By Innocent Okon
Oyenka Onwenu was not only a beauty personified! She had brain, brawn and creativity in excess. The Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) honed her professional skill as a journalist in the 80s, while Sunny Okosuns discovered and groomed her as a singer, song writer and recording artiste.
Her versatility must have informed the decision of the BBC of London to commission her to do a special documentary on the obscene rapacious kleptomania perpetrated by politicians of the second Republic class of 1979 to 1983.
She did justice to that assignment in 1984 with a television documentary entitled: “Nigeria: The Squandering of Riches.”
Regrettably, many decades after, the penchant for squandermania in public space, instead of diminishing, has enjoyed phenomenal progression in audacity and capacity!
At various tiers of government in Nigeria, public funds are hardly accorded judicious application. The temporary constitutional custodians of public funds are demi gods who appropriate the collective patrimony of the people with arrogance and impunity!
In my home state, Akwa Ibom, deployment of public resources to address felt needs of the people has become a case study in opportunity cost.
Between 2007 and 2015 when Governor Akpabio held sway, apart from his annual trips with large delegations to the United States for conventions of Akwa Ibom indigenes resident there under the umbrella of Akwa Ibom State Association of Nigeria (AKISAN) USA.
Akwa Ibom needs, arguably, enjoyed first line attention and support! Akwa Ibom State Association of Nigeria, USA
It may not have been judicious in all cases, but the state had much to see and feel. Governor Udom Emmanuel who succeeded him served between 2015 and 2023 and exacerbated this disturbing offshore investment gambit.
Despite public outcry, he built a multi-billion Naira Government Lodge in Lagos. Udom’s justification for deploying the state’s scarce resources to the construction of the massive edifice was for it to help attract foreign direct investment to the state. It is still debatable how much of the FDI the state realised through the structure.
In the twilight of his administration in 2023, Udom reportedly gave AKISAN, an assemblage of Akwa Ibomites in the USA, millions of dollars to build a hospitality facility in Houston, Texas. His explanation back home was that Akwa Ibom would be raking in dollars as dividends from that investment!
Many Akwa Ibomites are yet to be told the progress of work on that project, talkless of returns on that offshore investment.
He handed over the leadership baton to Governor Umo Eno in 2023, and this offshore investment preference has refused to fade away in thoughts and actions!
Last year, the present State government took thousands of Akwa Ibomites to Lagos to witness the groundbreaking ceremony of the construction of an 18 storey office plaza in Lagos.
The explanation from the spin doctors of this government was that Lagos being the commercial capital of Nigeria would ensure stupendous returns on this investment.
About the same time, the Governor also announced his intention to build a star ranking hotel in Abuja. Reason? Akwa Ibom must have her share in the booming hospitality sub-sector of the Abuja economy.
Just when stupefied Akwa Ibomites thought they had heard and seen enough, Governor Eno disclosed last week in Abuja to a partisan political audience of his intention to build residential estate in Abuja for Akwa Ibom indigenes living in the Federal Capital city.
According to His Excellency, a formal application for this project was already receiving the attention of the Honourable Minister of the FCT, Nyesom Wike.
What a time to be a living witness to governance of external priorities! Before hapless and hopeless Akwa Ibom people are educated on the benefits of a befitting accommodation for her citizens in the FCT by the legion of media hands in government, permit me to remind the Governor that equity demands that we extend similar project to Calabar South in Cross River, Lagos, Rivers and Bayelsa states where we also have considerable demographic profile.
It’s now that I know better what it means for charity to prefer abroad than home! No wonder the iconoclastic Umaru Diko warned during the debate on RESOURCE CONTROL that what the Governors of oil bearing states in Nigeria needed was SELF-CONTROL than RESOURCE CONTROL.
Like the Biblical Pharisees, we are washing the exterior of our plates at the expense of the dirt caked interior!
WHEN SHALL ZAMBIA BE FREE?
Okon, a legal practitioner and public affairs commentator, lives in Uyo.
