HENSEK Integrated Services Limited is an outstanding indigenous construction company that has undertaken key projects within and outside Akwa Ibom State. The Company is also at the fore front of youth empowerment through employment, skills acquisition trainings and sports development.
The Chief Executive Officer of HENSEK, Engr. Uwem Okoko, recently shared his thoughts about democracy and governance in Akwa Ibom State. Excerpts:
We have had 18 years of uninterrupted democracy, how well have we fared?
Democracy is a good thing for Nigeria and for all of us. As a people that have passed through military rule, election annulments, dictatorship and eventually in democracy, the longest so far in the history of Nigeria, we have fared well. The country has really moved forward under democracy. More wealth has been created. We have political structures entrenched in the 774 Local Government Councils. We have had Local Government Councillors and Chairmen; Commissioners, Ministers, state and national assemblymen, Special Assistants and Personal Assistants and all that. There has been lot of wealth distribution amongst the political class and even the states are far better now in democracy than they were in the military era. So, we have really fared well.
What have you seen as impediment to democracy?
The greatest challenge that democracy is facing in Nigeria is that the institutions of democracy and governance at the executive, judiciary and legislature are not strong enough to sustain democracy.
For instance, we have the Police Force, the Department of State Security Services (DSS), the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) that depends on orders from the Presidency. It should not be so. For democracy to thrive in our country, the institutions of the state must be made strong and independent like what we have in most developed democracies in the world.
In developed democracies, a President can be investigated, summoned or removed by an appointed prosecutor by the Attorney General but it is not so in Nigeria. These are things that we need to do. Our democracy must be strengthened to this extent. We must develop the institutions of the state to make democracy stronger. We must decentralized power from the center and even make the Police Force to be more state-like in nature and become an instrument of security more to the grassroots to help advance democracy. We should even have local Government Sheriffs. I know we still have a long way to go but it is far better than where we were and what we used to have in the past.
What is your assessment of Governor Udom Emmanuel’s two years in office?
Well, I am not saying this because I am a member of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP). The records of Governor Udom Emmanuel speak for itself. Take roads for instance, the roads are not on papers, they are on ground for everyone to see, the ones completed and the ones that are ongoing. It has been massive road revolution in the state like never before in virtually every local government area.
The agriculture revolution is yet another boom. The Governor wants to make the economy of the state not to depend on federal allocation that comes from the federal government and I believe by the time he leaves government in eight years, Akwa Ibom State will be a state that will have her own employment generated purely from agriculture and the agro-based industries. There are lots of numerous things that the Governor is doing like the Deep Seaport Project, the Intentional Jetty and the Oil and Gas Free Trade Zone. There will be so much that we will generate money from. And if you look at other states within the South-South region, you will know that the next industrial hub will be Akwa Ibom State, precisely Ikot Abasi.
For me, the Governor has seen far beyond us and that is why he proposed that International Jetty and the Oil and Gas Free Trade Zone. Power will no longer be a problem because as at now, for the first time since the inception of Ibom Power Company, we are generating 150MW of electricity. The Power Sub-Stations that the Governor is building across the state will ensure that, within the next one year, Akwa Ibom State will be the first state that will have constant power supply.
So, for me, Governor Udom Emmanuel has done so well and in terms of industry, you can count the Coconut Refinery, where construction is at top gear; the Metering Factory has been completed; the Syringe Factory is almost completed. There are a lot of Small and Medium Scale industries that the government, through its programmes, has stimulated. If you go round the state you will find out that most people have established their own small scale industries like Oil Palm Processing Plant. So, for me the government of Deacon Udom Emmanuel has performed very well.
