB, his long standing friend, was that:”with IBB as a friend,I don’t need an enemy.”
When asked by Journalists if he would accept a military brokered national government, MKO retorted: “You can’t shave my head in my absence”. This food for thought by the best President Nigeria never had provides the ingredient for this MUSING! It’s all about consultation before action in governance.
Recently , Governor Umo Eno of Akwa Ibom state hosted the First lady of the country, Senator Oluremi Tinubu in Uyo. The razzmatazz lived up to its billing and the state capital felt the presence of the august visitors, though in March!
The project anchor of the visit was the commissioning of a recreation centre for senior citizens. The centre appears an architectural masterpiece. Much may not be known or said about its functionality until when put to use sooner or later!
But what is expedient now is why and how such a project should enjoy a priority pecking on the must-do list of the state government.
Did the senior citizens express any urgent need for this non-residential centre? Even if such a project was captured among the components in the state blueprint called ARISE AGENDA, should it enjoy a priority attention over and above the deplorable conditions of both public primary and secondary schools in the state?
Should an unsolicited Senior citizens’ centre be prioritised over the constitution of a statutory commission to kick start the distribution of electricity generated by the state’s independent Power plant in Ikot Abasi?
Why should the generation and distribution of power become a rocket science many years after the necessary licences had been obtained from relevant Federal Agencies?
Why should a white elephant project like the Senior citizens’ centre be given priority over the resuscitation of the moribund state Palm Oil Plantation in Esit Eket?
How come the physical leisure of Akwa Ibom senior citizens has become more important than full implementation of the N32,000 increase in pensions of retirees which the state government grudgingly approved only N27,000?
The centre only looks good for tourists, but definitely not in sync with our culture and immediate needs of Senior Citizens of this state! Attendance register shall support this in weeks, months and years to come!
How do you expect a 70 year old man in Eastern Obolo and Obot Akara to make a day’s journey to Uyo to walk around a sprawling recreational facility which he may not even know how to use some of the provided facilities. And return same day to his village? Or is the centre meant to service only senior citizens privileged to live in Uyo and immediate environs. Just like the model schools the state says it has build in each of the 31 local government councils are not accessible to all citizens of the state.
Like many Akwa Ibomites advised during the service years of Udom Emmanuel as Governor, not every proposal presented to the Governor by smooth talking consultants should be given a second look! Many who rejected Udom’s Coconut refinery project were disparaged by his spin doctors in the propaganda mill.
Today, like sagacious Nnamdi Azikiwe of blessed memory once posited: HISTORY (HAS) VINDICATED THE JUST! Billions of Akwa Ibom funds, which could have been ploughed into an agro sector of comparative advantage, had gone down the drain. It’s time for the leadership to listen more to the people than consultants and political buccaneers!
Okon,a lawyer and commentator on public affairs, lives in Uyo.
