Mr. Aniekan Umana, the commissioner
for information in Akwa Ibom State in this session with newsmen responds to
issues arising from the conduct and outcome of the recent governorship election
in Akwa Ibom. Excerpts:
WHAT is your reaction to the several
allegations of malpractices especially from some foreign observers that the
governorship election in Akwa Ibom State was marred by irregularities?
The noise about Akwa Ibom election
is not correct. The position of the AU monitoring team is not correct. The
correct position is that of the domestic observers because those were the
people who actually went to the villages. They went to every unit and they are
Nigerians accredited from every part of the country by INEC; they are not from
Akwa Ibom.
If the election was conducted ten
times, every week, the PDP will win ten times in Akwa Ibom because there is a
foundation of performance, there is foundation of inclusiveness, forget about
one or two people who are saying they are elders and are making noise, who have
become septuagenarian undertakers, addressing press conference here and there.
If you see those undertakers, these are people who worked with the same
government; these are people who earned very big contracts they did not
execute.
How strong is the governor –elect to
carry on with the task of ruling the state?
He has the qualities. You must also
understand that even in cooperate governance, for you to rise to an executive
director of an organization like Zenith Bank and be on the board of IFC, and on
the board of Zenith Uk, Gambia, Sierra-Leone and all of that, you must
understand that the quality is not small. It may not be as big as the politics
of the state, but you see, it is essentially the same thing, it is power
game. Power is power, no matter the colouration, power is power,
even in church.
So Udom has that capacity in his
corporate endeavor and when he came in as Secretary to Government, he also
showed capacity and ability to run the government. In fact, it was one of the
reasons why the decisions to support him was not difficult. You could see that
he is firm and fair-minded, that I can say from stand-point of knowledge. He
set in a process when he was Secretary to Government that changed a lot of
things.
And when we left for primary, it was
not difficult to get support no matter what anybody says. Over 1,300 delegates
went for the primary election, about 500 were statutory delegates. Even if you
say the other ones were ad-hoc delegates, the statutory delegates are delegates
who anyone could have worked on to get support. If you now get over 1,200 of
the total votes, it just shows that you have support no matter how you want to
look at it.
Former Governor Victor
Attah told newsmen that polling officers told him when he went to vote that
there were no voting materials and that people carted away the materials and
that explains why he said that there were no elections in the state?
Aniekan Umanah
That is his opinion. At his level
and position, he should be able to call INEC and ask them that question because
the materials belong to INEC. If assuming you get to a place and there is no
voting, it is not even a matter for the press. The first thing is to pull your
phone and call the Electoral Officer and ask him that question and
based on the answer he or she gives, you know what to say. And then the
electoral officer should be able to tell you whether he has released materials
for the unit and should tell you the supervising presiding officer. So it is
neither here nor there because anybody could say that. They say they are
members of board of trustees of the PDP but then they were supporting Umana and
they were working for APC along with Don Etiebet, General Akpan and
so on.
So, do you entertain any fears from
the threat of the APC to go to the tribunal?
It is poverty of knowledge, and it
is display of illiteracy because how can you call for cancellation,
cancellation of what? If election has been held, you cannot call for
cancellation of election. If you have any issue, you go and petition at the
tribunal. As for that, we are not bothered about the tribunal, it is a known
process, it is a rule that we know is constitutional. So everybody knows that
from the beginning. If there are complaints, people will go to the tribunal.
We are not worried at all; there is
no cause for alarm. We would defeat them roundly whether at the tribunal or
anywhere whatsoever. The matter would die at tribunal level because they can’t
even go further because they are the ones who don’t have any issue.
Do you entertain any fears on the
relationship between the incoming and outgoing governor after the inauguration?
I don’t see any problem. Everything
on earth depends on doing the right thing. Once you do the right thing, you
would not have problems, once there is mutual respect, you would not have
problems and you know the disposition of Governor Akpabio.
Mutual respect
He is very friendly, he has a large
heart, he is somebody who doesn’t want to see anybody in pains. The in-coming
governor is also very detailed, he is somebody with very great depth, he is
somebody with very great humility, and very respectful. So we even used to call
him Mr. Respect in the state, we call him Mr. Humility and he is coming with
major idea of creating a major economic hub in the state. He is looking forward
to creating economic partnership. He is looking at furthering industrialization
idea and so on.
How do you respond to the allegation
that you spent a lot of money on the Deep Sea Port with nothing to show?
Again, it is poverty of
knowledge. Developing a Deep Sea Port is not like going to build a guest house
or building a school. It is a process. Don’t also forget, it is not within the
purview of the state. It is also within the exclusive purview of the federal
government so they must give the necessary approval. The starting point is that
we needed to get the necessary approval and we have gotten that. We even have
the Free Zone licence because the whole area is mapped out as Industrial City.
Now we have to do the acquisition, which has been done, over 14, 900 hectares.
Even the Nigerian Ports Authority came as partners and they have acquired 5,000
hectares within there because port management is not something that can be done
alone. Every port belongs to the federal authority.
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